Champagne Honeybee is singer/ songwriter, Rani Weatherby, her trusty ukuleles, and talented backing band. Their sound is a mix of contemporary jazz, blues, folk, and ukulele soul. They have performed all over the Pacific Northwest, and toured the Midwest and East Coast as a solo act. Local media appearances include the Bob Rivers morning radio show, Audioasis on KEXP, King 5 Morning News, and Band in Seattle television program.
In June of 2014, they released an EP of original music called "No Love Songs". Their next EP, entitled "Once in a Lifetime", was released on April 1st, 2016.
Rani Weatherby is an Indian-born, Washington-raised singer-songwriter, arranger, and instrumentalist. Her influences include Elton John, Prince, The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Heart, and Chaka Khan, just to name a few. She began taking piano lessons at age 6, classical voice lessons at age 15, and performed in jazz and chamber choirs in high school and college. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Music from Central Washington University in 2005. That same year, Rani was selected to attend Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead residency in Washington DC, where she performed an original song at the Kennedy Center, backed by a band of her talented peers. After college, she performed occasionally, and continued to write new music. In 2011, she sought a simple, portable way to accompany her voice. She found her first ukulele, Lenny, taught herself some chords, and thus began a new chapter in her musical journey. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, she learned how to record and produce original music at home, and is honing her video editing skills for independent projects.
Rani is performing in the Great Women of Folk and Country concert series at The Royal Room, honoring the music of Patsy Cline, K.D. Lang, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Doors 6:30pm, show at 7:30pm.
Rani will be playing a song for the Creative Colloquy literary crawl in Tacoma. She is performing during the 7pm hour at King's Books (218 St Helens Ave), and the theme is "Fairytales Reimagined". Enjoy stories, poems, plus an original song by Rani. This event is free and open to the public. More info HERE.