A concert series salutes legendary 'Divas' of rock

If you toss out the term “diva” to someone, you’ll likely elicit one of these interpretations: a legendary female opera singer like Maria Callas, a famous female pop singer like Beyonce, or, more perniciously, a self-important and temperamental woman who’s hard to please.

Jacyn Tremblay, the co-producer of an upcoming show called “Muse: A Salute to the Divas of Rock” and one of its three singers, considers the possibilities.

“We call them divas because they are iconic and helped pave the way for more female singers in a male-dominated industry,” she says. “Singing and sharing the stage with other passionate female rock singers is magical and empowering.”

She says she started this project to create space. “I felt that there was a real need for local and regional female vocalists to have the opportunity to collaborate and work together. There’s so much talent from this area and not a lot of opportunities.”

Tremblay currently performs with the groups Beantown and Three Second Chances, but she has a history of collaboration: “Being in an all-female pop vocal group from 2002 to 2012 really inspired me to continue to develop a ‘sisterhood’ of like-minded creative women.”

Joining her in the “Divas” sisterhood is fellow co-producer and singer Lauren Rhoades (a founding member of R&B girl group JADA) and singer Karen Carr. They’ll take the stage on March 14 at BNH Stage in Concord, New Hampshire for the “Muse” show.

“I think that Karen is very seasoned and very bad-ass,” Tremblay says. “She’s bringing the ‘80s rockers like Pat Benatar into it. Lauren, who I’ve known over 20 years, is super soulful with a rock edge. She can handle anything, the Grace Potter, Alanis Morissette and Tracy Bonham songs. Very gritty. I’m a little more of the crossover pop/rock chick that does Meredith Brooks, Melissa Etheridge, Natalie Imbruglia, Evanescence’s Amy Lee, Paramore’s Hayley Williams.”

None of the women will dress in “character.” Nor do they intend it as a tribute show, per se. “We take their vocal style, musical influence and inspiration and add our own style to the songs,” says Carr.

Rhoades says her idea is to bring her own style to all of the songs, but also pay tribute to the artist who sang it first. “I like to try to feel how the artist originally intended their song to be; how the artist wanted the song to be displayed to the world,” she says. “I then work my own style into the song from there. When I was working on [Janis Joplin’s] ‘Piece of My Heart’ I studied as many live versions as I could find and learned so much about her as a vocalist.”

Shows with multiple singers can have an element of competitiveness, about them, but Tremblay stresses, “There’s lots of encouragement and collaborative spirit. Every woman has been so amped.” One woman will often sing lead, but the others may well lend backing vocals.

David Bieber, who runs the pop culture memorabilia space in Norwood, the David Bieber Archives, has seen three “Divas” shows. “They can take on any challenge when it comes to female vocals,” he says. “What knocked me out was the interactive sparkle and punch; the interplay with the audience was direct and strong. There’s a great level of enthusiasm on the stage that transfers and feeds off what’s going on in the audience.”

Not everything about the show is female, however. Three members of the backing quartet are men. And while most of the songs to be performed were written or co-written by women, not all were. When that’s the case, the songs chosen were made popular by female singers, such as the Kris Kristofferson-penned “Me and Bobby McGee,” as sung by Joplin, and the show-closing, ensemble piece “I Love Rock and Roll,” written by Alan Merrill and Jake Hooker and made a hit by Joan Jett.

Carr even tackles Led Zeppelin’s classic “Rock and Roll” — written by Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham — but plays off the version done by Sheryl Crow.

Tremblay staged the first “Divas” show at The Cabot in Beverly in March 2022. (Tremblay is married to The Cabot’s Executive Director J. Casey Soward, and the venue could be called home base.) She has since split “Divas” into three separate shows, the aforementioned “Divas of Rock,” Divas of the ‘90s” (with a show on June 7 at The Music Hall Lounge in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) and “Divas of Motown,” which they performed in 2022 but is not currently on the docket.

After that first show, Tremblay was moved by the early, encouraging feedback. “To me, that was a giant compliment because this was just a work in progress. We were looking for high energy, positive energy and I think that’s what the show brings. I think people will leave uplifted and energized.”