Friday, June 05, 2009

Interview AMC: Bobbie Eakes and Co. Make Beautiful Music Together

While All My Children’s Krystal Carey always seems to have her hands full — whether it’s juggling men or juggling secrets — her portrayer, Bobbie Eakes, is a pretty busy woman herself. Only Bobbie isn’t up to no good — she’s making beautiful music.

Since June of last year, Bobbie and fellow soap stars Kassie DePaiva (Blair, One Life to Live) and Kathy Brier (ex-Marcie, OLTL) have been performing to packed audiences as the Divas of Daytime. This year, the Divas will also be featured performers at the Country Music Association’s Music Festival the weekend of June 12.

Bobbie explains how the Divas came about: “I had been wanting to put a group together for a long time. My first idea was a group where I’d be the only girl and have a couple of soap hunks, where it would be a girl and a couple of guys. At the time, Vincent Irizarry was one of the guys I was talking to, and he was in L.A. doing The Young and the Restless. It was logistically hard to get everyone together, because the people I wanted to use were spread out. Then I thought, ‘Why not three girls? It would be cool to have a trio.’”

Bobbie didn’t have to look far to find her musical accomplices. “I immediately thought of Kassie and Kathy, because I had done duets with both of them. They were excited about the idea — the enthusiasm was there, the availability was there, and we were all on the same page about it.”

Performing with the Divas is, as Bobbie says, “an absolutely a joy. We just laugh all the time. We laugh at what we say, and we also get a kick out of our songs. Singing together in the three-part harmonies that we’ve put together just really seems to work. It’s very rewarding.”

Fans who want to catch the Divas in concert can expect one main thing: fun. “The show is mostly music — with songs most people recognize from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s — with between-song banter. We also do some current stuff with maybe a few original songs tossed in there. It’s the kind of show that you can sing along to. You come away feeling that you’ve been to a party.”

Meanwhile, Bobbie has been very busy on AMC with her firecracker alter ego, Krystal. “When I was Macy on The Bold and the Beautiful, I didn’t work near as much as I’ve been working since coming to AMC. Immediately I was so fulfilled with the character. In the beginning, Krystal came in swinging pretty hard. Now she’s pretty much woven into the Pine Valley scene, and she’s a little bit subdued. She’s definitely very layered, and they continue to write very interesting stories for her.”

Krystal presently has her hands full with two big stories: the discovery of a long-lost daughter, Babe’s fraternal twin, Marissa, and the murder of Stuart Chandler. Bobbie explains: “The murder story line is a big story line, but it is also happening at the same time that Krystal is having her daughter story line with Marissa. Krystal is implicated in the murder; a lot of people are implicated. There is a lot of action, and the show is moving really really fast, so hold on!”

The Divas will be performing at the CMA Music Festival with a Divas of Daytime breakfast/concert at the Nashville BB King’s Blues Club on Saturday, June 13, as well as a few acoustic sets throughout the weekend. Fans can find event information at www.kassiedepaiva.com/divabreakfast.html.

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