CHERISH ALEXANDER

www.cherishalexander.com

CHERISH ALEXANDER has been making music since she was seven years old, and making it at a high-end professional level for more than a decade now. It has been paying off in all kinds of ways, most recently with a 2006 Rock City News award for Outstanding Female Solo Artist.

Cherish landed a deal back in the ‘90s with Warner-Chappell publishing, which gave her multiple opportunities to do something she thought was needed in modern songwriting – realism. From her website – “I am about trying to bring the realism of life back into music. Recently, the musical cliche has been to fabricate yourself into whatever is hip, and you can feel a sense of loss for real music. Finally, I think there’s a slow resurgence of singer/songwriters and a place for me.”

It seems like finding a place for herself in the music business hasn’t been a big problem. Cherish landed a track on a benefit LP, Harmony with the Homeless, in 1995. Former pop star Tiffany sang Cherish’s tune "You Don't Belong Down Here." Then later that same year, Cherish and drummer Billy Baker founded the rock band Painkillers, adding guitarist Curtis Hooker and bassist Matt Boyd. The band released a 16-track LP titled Medicine for the Soul and landed a track (“In Between”) in the soundtrack of the Burt Reynolds movie The Last Producer, another (“Good Enough”) in 2000 Sundance feature Alligator Alley, and three other tunes in the television series “The Crow: Stairway to Heaven.”

Cherish showed up in two Cyndi Lauper music videos, playing lead guitar for two tracks off Lauper’s 1998 LP Sisters of Avalon. The opportunities just kept coming. Cherish created the theme song for the pilot of “Wheeler's World” for the Comedy Central Network. She landed her tune “State of Mind” on the MTV pilot of “The Party Machine,” and her tune “Caffeine” was highlighted in “Aftermath,” a made for TV/CBS movie of the week starring Meredyth Baxter, Robert Urich and Diane Ladd.

Cherish created a remake of the 1970's Thelma Houston song “Don't Leave Me This Way” featured in two episodes of “Fashion Television” on E! Entertainment Networks. She contributed “What About Me,” co-written with Billy Baker, and did a remake of the Young Bloods song ”Get Together” for the PBS documentary “The Teachings of Jon.” Cherish created two songs for Chicks of Rock and West Coast Rock as part of a four-game Moshpit Software computer set.

In 2003, Cherish’s song “Goodbye” was on the playlists of over 50 radio stations nationally. In 2004, Cherish was asked by Producer/Writer/Director Bryce Zabel to write songs for his TV mini-series remake of the 1972 classic The Poseidon Adventure.

Cherish has worked with independent artist Jessica Hallett, contributing her tunes “Say Goodbye” and “More Than You Know” to Hallett’s LP, which was co-written and produced by Billy Baker. She also contributed her tunes “Hello to June” and “Goodbye” to the soundtrack of Dante’s View, another feature film project.

The Winning of Hearts & Minds

Cherish has multiple roles regarding the independent film The Winning of Hearts & Minds. She is in charge of music supervision including writing, performing, producing and recording the score and soundtrack of the Steve Becker-directed film. Cherish also plays the role of Lipstick, the lead bass player in the Maxitit band, the centerpiece of the film. Maxitit performed a 2004 showcase (with special performance by Brittina Spearguilara) at Swinghouse studios in Hollywood prior to the start of production of the film.

Cherish will be releasing a solo LP, Fallen Awake, in early 2007. The song is all hers and she will support the LP with a tour.

CHERISH ALEXANDER MP3s:

Blue Skies

Heaven's Here

Bulletproof

Buy Me Love

Copyright © 2006-2007 Cherish Alexander, all rights reserved 

Cherish's MySpace site also features her MP3s: Go to http://www.myspace.com/cherishalexander  

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MOBY CHICK

If Cherish isn’t quite busy enough with all of her writing projects, she is also playing bass, portraying John Paul Jones, in the all-girl Led Zeppelin tribute band Moby Chick. You can find out more about the band at their MySpace site at www.myspace.com/mobychickband.

