"Accordion diva Mrs. Hobbs
has a new project — a collaboration with singer/songwriter lovemando called Ketchup Soup, in which her penchant for torchy, slightly surreal, old-timey French jazz-inspired numbers finds a sympathetic, if slightly more gritty, urban counterpart. Together they compose and interpret music with an arresting, romantic, and
slightly noir vision of the modern
bohemian cabaret." - Shana Nys Dambrot, Flavorpill (May 2010)
"You guys rocked at the Marathon!"
-- Rich Werner, Theatre of Note, Jan 2009
(re: 14th Annual Performance Marathon)
"QUATTROFORMAGGIO: This program of interdisciplinary movement-and-music pieces has a slight scent of inscrutable modern dance about it. Despite phrases like "the presence and absence of love" and "surreal private world" being bandied about, the solo and ensemble performers — as well as guest dancers and musicians like post-pop cabaret squeeze-box diva Mrs. Hobbs— are far more sultry and subversive than you might think. Working with intense physicality, dreamlike distortions of space and time, and collective metaphors for intimate psychological conditions, each of their "four cheeses" offers its own sweet and pungent pleasure."
-- Flavorpill (Shana Nys Dambrot, Dec. 2007)
QUATTROFORMAGGIO PRESS SHEET (pdf) photos and text of articles from LA Times Calendar, LA Weekly, Flavorpill,
and The Argonaut
Dec. 2007
The 2008 Los Angeles Accordion Festival was written up in the Los Angeles Times, Pasadena Weekly, Flavorpill, Metromix, Latino LA Calendar, Metblogs, Let's Polka - An Accordion Blog, Yelp, and Diglounge.
Mrs. Hobbs was mentioned as the "quirky experimental diva Mrs. Hobbs"
in Flavorpill and as the "sexy and sultry Mrs. Hobbs" in Metblogs.
May 2008
"...Standalone accordionist Mrs. Hobbs lent her music to the line-up, most especially to [Milo] Martin during one of his pieces towards the night’s close, a marriage of melodious phrase and melancholy recitation..."
-- Review: Milo Martin and the Utopian Nihilists at Skylight Books
Los Angeles Cityzine
Lindsey Darden, Sept 16, 2008
"For something completely different, be sure to check out the Hohner Panther played by Mrs. Hobbs. From outstanding original compositions to interpretative cover versions of her influences, Mrs. Hobbs' avant-garde style is not your mother's accordion music."
-- music-instruments.biz (Matt Kerwin, Oct. 2007)
"The delicate deconstructions of singer/songwriter Erik Penny and
the melodious musings of avant-accordionist Mrs. Hobbs alternate with poetry, as Amber Tamblyn's raffish reflections and Milo Martin's esoteric observations round out a Sunday afternoon in the garden."
-- Flavorpill (Shana Nys Dambrot, Aug. 2007)
COMMENTS FROM THE CROWD:
"The way you played "Squeezebox" is the way it should be done. It was so good it was like the first time eating a donut!""What a great voice!" "I never knew the accordion could be so hot." "If one could set love to an audibal tone, it would sound like that." "That was the most erotic song I've ever heard." "Those were some of the best interpretations I've heard all year." "You have such inventive lyrics." "You're the most intuitive vocalist I've heard in a long time." "Edgy, but elegant" "Cinematic" "Eclectic" "You're weird, but good!"
