♪ Hey ♪ ♪ The feeling ♪ ♪ Proud to have around ♪ ♪ But there's a shadow ♪ ♪ Shining in your face tonight ♪ ♪ That takes ♪ When I'm onstage, I love how powerful I feel using my voice in a really special way.

♪ Oh ♪ ♪ We pretend ♪ It feels like the thing I was given.

And I'm very grateful for it, it's the place where I feel the most grounded and the most important.

♪ And we pretend, hoo-ha ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Sinnerman, where you gonna run to ♪ ♪ All on that day ♪ ♪ So I ran to the rocks ♪ ♪ Please hide me, rocks ♪ ♪ Can't you see me down here, I need you, rock ♪ ♪ Oh, oh ♪ ♪ All on that day ♪ I love that music is healing for the singer, for the player, as well as the listener.

I love that music is a great way to communicate and emote, emote, yeah.

♪ Lord ♪ ♪ No more injustice, we cry ♪ ♪ Power, Lord ♪ ♪ No more hatred, we cry ♪ ♪ Power Lord ♪ ♪ We find power ♪ ♪ Power, Lord ♪ (audience cheering) - When I'm singing onstage, it feels like I know this is what I'm here to do.

Whoo.

Yes.

- LaRhonda Steele.

(footsteps clopping) - [Lauren] I think it's the octave, right?

♪ You treat me like a stranger ♪ - [LaRhonda] Yeah.

♪ Like I ain't loved you good ♪ ♪ You put my heart in danger ♪ ♪ Danger ♪ ♪ And you've misunderstood ♪ ♪ Stood ♪ ♪ My womanhood ♪ ♪ Hood ♪ - See that, yeah, you knew what I was doing.

- Ah.

(laughing) - Music is everywhere in this household, even when we don't plan for it.

I think we're always processing information through music.

- Okay, okay.

♪ I'll be spoken to with softness ♪ ♪ Put some syrup in your voice ♪ - Ooh.

♪ Speak as if you love me ♪ ♪ Every word you have a choice ♪ ♪ I know that I ♪ - When we do shows together, we talk it out and we share ideas and we rehearse, yeah.

♪ Leave ♪ - Any question I have about this industry, I have the encyclopedia in my house.

♪ Hey, hey, hey ♪ - So let's welcome back, the First Lady of Portland Blues, LaRhonda Steele.

♪ When you're kissing me, yeah ♪ ♪ When you miss me, baby ♪ - She's a great help to me.

She helps me write songs.

We help each pick out our outfits, (laughing) you know what I mean?

♪ And sometimes I shouldn't speak ♪ ♪ But the voice inside my head says I should ♪ ♪ I ain't that special ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ - Lauren started showing an interest in music immediately.

♪ I will see ♪ - When I was carrying her in my belly, I sang, so she was hearing it that way.

♪ How could I believe ♪ - Wait, that's you in the background.

- That's Adera.

- Is that Adera?

Mm-hmm.

- Oh, what a cute baby.

- You were very cutie, girl.

- Oh.

- Look at you in this.

- This is before I had bills.

- Oh.

Just beautiful, aw.

- [Lauren] I think I probably was singing before I could form words.

And I think I always knew it's what I wanted to do and I always expressed myself through song.

- [Instructor] So everybody get in.

- [LaRhonda] Lauren was a part of a marimba class.

- Just knowing that I can play this instrument, and I love telling everybody that I can play that huge bass and my cool parts and stuff.

And it's just fun knowing I do something that not everybody else does.

Well, on both sides of my family, we have multiple generations of musicians and so it feels like something that was passed down to me.

♪ Bring it on home to me ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ - I like that key, what is that, B-flat?

- That's B natural?

- B natural.

- Okay.

♪ Yeah ♪ Where it just goes ♪ Yeah ♪ - The gospel side on my mom's side and the jazz side on my dad's side.

♪ Oh yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ - I know I got my voice from my mama.

♪ I'm going up ♪ ♪ Going down ♪ ♪ Going up, down, down, up ♪ ♪ Anyway I wanna ♪ ♪ Just let it roll, honey, oh ♪ The Waterfront Blues Festival is, for me, amazing, I get to be on a big stage.

♪ Then we'll go sweeping through the city ♪ ♪ Oh yeah ♪ And my voice, it's just flowing out over thousands of people, that is amazing.

- Put your hands up.

- LaRhonda has touched every stage.

- For LaRhonda Steele one more time.

- [Arietta] At the Waterfront Blues Festival.

♪ Grab the roots of the tree down by the river ♪ ♪ Dip your cup when your spirit's low ♪ ♪ Clap your hands, y'all ♪ (LaRhonda clapping) ♪ Dah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah ♪ ♪ Come on, and ♪ ♪ Clap your hands now ♪ ♪ Dah, bah, dah, dah, boo ♪ - And people are like, "Okay, where are you gonna be?

