ABOUT THE SONGS:
"When Did Jesus Become A Republican?
Has as a guest harmony vocalist, underground comic book artist-Mary Fleener. She' s playing bass on that song too. Lead Guitar is Paul Therrio. Drums-my long time arranging partner Randy Hoffman-Randy is incredible-he played for MANY years with the avant-composer Harry Partch-plus Randy was very instrumental in the sounds on my Garage Orchestra and Straight Outta Marysville albums, then there's me.
Forty Cent Raise is a duet with John Doe. When he said he'd be happy to "play George Jones to my Tammy Wynette" I took him up on the offer. Drums-Randy HOffman, Bass-Mary Fleener, Lead Guitar-Paul Therrio, and me."
CINDY LEE BERRYHILL
Cindy Lee Berryhill has reinvented herself yet again, this time as an
anti-country songstress, with a relationship to
country music as we know it similar to the
relationship her 1987 "anti-folk" persona had to
singer-songwriter folk music as we'd known it.
On her new album, BELOVED STRANGER, Cindy Lee
is backed and joined by a loose cast of alt-country players such as the
Wigbillies, featuring multi-instrumentalist Paul
Therrio and inccandescent underground comix star Mary
Fleener (on bass guitar and harmony vocals). And by
rising San Diego stars, alt-pop rock n roll duo the Truckee
Brothers, on backing vocals (and additional drums) and Marcia Claire, playing bass on the title track and Jeff Berkley playing guitar on "Bars/Booze".
The album also features John Doe of X and the
Knitters, singing a joint lead vocal on Berryhill's
working-girl song "Forty-Cent Raise." Dave Alvin plays guitar on a few songs and so does Lenny Kaye (long time guitarist for Patti Smith). Randy Hoffman
of the Harry Partch Ensemble is present on drums and
orchestral percussion.
Featured on the album is
Berryhill's much-downloaded new song about American
politics, "When Did Jesus Become a Republican?".
Berryhill arrived on the scene in 1987 with her
universally acclaimed first album, Who's Gonna Save
the World? (Rhino/Capitol) and her
airplay/word-of-mouth hit song "Damn, I Wish I Was a
Man" ("I'd be sexy with a belly like Jack Nicholson"),
both of which established her as the first of a series
of Girls With Attitude (So much so that the next to
come along, Ani DiFranci, Alanis Morisettte, and Liz
Phair, were surprised to find themselves being
compared to this woman they'd never heard of!) Album
and single and some U.S. and Europe TV appearances and
a few tours (with Peter Buck, Christy Moore, and the
Smithreens) won Cindy Lee some dedicated fans,
including Beck, Freedy Johnston, Jim Carroll, Steve
Poltz of San Diego's Rugburns, and many others.
“More importantly, the Encinitas resident is one of the best songwriters to ever come out of the county, penning such alt-folk classics as "Damn, I Wish I Was a Man," "She Had Everything" and "Who's Gonna Save the World?" In that she's not had a new studio record in over a decade, it's little surprise that the collection of 11 songs on her new CD is as strong as she's produced since her debut. In "When Did Jesus Become a Republican?", "Forty Cent Raise" and the heartbreaking "Beloved Stranger," she has three songs as utterly perfect as her three above-named classics.”(* * * *A)
–Jim Trageser, North County Times (Nov. 2007)
"Tomorrow's cult artist today. Berrryhill
is as unconventional and inspired as any rock
performer in America. She has moved further (and for
what it's worth, moved me further) than any dozen
mainstream '90s songwriers you care to mention."
- Oeter Doggett, Record Collector, 1996 (editor of RC
and author of a good biography of Lou Reed).
"Squealing and swooping, Cindy Lee Berryhill's voice
is a natural gas. Even more wondrous is the San
Diego guitarist's arranging. To songs whose raw, free
ecstasies recall Patti Smith, Berryhill adds
strings-and-timpani flourishes that echo Brian Wilson.
Eccentric tunes whose charm exerts fresh fascination
and an odd, gripping luminosity." - Paul Evans,
(****-four stars) Rolling Stone, 1994 [reviewing Garage Orchestra]
TO JOIN THE CINDY LEE BERRYHILL MAILING LIST AND DOWNLOAD A SPECIAL MP3 PREVIEW TRACK PLEASE GO TO www.cindyleeberryhill.com
