The One
The One is an alternative rock/pop group whose sound is a combination of rock with influences of country and occasional, subtle Hip-Hop rhythms. These styles blend seamlessly together and when you add the alluring, beautiful and sexy sounds of Roberta’s vocals to the mix, you have the distinctive music of The One.
John Whitworth makes his contribution to The One as a guitar player, singer, songwriter, arranger, performer, and acts both as recording engineer and producer. John is responsible for performing and/or editing all the instruments used in recording. Before teaming up with Roberta, this well rounded skill set resulted in producing eight songs that are now available for download.
Roberta Brinkman makes her contribution as singer, songwriter, performer, and production consultant. Roberta also plays rhythm guitar when playing live. Roberta’s sparkling vocals and warm harmonies are the inspiration that fuels The One. This inspiration has resulted in producing four songs, featuring Roberta, that are also currently available for download.
John and Roberta met on October 25, 2002. Soon afterward, John and Roberta jammed with his longtime musician friends. By the spring of 2004, John and Roberta recorded their first song, “Remember”. This was followed by “My Everything”, recorded in late summer. This led to performing their songs as the group, The One, for the first time in 2004, and later in 2007 and 2008.
The One’s next goal is to release a CD that mostly features Roberta, and include a couple of songs that John sings. “We didn’t want to wait another year or two until we had enough songs for that. We decided to get our music out there, now, so people can listen and download our songs. We’re interested to see where it takes us,” says John. The One is excited at the prospect of having their songs on the Internet and to also have a Website where people can go listen and download their songs. “We hope that enough people will enjoy our music, allowing us reach a level of success whereby we can fully immerse ourselves in our love of music,” adds Roberta. “Although we have plans to put together a band in the near future, you might say, at this point, we’re mostly an Internet Band that occasionally performs our songs with our family of musician friends,” says John.
The One is presently concentrating on writing and recording new songs. As a singing and songwriting team, John Whitworth and Roberta Brinkman are continuing to produce fun, poetic, emotionally introspective, charming songs. You are cordially invited to enjoy the sounds of The One.
Roberta Brinkman - Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist
My name is Roberta Brinkman. Born Roberta Whiteside in Walnut Creek, California, I was raised in Concord, California and currently reside in Oakley, California. I am one of 10 siblings. I have one brother and eight sisters.
Coming from a musical family, my two eldest sisters Diana and Joanna, especially, had a great love for music and had beautiful voices and were my first big influences. At a very young age, I knew that I had a very special gift, my voice. I remember I could always hit each note and pitch and sing in key as natural as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.
The household I grew up in always had a piano to play, thanks to my mother. She encouraged me to take lessons and practice every day. As far back as I can remember, I would sit and play the piano for hours by myself or with friends and family and entertain them with song and dance. I loved to sing and dance. I knew from the age of 6 that I wanted to be an entertainer.
I took piano lessons from 7 to 12 years of age and took a guitar class in summer school at the age of 13. I sang in church and school choirs all through my youth, performed in piano recitals, talent shows and was also a cheer leader. All of these activities have contributed to the comfort and ease of my stage presence.
Growing up, our family always had the door open to people and one of our borders was a young man by the name of Michael, who played the guitar. He taught me to play such songs as, “Gimme Three Steps” by Leonard Skinner, a couple of songs by Tom Petty and also songs by Bad Company. He played with other fellow musicians and I would sit-in with them and sing back up harmonies.
Years later, with encouragement from my husband, Mark, I sang at a Christmas party on a Horn Blower cruise ship in the San Francisco Bay. I sang, “Crazy” by Patsy Cline. After singing the song, I can remember looking out at a sea of lit matches and lighters and felt the magic of the crowd.
I then started singing at Karaoke venues wherever and whenever I could. I also sang at a work Christmas Party at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, California. That’s when I met Janice, who was also a singer. Our voices, like our friendship, went together like peas and carrots. Janice invited me to sing with her on several occasions and at different functions with family and friends. We sang duets, provided backup harmonies for each other and our voices complemented one another. It was then that I started writing songs and the first song I wrote was for my son. That’s when I opened up the door to songwriting.
The first band I was in was a church/family/friend band and my brother in-law was the drummer. They needed a singer and I was it. That was where I met the extremely talented guitar player, John Whitworth. John later gave me guitar lessons, which led to John inviting me to play with his lifelong family/friend band as their lead female vocalist and rhythm guitarist (acoustic and electric). That’s where The One was born. Working with The One was like taking a leap off a cliff, free falling into a dream, and letting music be my compass and guide. In 2004, John and I recorded “Remember” and “My Everything” and in the summer our band played a gig and performed these songs for the first time. The One has performed our songs since then.
The One is presently concentrating on writing and recording new songs. Our passion for music, matched with our talents and desire to create beautiful music, has been the recipe for all we have accomplished, so far. I can’t thank John enough for his persistence, countless hours and dedication to our music and his complete faith in my ability as a singer/songwriter and musician. Together, we are The One.
John Whitworth - Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter
My name is John Whitworth. I was raised and currently reside in Kensington, California, which is in the East Bay Hills of the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a guitar player/singer/songwriter. I remember it all started in the 3rd grade when I was walking to school one day and decided I was going to be a musician. Rapidly moving through the trumpet as my first instrument, in the sixth grade, my mother bought me my first acoustic guitar and signed me up for group guitar lessons. The household I grew up in had a piano, so, I learned a few simple chords and had my fun making up tunes up on the piano, though, my main instrument has always been the guitar.
I played in my first band when I was 14 years old. At the age of 17, I wrote my first song and later went on to take music theory in junior college, in my 20s. It was also in my mid-20s that I decided to become a professional musician. Through the years, I had been in and out of various bands and finally achieved my goal of becoming a full-time, professional musician with my most notable stage experience gained from six years traveling and performing with a club band. We played venues in California from San Diego to Redding, in Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico and Alaska.
My first experience of combining writing, arranging and recording came in the late ‘80s when I set-up my first modest home studio. In 2002, aided by music software and a computer, I launched into my love for writing, arranging, recording, engineering and producing my music. These experiences nicely rounded out my skill set and resulted in producing eight songs. These eight songs were completed before teaming up with Roberta.
Roberta and I met on October 25, 2002 while playing in a band of a mutual friend. This was Roberta’s and my first experience playing and performing in a band, together. Soon afterward, I invited Roberta to jam with me and my longtime musician friends. Roberta’s natural talent blended well with the group and impressed everyone with her singing as well as playing rhythm guitar. In the spring of 2004, Roberta and I recorded our first song, “Remember”. This was followed by “My Everything”, recorded in late summer. This led to performing our songs as the group, The One, for the first time in 2004, and later in 2007 and 2008.
Roberta and I are concentrating on writing and recording new songs, right now. Although we have plans to put a band together, you might say, at this point, we’re mostly an Internet band that occasionally performs our songs with our family of musician friends. To date, we have recorded four songs featuring Roberta. The One’s next goal is to release a CD that mostly features Roberta, and include a couple of songs that I sing.
The One is continually writing/recording new songs. With Roberta’s inspiring voice and subtle influences of various musical styles, our music blends together to create the distinctive sound of The One.