User Profile for Julie Christensen (stonecupid)

Bio: Julie Christensen continues on her new path and creative quest, with a new album out and a new burst of activity. Her voice found a home in the L.A. post-punk band Divine Horsemen and, for years, as a spotlighted singer with Leonard Cohen. With the 2006 release Something Familiar, she added another genre feather to the cap: jazz.
Now, she has freshly finished a more typically personal brew of pop, soul, rock and artful lyrics, Where the Fireworks Are. She will release the long labored-over CD at various venues. Joining her will be her group Stone Cupid, with keyboardist/creative cohort Karen Hammack, guitarist Joe Woodard, drummer Tom Lackner, and bassist Steve Nelson.
Where the Fireworks Are is Christensen’s most ambitious solo album to date. It may be also be the most topical, with songs addressing the state of a world out of balance. It features mostly original tracks, sprinkled with uniquely retooled covers, including Elvis Costello’s “Shipbuilding” and Randy Newman’s "I Think it's Going to Rain Today", and David Byrne’s “Psycho Killer.”
Christensen, with Hammack in tow, did some of the basic tracks in Brooklyn with noted jazz drummers Jeff Ballard and Kenny Wollesen, and decamped for the subsequent tracking and overdub work in Santa Barbara. The list of musical collaborators includes Hammack, Lackner, Woodard, and Nelson, pedal steel players Greg Liesz and Bill Flores, guitarist Buckethead, keyboardist Dave Palmer, saxist Tom Buckner, and multi-instrumentalist and singer Kenny Edwards.
Christensen’s first solo album should have been released in 1990, after she worked on it with producer Todd Rundgren at his Bearsville studio. Alas, the album got caught up in record company snafus and it has remained on the shelves all these years. Meanwhile, Christensen took the DIY route and made two fine albums, Love is Driving (1997) and Soul Driver (2001), on her own Stone Cupid label.
Among Christensen’s present musical activities, her connection to Leonard Cohen’s world continues, as a featured member of the Cohen tribute projects produced by Hal Willner. The tribute’s Sydney Opera House concerts became the core of the acclaimed documentary, Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man, featuring Christensen and her longtime ally (and fellow Ojai-an) Perla Batalla on the classic Cohen song “Anthem.”
The Willner-produced concert series, dubbed Came So Far for Beauty, had two more performances in Dublin, Ireland in October, where Julie participated, singing a duet with Lou Reed, and joined a cast including Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Jarvis Cocker and many others. When Reed performed a special concert at UCSB’s Campbell Hall in October, Christensen sat in on the song, “Joan of Arc,” and easily won the crowd’s affection.
The ink on Where the Fireworks Are is still wet, the mixes moist, and the new music fresh and warm and ready for a healthy life. Christensen continues her forward motion.

"Highlights:
[of the Gospel According to Leonard Cohen at UCLA's Royce Hall]
Julie Christensen kicking up the energy level with real star power on "Ain't No Cure For Love," and later delivering a reverential "If It Be Your Will."
--RJ Eskow, the Huffington Post

Visit Julie on the web:
http://stonecupidreal.blogspirit.com
http://www.stonecupid.com
http://www.myspace.com/
juliechristensenandstonecupid
(where you can listen to "Something Pretty" and other songs from the new record.)
http://www.householdink.com/juliechristensen.htm

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