Lydia Pense
Lydia Jane Pense is an American rock-soul-jazz singer who, since 1969, has performed with the band Cold Blood. Critics have compared her style to powerful singers including Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin.
History
Pense's family moved to Redwood City when she was 10. At age 14, while attending Sequoia High School, Pense started singing with a band called the Dimensions, with guitarist Fred Tatman, Larry Hatch, and Kerry Yates. She was a fan of Brenda Lee and was singing her songs, but the band encouraged her to sing R&B in the style of James Brown, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, and Ray Charles.Joplin had recommended Pense to the music promoter Bill Graham to audition for the band Cold Blood. Pense joined Cold Blood in 1968, and the band was one of the earliest music groups to be signed by Graham's Fillmore Records.
The band Cold Blood separated in the late 1970s. Pense suspended her music career in the early 1980s to raise her daughter, Danielle before reforming the group in 1988. The band continues to record, tour and perform.