JIMMY LEE YOUNG

www.crystal-phoenix.com

JIMMY LEE YOUNG, the Native-American world music singer/songwriter who once went by the name Crystal-Phoenix, has been popular on the L.A. scene since releasing his first CD, Apache, in 2001. In fact, he has been something of a darling in the awards-obsessed L.A. music community. He won a Rocky for World Artist of the Year at the 2006 Rocky City News Awards. He received a double nomination at the LA Music Awards, with his single "Anduhyaun" nominated for Single of The Year and Jimmy Lee nominated as Male Singer Songwriter of the Year in the Americana category. The song was recorded with drummer Gil Gabaldon II, and the following native artists: Three time Native American Music Award (NAMA) winner Felipe Rose of The Village People, NAMA 2005 Female Artist of The Year Yolanda Martinez, 2005 NAMA Best Country Album winner, Qua Ti Si, seven time NAMA nominee, native flautist Eddie Three Eagles. Lead guitarist Ricky Lewis also appears, playing lead guitar and bass.

Jimmy, on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, fronts a five-piece band with drummer Gil Gabaldon II, Dave Chalala on lead guitar, backing vocalists Carl Rabun and  Amanda Guthrie, and Vic Grady on bass.

Jimmy Lee Young MP3s are available for listening from the Music page of his Crystal-Phoenix site at http://www.crystal-phoenix.com/cphoe_music_01.html

Jimmy Lee Young released his CD Apache in 2001 when he went under the name Crystal-Phoenix.

CINDY ALEXANDER

www.cindyalexander.com

CINDY ALEXANDER won NBC's 2006 "Star of Tomorrow" talent competition. (You can go to her website to see a video of her rehearsal for the show, which is great.) It is a continuation of a string of successes that include L.A. Music Award nominations in the Songwriter of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year categories, and included Album of the Year for See Red, her debut effort. She has gone on to land tracks on compilation LPs, on movie soundtracks (Here on Earth, Smokers, Sugar and Spice, among others) and television soundtracks (Party of Five). Cindy’s the real deal as a performer, a heavyweight talent with a great voice and outstanding musical chops. She’s a real pro whose touring partners include America, Suzanne Vega, The Bacon Brothers, Joan Osborne, The Bangles, Gin Blossoms and other established acts. Her second LP, Smash (2003), was again nominated the L.A. Music Awards Album of the Year. She is on a roll, going from one success to the next, all of which is nicely detailed on her site.

“Pnut,” as she is known to her fans – an allusion to her low birth weight – has become a darling of critics and a proven crowd pleaser. In 2005 she released her third LP, Angels and Demons, which has been called “a masterpiece” in some critical corners. Cindy connects. Not long ago she did a live radio performance on KLOS 95.5 FM that sold out her entire available inventory of the CD.  All she needs for continued career expansion is more exposure, and she's working on that.

Cindy did the USO Pacific Rim tour in January of this year, performing at U.S. military installations in Japan. Since then she has stepped away from her regular performing schedule to work on a new album. 

HOUSE CONCERTS - RARWRITER recently did a profile on San Francisco House Concert Producer Drew Pearson, and it is interesting to learn that Cindy Alexander is available for such intimate events. A gifted performer, she would be extraordinary to see and hear in this type of setting. - RAR

CINDY ALEXANDER MP3s:

Cindy Alexander has four clips of tunes from Angels and Demons posted on her MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/cindyalexander 

LIZZY wILLIAMS

www.lizzywilliams.com
LIZZY WILLIAMS performs as a six-piece unit fronted by the strong-voiced singer/songwriter Liz Chaffe (pronounced Chaffey), but “the band” is really more of a duo with a supporting cast. Liz and guitarist/mandolin player David Williams are the musical leaders of the unit, which produces an essentially acoustic-based light rock that focuses heavily on stewardship of the environment, animal rights, and the search for God. Says Chaffe – “My quest for God is continual and this has always inspired me in the music. It's not really a quest however because I feel the existence of such a being in my life already no matter how difficult times seem. I usually write about things that are uplifting, (it's just the way it comes out) however as I continue to play out on the club scene here in Los Angeles, different writing is beginning to happen and I definitely like where I am going with it.”

