1. South Park goes Caribbean
The voice of several 'South Park' characters plays on the big island
JOE BRUNETTI
ST. CROIX - You may have
heard her voice on Comedy Cen-
tral's wildly popular cartoon
"South Park" or seen her play
"Liza" on Fox TV's Saturday
morning hit "Beakman's World."
But this weekend you can see
her and her band, Eliza Jane and
the Barnyard Gypsies, at live
music venues across the Island
- Saturday night at Chicken
Charlie's Roadhouse from 7-10
pm in Estate Solitude and Sun-
day afternoon at Rhythms at
Rainbow Beach.
Eliza Schneider [Eliza Jane]'
has always had many passions,
"Music, dialects, voice-acting-to
me It's all one thing-sounds. I'm
a voice specialist, Suzuki ear-
trained violinist from age 7, and
I studied classical voice at the
Eastman School of Music from
age 14."
One of her obsessions other
than music is recording and
accumulating dialects allover
the world as an oral historian,
"For the last 10 years I've been
touring with bands and collecting
dialects."
She travels and records world
dialects while taking time offfrom
'being "The Queen of Saturday
MOrningTelevision"on FOXTele-
vision's "Beakrnan's World: the
educational children's television
show that features the eccentric'
scientist. Professor Beakman.
This winter she was able to
escape voice-over work during
Los Angeles' pilot season and is
now working for Disney Charac-
ter Voices out of St. Thomas
where she is able to record at a
Disney studio-most notably for
the voice of Keira Krughtley of
Pirates of the Caribbean.
Rounding out her multi-faceted
career, she also performs most of
the female vocal parts on the car-
toon South Park, including the
popular characters Wendy,
Shelly, Principal Victoria, The
Mayor, Mrs. Cartman, Stan's
Mom and MfS. Crabtree.
But right now, she is the front-
woman for 'Eliza Jane and the
Barnyard Gypsies currently tour-
Submitted photo
ElizaJane and the BarnyardGypsies willbe playingvarious venues across the island - Saturday nightat Chick-
en Charlie'sRoadhousefrom7-1.0pm in Estate Solitudeand Sunday afternoonat Rhythmsat RainbowBeach:
tng the Caribbean. . her current tour. "This year, I and usually I'm stuck in L.A. for
"I prefer to play in beautiful had 3 tours of the California pilot season. So I feel lucky to
places: said Eliza, referring to Coast. I do cartoon voices in L.A., have escaped to the Caribbean
.•
this year."
Her Caribbean tour and Gypsy
band were her own creation, serv-
ing dual purposes; playing music
and collecting dialects. .
"It's my own personally con-
cocted tour. I don't have to listen
to a major label telling me to open
for the Dixie Chicks. And the
Caribbean is full of different
dialects. just waiting to be col-
lected: she said.
Having met Chicken Char-
lie-owner of the Roadhouse in
Estate Solitude-last. year while
touring with Dick Solberg, "The
Sun Mountain Fiddler," who is
leader of the house band at Lat-
itude 18 in Red Hook, St.
Thomas, Eliza Jane set 'up her
own band and decided to set up
her own tour this winter.
Recently, she played with "The
Fiddler" at Chicken Charlie's dur-
ing St. Patty's Week and she also
played twin-fiddles with Solberg
during the St. Patrick's Day
Parade on Chicken Charlie's float.
"Since I was 16, I've been in
tons of other people's bands. This.
is the first time it's my own
band-and we've been working on
an album the last 2 years at a
studio in L.A." .
The musicians she plays with
are a talented assortment of spec-
tacular people as well. St. 'John's
Captain Joe Colpitt plays guitar,
Channing. Lynn Griggs plays
bass, clarinet, sax, and banjo,
and St. Thomian Guitar Scotty
plays a mean guitar while also
singing.
The music is a fun eclectic
combination of Schneider's orig-
inal tunes, early ilfties girl group
rock, gypsy violin and foot-stornp-
ing bluegrass fiddle.
Eliza Jane enjoys .the
Caribbean culture and musicians
as much as the beautiful palm
trees and warm breezy setting. By
phone from St. Thomas, she
spoke highly of the region.
"I always meet interesting and
unusual people. Some of the best
musicians are lurking in the
Caribbean. I meet tons of great
people: she said.