Aw, she's gonna be here, okay."

And they have a LaRhonda map to see where they can see her every year.

- There's always uncles and aunties and adoptive uncles and aunties everywhere.

(upbeat music) Blues fests have sort of marked my childhood each summer.

- Put your hands together for the baby, Sarah Steele.

(audience and Lauren cheering and clapping) Yeah.

Make some noise for Lo Steele.

(audience and Sarah cheering and clapping) Yeah, yeah.

And I am LaRhonda Steel.

- She just brings a truth that is very special and it's healing.

♪ It's the hammer of justice ♪ ♪ And it's the bell of freedom ♪ ♪ It's the song, the song ♪ ♪ The song of love ♪ ♪ Between my brothers and my sisters, yeah ♪ I was born and raised in Spencer, Oklahoma.

Yep, right outside of Oklahoma City.

♪ I pray for you ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ You pray for me ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ ♪ I love you ♪ - Grew up in church, and as a kid, listened to many choirs and many vocalists, and wasn't much else to do in Oklahoma where I was.

♪ Sing it again, sing it again ♪ ♪ I pray for you ♪ ♪ I pray for you ♪ ♪ You pray for me ♪ - (laughing) Arriving to Portland was a culture shock, to say the least.

♪ I won't harm you ♪ - Yeah, I moved up here with my aunt, and they were the only Black people I saw, I was like, "Where are the Black people?"

(laughing) And that was one of the things.

And then people behaved in ways that were a lot freer than what, culturally, the way I grew up.

So I had to build my own life, I had to be an adult, I guess, and decide who I wanted to be and how I wanted to act.

♪ Rock me ♪ ♪ Baby, let may lay down in your arms ♪ - [Announcer] Please welcome LaRhonda Steele to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.

(audience cheering and clapping) - My induction into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame was, (sighing) it's surreal to me.

It's wonderful to be acknowledged by.

- Your entry to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame class of 2021.

- Your peers and fans.

- LaRhonda Steele.

(audience cheering) And to be written down as part of the musical fabric of Oregon is an honor.

(footsteps clopping) - It's been a really special couple years for me.

I just feel like, "Oh, I'm good at this."

- To not just be an incredible singer, songwriter and poet, but also her acting, the acting is, oh my gosh.

- Anne is not a mind reader.

- She means the way people worry about things sometimes even when there's no reason to be concerned.

(audience laughing) - Exactly.

- I think the permission that I give myself when I'm stepping into another character is really exciting.

♪ Come to your senses ♪ ♪ Baby, confess ♪ ♪ Our love ♪ And I love the structure of theater, I love having a container that we explore within, whereas when I'm doing music especially, the kind of music that I do, it's, who knows?

We probably didn't even rehearse, (laughing) we just coming together and figuring it out as we go.

♪ I guess you wonder where I've been ♪ ♪ I search to find the love within ♪ - Come on, come on, y'all.

- Yes, girl, come on.

♪ I came back ♪ I got asked to open for Tank and the Bangas at Revolution Hall.

I got on stage, and it was such a beautiful, generous audience.

Then I was like, "I'ma call my momma up."

(audience cheering and clapping) - When I got up there and I looked out at the audience, I just got overwhelmed.

♪ Some people go around the world ♪ (audience cheering and clapping) - And as soon as she opened her mouth, the crowd just, it exploded.

It was the first time that I have ever seen her be overwhelmed on stage.

She's always so poised, she's always so in control, but you could see her experience, the celebration that she deserves.

- What's the words of the song now?

Okay.

(audience laughing) ♪ Guess you wonder where I've been, oh ♪ And I could barely sing, I couldn't remember the words to the song, (laughing) and she had to whisper the words to me, 'cause I was, it's like I was the kid.

(laughing) (audience cheering and clapping) ♪ I got a thing for you ♪ ♪ And I just can't let go ♪ - She's always been my biggest advocate, my biggest teacher.

And to be able to say, "Look where I am now, Mom," and then be able to share that with her, because it's her victory too, felt amazing.

And it also felt amazing to see her celebrated in that way because she deserves nothing less.

♪ To get to know ♪ (audience cheering) ♪ Got a thing for you ♪ ♪ And I can't let go, I can't let go ♪ (audience cheering) (dog panting) (birds singing) - My mom is my favorite person.

(laughing) I think if you ask anybody, when I talk talk about my mom, I light up.

She is the most courageous person I know, she's funny, she's beautiful, she's powerful, she's smart.

I love her.

(birds singing) (dog barking) I'll never stop calling my mom up, I don't care what stage I'm on.

I don't plan on forgetting where I come from at all.

- [LaRhonda] Yeah, ooh, I can do that.

That's right.

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