Chaffe and her unit – Williams, Michael Moore, Chief, Raven and Tiger Shaw – released their first LP Magic 8 recently. It is an upbeat affair that Chaffe acknowledges on her website “does not represent to the fullest what we are live, which is not as poppy…”

Liz Chaffe is a New Yorker who came to Los Angeles to continue her pursuit of an acting career, but seems to have been diverted in that interest by her teaming with the multi-instrumentalist Williams, who has become an inspiration to her songwriting talents.

MP3s can be heard on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/lizzywilliams.

KRISTER AXEL

www.KristerAxel.com

Krister Axel is someone who caught my attention as I was exploring nominees in the Rock City News Awards. He is a soulful white boy, with a European sensibility developed through having started his music life abroad. He put it all down in words and sent me the following:

"I will write up a recap of my career so far as best I can, and you can choose to use or not use whatever you like. It's sort of a long road of
a story.

"I started playing piano at a very young age, both of my older sisters
had mandatory piano lessons that they hated so by the time it got to me
my parents didn't even bother. We did still have a piano that I was
drawn to, and immediately I was writing my own songs - that first note
I ever played on a piano was part of a compositional effort, by the
time I was 12 years old I was writing a lot of piano ditties.
At that time my family moved to Paris, France, and I begged my father
to buy me a keyboard for that Christmas of 1986, which I was lucky
enough to get and it came with a 3-track sequencer. Around this time as
well I started listening to the Cure, which would remain a seminal
influence for me to this day. At my school, the American School of
Paris, I quickly developed a good relationship with the electronic
music teacher and I was in his course every semester, which was my
first experience with midi and sound modules. I became good friends
with Adam Cohen (He is signed to EMI Canada, I believe), the son of
Leonard Cohen who is my age and was a student at ASP at that time. We
were both just beginning our careers as songwriters at that time.
Another student at that time who was a year younger than us was Chris
Stills (V2 records), the son of Stephen Stills who incidentally took
the same bus to school that I did. In Paris I also began a lifelong
fascination and appreciation for poetry, which was to become my major
in college.

"When I returned to the US, I began to play guitar as well, but about 5
years would go by before I would actually invest in a guitar for
myself. Having already taught myself much about music theory, it was
easy to conceptualize which notes the strings were, and so forth, so
playing upside down and backwards as I continue to do was a logical
choice. Later, in college, I would stumble across a few records by
Elizabeth Cotten that would reinforce my confidence in such a unique
style of fingerpicking. My last year in High School would finally see
me taking my first music theory lessons, but at this point I found it
was largely unnecessary - although I had a very good teacher by the
name of Anthony LaMagra, I never found the satisfaction in classical
performance that I got from songwriting, so in the end he became more
of a theory mentor and friend than a performance teacher.

"I went to college in the summer of 1991 at Madison, WI, and quickly
began performing in a number of local clubs with numerous cover bands
strictly as a piano player. I was never interested in playing anything
but piano, and then later electric piano, and organ. I abhorred the
idea of a keyboard player constantly flipping through different
patches. I took a job as a record store clerk in the shop of a friend,
and it seemed by very fortunate luck that the same summer, I think in
1993, I happened to be working in a record store when both Soul
Coughing and G Love would both be featured on the same CMJ promo disc.
That was a glorious summer, and they both remain very important
influences for me.

ABOVE: Krister Axel in the studio recording his LP Permanent Friday Night.

