Glenna Bell. Players include John Evans (lead guitar), Mike Ferrara (drums), Jake Marchese and Shawn Supra (upright bass), and Steve Oddo (washtub bass).
Sounds Like
Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Janis Joplin, Dolly Parton, Odetta, Hank Williams, Sr.,
George Jones and Tammy Wynette Duets
On May 15, 2007, the Texas House of Representatives honored the music of Texas-born singer-songwriter Glenna Bell with a House Resolution, which was read in a ceremony at the Capitol on the Floor of the House in Austin. House Speaker Tom Craddick was in attendance, and personally congratulated Miss Bell for her musical contributions to the Lone Star State. The story of this rising Texas star began in the woods of her youth near Beaumont, Texas, where she grew up influenced by the hymns sung a cappella at the church she attended with her family and by the old-school country music that she found in her relatives’ record collections. Often compared stylistically to Johnny Cash, with a delivery that’s raw and bare boned, Glenna Bell captures the very essence of how country music was, is, and should always be.
Glenna’s music has been aired locally, nationally, and internationally on NBC, CNBC, Fox TV, and numerous radio programs, as well as through live performances at venues all over Texas, including the Cactus Café, Threadgill's, the Continental Club, and SXSW in Austin, McGonigel’s Mucky Duck and the Hard Rock Cafe in Houston, Poor David's Pub (Finalist in the 20th Annual BW Stevenson Memorial Singer-Songwriter Competition, May 2008), The Gypsy Tea Room and Bill’s Records and Tapes in Dallas, amongst many others. Glenna's songs have also received praise from top-tier music critics such as Robert K. Oermann at Music Row, Nashville and, most recently, Robert Christgau of Rolling Stone.
A deal with Burnside Distribution in Portland, Oregon will place Glenna Bell's new record, The Road Less Traveled, in retail outlets across the nation in July 2008. The album was recorded at historic Sugar Hill Studios in Houston, Texas, where the Big Bopper taped "Chantilly Lace" and George Jones laid down some of his first vocal performances, not to mention the many other legends who have made their mark behind the mic's of the oldest continuously operating recording studio in Texas.
Notably, Glenna will also be included in Andy Bradley and Roger Wood’s forthcoming book on the history of the studio, House of Hits (UT Press, 2009), and on the accompanying compilation disc singing Willie Nelson’s “The Family Bible,” which was first taped at Sugar Hill in the 1950’s.
Glenna Bell is a Daughter of the Republic of Texas and a graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of Houston’s renowned Creative Writing Program, where Pulitzer-winning playwright Edward Albee directed her dissertation plays. She teaches writing at Houston Community College and at a young age has already composed a lasting body of music to represent the diversity of Texas. Glenna Bell's sound is modern Americana in the truest sense. It is a unique blend of country roots music, romantic urban culture lyrics, and Texas folk rock; all sung in a voice that is powerful yet somehow vulnerable.
For more information on Glenna Bell, please visit:
http://www.glennabell.com
http://www.sonicbids.com/glennabell
Hey Glenna!!! Just wanted to stop by and tell ya im proud of you!!! I leave Aug 1 for So Padre Island Texas. R u going to be playing ne where near there?
Yo Glenna...you missed a kick ass rowdy party! I'll have another soon with a roasting sheep in the ground! Miss you....hope alls well and keep on rockin, especially, keep it rowdy!
Hi back at ya, Glenna! Sounds like things are rolling your way these days! Still loving "Road Less Traveled"--Bill Wence sent the official copy about a month ago, so I could retire the now-ragged advance copy! Cheers,
hey Glenna Bell...listened to the rest of your profile great stuff, hope you can make it on the 29th i will be with my buddy Matt Harlan..can't wait to get some good BBQ and a Shiner.
I will e at Buck Owens Crystal Palace this Saturday night. My cuz, Monty Byrom, is playing there this fri and sat night. it also airs on local radio. Hopefuly I will be able to see you in ACTION on vacation....
Hey Glenna! How is Texas? I will be out @ my house on So Padre Is all Aug. Where will u be playing then? I will be leaving around July 20th from Bakersfield. Hey, here is my cousins websit: www. montybyrom. com. Big House will have a new cd out this summer called Big House 08'er
