July 16, 2010 - Good News! Candice's song, A Whole Long While, is a Blues Category Nominee for the 2010 Indian Summer Music Awards. This is a great honor in great musical company. The awards are decided and given at the Indian Summer Festival on the Milwaukee Summer Fest grounds on September 11, 2010. Candice Nokes invests her musical time as a partner in the Spirals, as well as her solo work. Before the Spirals, Candice concentrated on solo performance since age 22 - rounded out with stints in The Lost Pioneers (seven piece band in Milwaukee, WI) and with the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus in 1998. She chose to attend graduate school in 1998 and reluctantly gave up her membership in the Symphony Chorus. However, Candice studied voice from junior high school through age 22, and has toured Europe twice as part of select choirs in high school and college. In the last few years, Candice has found a desire to experiment with her first love, the intimate voice, which you will find with the (2009) Ave Maria selection, and her 7th grade composition of Thank You, Mr. Sun. Candice has written songs for herself since 4th grade. She did not tend to play often in public, until she discovered confidence and inspiration from the talent and musicianship of the Indigo Girls in the early 1990's. She began to play at open mics, and eventually a variety of coffeehouses, art events, and benefits in the Milwaukee area. She played a few solo performances at smaller stages for SummerFest and the Indian Summer Festival in Milwaukee, WI as well. The current album is a collection of original material written in the mid- 1990's and mainly re-recorded in 2010. A Whole Long While features the Lost Pioneers backing, along with guest Pioneer Brian Hill on trombone, in 1993. Those guys are very talented and a lot of fun. To read about the story behind A Whole Long While, follow this link: http://www.spiralsmusic.com/music-19.html In addition to the Indigo Girls, Candice's influences include Paul Simon, Steve Perry, Sinead O'Connor, Ella Fitzgerald, early Beatles, Hildegard Von Bingen, Suzanne Vega, and currently, KT Tunstall.