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Cindy Lee Berryhill

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Cindy Lee Berryhill is a singer-songwriter. Berryhill was born in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake, and grew up in various parts of California. Her debut album, Who's Gonna Save The World? (Rhino/Capitol) came out in October 1987 and was followed by the Lenny Kaye produced, Naked Movie Star (Rhino/WEA)[1] in 1989. In Allmusic's online Cindy Lee Berryhill Biography entry (2008), Richie Unterberger wrote, "The San Diegan's 1987 debut, Who's Gonna Save the World?, may be her best simply because it is her most straightforward. Then as now, she was most effective, ironically, at her most basic and serious."[2] By contrast, Stewart Mason in his four and a half star review of her third album, calls it her "first completely solid and intriguing effort".[3]

Berryhill, like Brenda Kahn, Paleface, Beck, Michelle Shocked and John S. Hall were early proponents of the New York City Anti-folk movement.[4][5] She is featured in the documentary "Mariposa: Under a Stormy Sky" along with Emmylou Harris, The Violent Femmes, Daniel Lanois and others.

It would be another six years before her third album Garage Orchestra (Cargo/Earth) would be released. Garage Orchestra was a tin-can-pop inflected departure from her earlier folkier albums and garnered a 4 star review in Rolling Stone. In 1995 her boyfriend and husband-to-be, rock writer Paul Williams suffered a brain injury and Berryhill put off the making of her next album until 1996's Straight Outta Marysville.

In 1999, Berryhill's novel, Memoirs of A Female Messiah was released along with a live album entitled Living Room 16. After the birth of Berryhill and Williams's son in 2001, she began a song cycle that included a song Beloved Stranger that was inspired by her experiences with her husband's brain injury and the awareness that many soldiers were coming home from war with similar injuries. In 2008 the album Beloved Stranger (Populuxe) was released.

Berryhill's second cousin was the venerable surfboard shaper Dale Velzy (his mother was a Berryhill) and her first cousin is Damon Berryhill who was a major league baseball player and now works for the Braves.

Berryhill currently lives in Encinitas, CA with her son, Alexander Berryhill-Williams. Her late husband, Paul Williams, who died on March 27, 2013 from the early onset of dementia due to a brain injury sustained in a 1995 bicycle accident, lived in a nearby nursing home. Her 7th album, The Adventurist is slated for release on March 10, 2017 on Omnivore Records.

Partial discography

All U.S. releases unless otherwise noted

Albums

  • Who’s Gonna Save The World (Rhino, 1987) also released by: Spain / Sam Records, Germany / Zensor Records and England / New Routes Records
  • Naked Movie Star (Rhino, 1989) also released by: Germany, Greece and Italy, all on Rhino Records, England / Awareness Records
  • Garage Orchestra (Cargo, 1994) also released in England by Unique Gravity
  • Straight Outta Marysville (Cargo, 1996) also released in England by Demon Records
  • Living Room 16 (Griffith Park Records – GPR001, 1999) live
  • Beloved Stranger (Populuxe, 2008)

Singles & EP's

  • Indirectly Yours / She Had Everything (Indisc Beneluxe, 1989) Belgium only 7" & CD
  • Me, Steve, Kirk And Keith / Indirectly Yours (Awareness, 1989) England only 7" & 12"
  • Me, Steve, Kirk And Keith / Baby Should I Have The Baby (EMI/Rhino RPS 30, 1989) Australia promo only 7"
  • Baby Should I Have The Baby, Supernatural Fact (Rhino, 1989) Promo only CD single
  • High Jump / Baby Should I Have The Baby, Weeping Descent of Sleep (Cargo-Earth Music 014, 1994) CDEP

Compilations

  • The Best Of The Radio Tokyo Tapes (Chameleon, 1987) includes: Headin' For The Border
  • CMJ Presents Certain Damage! - Volume 3 (CMJ, 1987) includes: She Had Everything
  • Don't Read While You Listen! (Rhino, 1988) includes: She Had Everything, Damn, I Wish I Was A Man, Spe-c-i-al Ingredient
  • Broome Closet Anti-Folk Sessions (109 Records, 1989) includes:Every Home Has A Setting Sun, Take A Giant Step
  • Acoustic Variations (Orphan, 1993) includes: Father of the Seventh Son
  • The 4th Annual San Diego Music Awards (SLAAM, 1994) includes: Every Someone Tonight
  • Tales From The Rhino (Rhino, 1994) includes: She Had Everything
  • Cargo Records 1995 Fall Sampler (Cargo, 1995) includes: Gary Handeman
  • SXSW Live Vol.3 (SXSW, 1995) includes: I Wonder Why
  • Doin' It Right (Demon, 1996) England only - includes: Diane
  • Ocean – A Celebration Of San Diego Women’s Music (SLAAM, 1998) includes: High Jump
  • Drinking From Puddles: A Radio History (Kill Rock Stars, 1999) includes: Aquamarine
  • San Francisco Song Cycle Vol 1 (2000) includes: The Skip Song
  • Music Is Love (Route 61 Music, 2012) includes: It Doesn't Matter Manassas / Stephen Stills cover

References

  1. ^ Naked Movie Star description at Amazon.com
  2. ^ Allmusic biographical entry for Cindy Lee Berryhill
  3. ^ Allmusic review of Garage Orchestra
  4. ^ J. Bessman, "Rising singer/songwriters redefine folk in the '90s", Billboard Jul 16, 1994, vol. 106 (29), pp. 1 and 36.
  5. ^ D. Kimpel, How they made it: true stories of how music's biggest stars went from start to stardom! (Hal Leonard Corporation, 2006), p. 7.
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