Diana Young got her first paying performance gigs as a child, imitating Tiny Tim’s “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” for family members who happily paid in quarters and 50 cent pieces. She fronted as lead vocalist in her first band, singing Janis Joplin covers of blues covers in biker bars at the age of 17. Moving ahead, she sang jazz standards in many a piano bar, eventually moving on to more “lounge room” style covers and originals, both as performer and recording artist, singing under the stage name, Madame X. With the goal of mastering genres, she formed a country swing group with Seattle area bandmates called The Lucky Stiffs, eventually falling in with some new players to sing alternating lead and accompanist vocals with a large Latin style performing group. Diana Young-Blanchard’s biggest success to date was then settled as the front woman for The Dt’s, originally a power trio with drummer Phil Carter (former drummer for North Sound Soul) and Estrus Records magnate, guitarist, Dave Crider. The Dt’s would continue in various configurations for 15 years, recording albums and singles and touring the globe playing in their own coined musical genre, “Hard Soul.” More recently, Diana headed up her own group, The Di Young Combo before landing her current spot as one of two lead vocalists in North Sound Soul. Influences are Etta James, Janis Joplin, Linda Ronstadt, Little Richard, Otis Redding, Tina Turner, and various other great soul & jazz singers as well as rock icons such as Paul Rodgers and Burton Cummings, just to name a few.

A recent transplant from the Austin, Texas music scene, Kevin Krick locks in the groove on bass guitar. He performed in Austin with the bands Soul Strung and Austin Brass & Electric. He also provided the low-end as a founding member of the Bellingham bands’ Hopnotic and PaperHeart.

Kevin grew up in a small town listening to soul and funk radio classics from Booker T, The Bar-Kays, James Brown, The Commodores and Stevie Wonder. These and many others helped set the tone for his future musical endeavors. Kevin is a multi-instrumentalist, having studied piano, trombone, and guitar throughout the years. The electric bass, however, ultimately got the nod as the “soul” provider of the groove-juice.

Margaret Wilder is a singer-songwriter, keyboardist and recording artist from Bellingham, Washington. Best known for her work with the Margaret Wilder Band, she is equipped with powerhouse vocals and sizzling keyboard skills that include anything from gritty Hammond, funky Clavinet to roadhouse piano.

As of 2022, Wilder’s music releases include 2 full-length albums, a self-titled EP and a single. Margaret Wilder has collaborated with a wide variety of local and regional talent and shared the stage with famed artists such as Lydia Pense and Cold Blood, John Lee Hooker Jr. and LeRoy Bell. Currently, as a member of the band NorthSound Soul, Wilder’s broad influences allow her to lend keyboard and vocal talent to additional projects that feed her soul and compliment her own musical endeavors.

A recent transplant from Los Angeles, Ron Nuttall has spent over 30 years in music and drumming communities throughout LA/Hollywood, San Diego and Southern California music scenes. He’s played the stages of notable venues such as Whiskey a Go-Go, The Troubadour, Viper Room, Rainbow Bar and Grill, The Roxy and many casinos throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. Now rooted in Bellingham, he’s looking to dig into the local music scene and continue spreading the music love. Ron has played multiple genres of music including rock, metal, country, soul, pop/top 40, singer-songwriter and jazz but his favorite has always been soul/funk. He has a handful of “drum cover” videos on YouTube and a listing of recorded works online. From Ron’s first hearing North Sound Soul, he said, “this is the band for me!” Ron’s SOUL passion in life is his desire to continue playing live music. “The energy the crowd feeds the band, the band feeds the crowd, the night goes on and everyone leaves happy!”

Erik Snyder was a classically trained pianist for 3 years as a child and then quit taking lessons. At 20 years old he picked up the guitar and is 100% self-taught. After playing guitar for several years, he went back to the piano and has been teaching himself ever since. Erik has been in a hip-hop group, an Irish band, a 90’s-style pop/rock band, several rock and roll bands, an R&B singer/songwriter band, and an extended-jam band.

Currently, Erik moonlights in the Anissa Jazz Quartet playing keyboard and guitar, and is also a professional guitar, ukulele, piano, and music recording/engineering instructor having over 21 students. Erik recently released an ambitious music project called Acid City Nuns, the goal of which is to make good music and see if traction can be gained in the music industry by using non-conventional methods.

A native of Ohio, trumpet player Chris McClanahan’s passion for the classic horn-backed funk/soul/rock bands began in the early 1980’s when he picked up a Blood, Sweat and Tears album for 10 cents at a garage sale. Upon graduation from high school, Chris went on to play trumpet with the renowned Ohio State University Marching Band and with various other local bands during his time in Columbus.

In 2017 Chris founded the local Bellingham 5-piece brass group, ‘Brass Roots Effort’ and has also performed with the Mt. Baker British Brass Band. However, his desire to start a local soul group was always top of mind. In 2021 Chris conceived the North Sound Soul project and began recruiting talented local musicians to fill the various roles while navigating the stops and starts of the pandemic.

Chris, his wife Lauren and daughter Sarah reside in the Sunnyland neighborhood. His outside interests include golfing, traveling and brewing beer. When called upon, he turns on his super-powers as a nationally certified beer judge.

Frank "The Kid" Youngblood has been playing around Bellingham ever since he picked up the Saxophone in 6th grade. Frank is a 2021 graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he studied jazz composition. Frank has performed with groups such as The Atlantics, Swing Connection, Bellingham Youth Jazz Band, and the Black Tie Big Band. He is excited to be playing once again now that the quarantine is over!

Saxophonist Spence Redmond’s musical influences include rock, funk, soul, jazz and big band swing. Influences include Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Steely Dan, Frank Zappa and DEVO.

Spence started on cornet in Elementary School, moved on to baritone horn in Junior High and in High School added trombone and tenor sax.

With North Sound Soul Spence plays bari and tenor sax while also shaking it up with auxiliary percussion. Spence has also written and arranged a lot of horn charts for the band.

In addition to putting the big bottom on the North Sound Soul horn section, Spence also plays tenor sax locally with Dr. Jimmy and the Swing Time Serenaders and plays alto with Anacortes’ A’Town Big Band. He is perhaps best known as the leader of The Spencetet, a jazz group which has performed extensively at public and private shows in and around Bellingham.

Sam Harris is the 22-year-old trombonist for North Sound Soul. Sam grew up in a small town in Texas, and due to his uncle being a trombone player in the community, was

always around music growing up.

In high school, he held the lead trombone position for the ATSSB All-State Jazz Band from 2014-2018, as well as receiving the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award and the Quincy Jones Musicianship Award during high school and participating regularly in high-level competitions. Sam also participated in multiple groups in his community and started his own gigging jazz ensemble, the ‘Positive Vibrations’, at the age of 16 - which helped to establish a stronger music scene in his hometown.

Sam moved to Ellensburg, WA in 2018 to pursue a music degree at CWU and though he only spent one academic year there, he played with CWU Big Band 2 as a freshman and was involved with some local groups. Since moving to Bellingham in September of 2021 to pursue his degree in Music Performance at WWU, he has had the pleasure of becoming part of the eclectic Bellingham music scene here as a freelance trombonist, as well as playing lead trombone for WWU Big Band 1 among other ensembles on campus. Sam is also a singer and songwriter for his own recently formed pop group, ‘FloorForty’.