Chad And Vashti Summervill
Chad is a mix of musician and marketer. For the past 15 years he has led a double-life as a musician masquerading as an digital marketing guru for a Furtune 50 company. It’s a good mix and all parties are pleased with the arrangement. In 1991, Chad scored his first big break singing in a cafeteria at the amusement park in Denver, Co., Elitch Gardens. In these humble beginnings, Chad learned from some of the best performers in Denver how to sing for your supper 4-6 times a day. Chad is a proud member of the Stax of Wax alumni and has the leather jacket to prove it (potentially illegally). Following two exhilarating summers in the Rockin’ Cafe (or whatever they called it) he went all legit and studied classical voice at Mesa State College, now renamed Colorado Mesa University. Thankfully it wasn’t a University at that time and they had marginal academic college entrance requirements so he could sneak in on a vocal scholarship.
Chad would like to extend his thanks to Dr. Jack Delmore for the great beginning and for letting him into college. In 1994 Chad was lucky enough to learn from even more wonderful performers as he joined the cast of Music Country Music at Opryland’s theme park, Fiesta Texas, in San Antonio, Tx. The blistering heat and humidity was no bother as the cast ripped through the history of country music past to present in about 40 minutes three to four times a day. Chad, unbelievably, was the guy pretending to be Vince Gill. This was clearly a show for the visually impaired as he has absolutely no physical traits that even begin to resemble the great Mr. Gill. His only hope was to hit the Bb four times a day and not forget his words. With that solid foundation to build on, Chad moved to Seattle and began to really take the world by storm. He was given an internship at Bad Animals recording studio where the band Heart was based and where REM recorded their very best album and where Nancy Wilson winked at him as she passed by in the hall. That lasted a whole week until he realized he wasn’t being paid. But still, he was there for a week and she really did wink. But then, Chad found his real calling (for then) and joined the esteemed crew aboard the Spirit of Puget Sound as a singing/dancing waiter.
“Waiter” really isn’t the right name for it, cause he only brought you drinks and you had to go up to the buffet for your food. But he did sing and he did dance on a ship in the ocean (kinda) and it really was a three-hour cruise. Plus he worked with even more amazing performers and learned a ton about balancing trays loaded with drinks and empty plates. Then.. (I know, I’ll wrap it up in a second), he joined the cast of Forever Plaid as the tenor with the nose bleed, Jinx. Chad began this role at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland, Oregon. and it just happened to take him all the way to Fort Meyers, Florida, back to Colorado, up to Seattle (show closed before he got on stage) and then, finally, to Boise, Idaho.
The show only lasted a month, but he decided to make Boise home. That role gave him the opportunity to work with yet another fantastic group of performers and learn the accordion and the upright bass (really). Since he put down roots in Boise, Chad has been busy raising two beautiful girls with his wife Vashti while perfecting the art of pretending to know anything about marketing. As a musician, he has recorded a number of interesting things that you can find on iTunes, Spotify or Pandora.