"After soundcheck for a show at Shank Hall in Milwaukee around the same time, I stumbled across a review of Chris Whitley's Dirt Floor. Thus was born another lifelong appreciation for me, and to this day I
consider myself foremost a student and follower of Chris's sensibility
and vocal intonations, if not directly of his style of songwriting
which has gone through a number of different transformations. My band throughout those years was called Sunshine Allison, and we released two records on our own label and toured the region incessantly. Among our most glamorous shows in those days was an appearance with Soul Asylum at an outdoor festival in Iowa and an opener at the Cubby Bear in Chicago for Leftover Salmon, who praised our eclectic flavor of progressive rock.

"As time went on, I began to yearn for a simpler, more lyric-oriented
approach to the band's presentation which was at the time more weighted towards long instrumentals and drum-circle type interludes, which to this day is largely responsible for my percussive style - especially on the organ, which arose from long hours in practice on the agogo bells and the shaker.

"So I moved to Los Angeles, in the summer of '99, and quickly became involved with a band called Revolver principally as a keyboard player, as well as a band called Paper Sun where I was also a co-writer and singer. With both bands I played the local scene from 2001-2002 at places like the Roxy, Molly Malone's, the Dragonfly, Zen Sushi, the Hotel Cafe, and the Mint. After Revolver had been shopped to Elektra records by Tom DiSavia (now a V.P. over at ASCAP) and just barely missed the cut, I began to conceive of a solo project where I am the sole writer and producer. I have finished my third album as Krister Axel which will be released this Spring. Aside from those already mentioned, since I have been in Los Angeles, I have had the pleasure of working with such artists as:

BILLIE MYERS
FRANKIE JORDAN
MATT MAHAFFEY
DAWN ROBINSON
CHEYENNE KIMBALL
SHANE ALEXANDER
50 CENT HAIRCUT
WHITESTARR
SAUCY MONKY
LOONER
CHRIS PIERCE
SHAWN PANDER

to name some of my favorites. By now I am an accomplished studio
keyboardist, as well as songwriter and producer.

"I have appeared on MTV twice now, both times with Epic artist Cheyenne Kimball (once for a live broadcast to HDTV called Music with Altitude shot in Breckenridge, CO, and once during an episode of her reality show for MTV simply called Cheyenne).

"My song 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' has been featured prominently in a movie called A Colombia directed by Ryan Byrne that has won a number of awards in the 2005-2006 festival circuit.

"I continue to write songs just a little bit faster than I can record
them, but I'm not complaining. Thanks for taking an interest, and
please direct any of your readers to KristerAxel.com to read a more
in-depth account of my exploits."

KRISTER AXEL MP3s:  

Helpless

Copyright © 2006-2007 Krister Axel, All Rights Reserved 

See Krister Axel's MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/kaxel

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2005 Release - Permanent Friday Night

CHEYENNE KIMBALL

www.cheyennemusic.com

Sixteen year old Cheyenne Kimball has been touring the country in support of her first LP, The Day Has Come, and her MTV reality show (“Cheyenne”). Since winning “America’s Most Talented Kid” at age 12, Cheyenne has been on a roll. The young Epic Records artist has become a television star in both the U.S. and Canada, has singles on the radio (“Hanging On” and “One Original Thing”), videos on MTV and VH1, and a track (“One Original Thing”) on the Aquamarine movie soundtrack. She released an iTunes exclusive single (“Drift Away”), is soon to release a DVD of her reality show, and will soon release another single, “Four Walls,” which she performed as part of the 2006 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Cheyenne heads to Nashville next to record her second LP. Besides singing, Cheyenne plays the guitar and writes her own songs.

RAR Note - This kid is really good. My daughter pulled me to the TV one night to watch her perform on "Fridays" on Cartoon Network and I was struck by her ability as a singer and a player. Really impressive. She's a good vibe, too. There is an adorable video of her dancing around her guitar that plays on her homepage that I can hardly get by when I go there, it's just too cute. Cool idea, really well done.