namoli brennet

Bio:

Webster’s defines anomaly as a deviation from the common rule, but look a little farther and you’ll find another definition: hard to classify. And that might be the best way to describe musician Namoli Brennet. Brennet was born male and transitioned to female, but like many gender-variant types, she simply identifies as “trans”. There’s something touching and achingly poignant about Brennet’s voice – maybe it’s the sound of transgender, the experience of knowing what it feels like to be unstable, on the edge, a little hard to define. In the wrong hands, that poignance could easily turn sentimental, but with Brennet’s deft touch the songs have an edge, a rawness and a gritty realness that steers clear of typical singer/songwriter territory. And just like you’d expect from an over-achieving multi-instrumentalist with a composition degree: she does play nearly everything. Listening to Brennet, you realize this is not just another acoustic singer/songwriter with a guitar. Her technique draws on a wide range of influences, everyone from Shawn Colvin and Jonatha Brooke to Patty Griffin and Joni Mitchell There’s also the fact that she’s equally at home on the piano or mandolin. But beyond the technical is something way more important: Brennet has an innate understanding of the language of music, and she skillfully uses it to communicate insights that are both poetic and powerful. As someone who both engineers and produces her own CDs, there isn’t much stopping Namoli from putting out records, and her prolific output is pretty remarkable: since 2002 she’s self-produced and engineered 6 CDs starting with Boy in a Dress; her 7th CD, Until From This Dream I Wake is due out in June 2009. In addition to her songwriting, Brennet has also written several commissions for Chorus & Piano as well as scoring 2 plays: Boy (2008), and an adaptation of The Odyssey written by Pulitzer-Prize winner Derek Walcott. Her music has also been featured in the upcoming documentary Out in the Silence. So yes, she’s hard to classify, but like all good things yet undiscovered she’s just waiting to be found. And you can find her at namolibrennet.com, itunes, cdbaby.com, amazon…. ..

Member Since:

February 23, 2005

Members:

Namoli Brennet and possibly some nameless celestial forces that keep passing along the good ideas.

Influences:

Train noises, barking dogs, squeaky bicycles, etc.

Sounds Like:

All songwriters think they sound nothing like anyone else. This is for the most part patently false, but we say it anyway. Most of us are also very verbose, which explains the long preamble to explaining who I sound like. Also you should realize that I am the least qualified person to describe who I sound like, so no complaints when I come up with things like "a transgendered Ryan Adams", or "a slightly huskier Patty Griffin". I'm trying to do it all here, people. Oh, also, thanks for reading all the way to the end.

Record Label:

Flaming Dame Records