Left to Right: Judi Donaghy, Lori Dokken, Erin Schwab and Patty Peterson. Photo© Ann Marsden

FIRST THURSDAY IN THE LOUNGE

The Girls play and sing for you the first Thursday of the month. Sit back, relax and be entertained.

Lori Dokken, the undisputed master of Piano bar entertainment in the Minneapolis, St. Paul Community can be found entertaining at various venues each week in the area.

No one knows how to cure the winter blues more than Minnesota native, Lori Dokken. Stuck in many a prairie snow bank, she's had almost 50 years to hone her fine Scandinavian humor, yet still wakes up wondering why we are all still living here. A local cabaret singer and pianist for the past 25 years, Dokken has enlisted the talents of many other local artists to create a blizzard of opportunities to have a night out and forget the snow emergency drills.

The Girls, Lori Dokken, Judi Donaghy, Erin Schwab and Patty Peterson, have been cooking up new arrangements filled with the fabulous four part harmonies that the Twin Cities’ audiences have been eating up for the past six years.

The youngest in the group, Erin Schwab, brings a vast musical theatre background and is the anchor of the humor department. For several years she played "Tina" in "Tony & Tina’s Wedding" and has appeared in productions all across the Twin Cities, from The Ordway to The Bryant Lake Bowl.

Judi Donaghy is a member of Bobby McFerrin's a cappella vocal group, "Voicestra" and is Head of the Voice Department at McNally Smith College of Music. She is an award winning songwriter and in addition to her own recordings, "Sink Or Swing" and "Ballads and Bossas", she is a featured vocalist on numerous other CDs.

Lori Dokken, like a musical chef, remains the band. A veteran of Minneapolis/St.Paul cabaret performance; a producer, pianist, vocalist and arranger, she has worked with or opened for such notables as: Bobby McFerrin, Beatrice Arthur, Jennifer Holiday, Eartha Kitt and Tony Bennett. Lori breaks all the rules yet manages to deliver the evening's fare on a silver platter.

The addition of legendary vocalist Patty Peterson has injected a soul filled edge and smoky flavor to "the girls" ballad renditions and R & B tunes. An award winning jazz recording artist, Patty has also recorded and performed with such musical luminaries as David Sanborn, Hiram Bullock, Steve Miller, Donny Osmond, Ben Sidran, Sergio Mendes and Oleta Adams.

The Girls regrouped, is a "hot" dish that will have you coming back for more.