Katie Cavera: Always Sunny Side Up

An indication of Katie Cavera's popularity can easily be found by checking her calendar of upcoming engagements, which shows consistent bookings into January 2018. She usually works three days a week with the Ellis Island Boys at Disneyland. For the past 16 years, she's had a Wednesday night sing-along gig with sousaphonist C.J. Sam's at Curley's Cafe in Long Beach. She works with a cabaret performance group called Vaud and the Villains, freelances with various groups at festivals, performs for swing dancers, and occasionally teaches at a jazz camp. Her most notable qualities are her musicality, her versatility and her likeability. She's a rhythm guitar specialist in the style of Freddie Green and Al Casey, plays a hot 1920s plectrum and tenor banjo as well as a New Orleans-style string bass, and sings in the '20s pop style of Helen Kane and Ruth Etting. The late jazz critic Jim Leigh and bandleader/multi-instrumentalist Clint Baker dubbed her the "California Sunshine Girl" because of her ever-present sunny stage presence. Growing up in Evansville, Indiana, Katie got a five-string banjo from her Dad at age 3, briefly took piano lessons and had some exposure to bluegrass. She soon decided that the banjo was her instrument of choice, especially after hearing Clancy Hayes of the Lu Watters band. It was off to Ball State University for two years before transferring to Indiana U.