Jay Brannan is a Texas born singer, actor, and songwriter. After finding homes all over the country to live in, and briefly attending University of Cincinnati's acting school, he decided to plant his feet down in New York City. Brannan was cast in 2003 for the movie Shortbus, directed by John Cameron Mitchell. He contributed the song Soda Shop to the film's soundtrack, which he stated was his "first professionally recorded track".
Michelle Shocked is a traveller, a troubadour, a 'picker-poet', as they say in Texas. As a young feminist, she left Texas to travel, Kerouac-style, and was caught up in Reagan-era grassroots politics. Her musical career was ignited by a bootleg recording made around a Kerrville Folk Festival campfire on a Sony walkman. Released in England as ‘The Texas Campfire Tapes’ without Shocked’s authority, its success abroad enticed Mercury Records to offer the newcomer a recording contract.
Pieta Brown's own blend of folk, rock, country and blues has garnered numerous comparisons to musical forbearers like Rickie Lee Jones, Bobbie Gentry, and Bob Dylan. Lyrically and musically poetic, Brown's deceptive simplicity and seductive purity combine to create songs that meet somewhere between the Carter Family and Tom Waits. Pieta's purity goes deep into the heart, summoning up feelings of safety and longing, both at the same time.
Holly Kirby is a singer-songwriter and musician from the Isle of Wight, England. Her YouTube channel, alpet07, which she set up aged 16 in 2007, is frequently one of the most viewed musician's sites on YouTube in the UK. In the past year much of Holly's work has been an eclectic mix of Celtic, folk and pop music. Holly appeared as Enya in a popular British TV show ("Stars In Their Eyes Kids") in 2006, when she was 15, singing "Orinoco Flow" .
Chris Wollard is a singer and guitarist in the band Hot Water Music from Gainesville, Florida. He's also a member of The Draft. Other Gainesville-based projects in which Wollard has participated include The Blacktop Cadence, The Cro(w)s (aka The Sheryl Cro(w) Mags) and, most notably, Rumbleseat, alongside fellow Hot Water Music member Chuck Ragan, as well as bassist/vocalist Samantha Jones. He is also given two co-writing credits on the Bad Religion album The Empire Strikes First for the songs "The Quickening" and "Beyond Electric Dreams".
Chris Cornell (1964, Seattle, WA, United States) is an American singer/songwriter and guitarist. In 1984 he formed the band Soundgarden with bassist Hiro Yamamoto. Throughout the late 1980s and 90s, Soundgarden experienced major success as one of the major grunge bands (along with groups such as Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam). In 1990, Chris Cornell worked together with the (then) Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron, and Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament and Mike McCready (who would later form Pearl Jam) in a project named Temple of the Dog.
Over the last two years Katie Noonan and her new band ‘The Captains’ ( Cameron Deyell – guitar, Stu Hunter – keys/bass, Declan Kelly – drums) have been building a vessel of exciting new songs. A return to form for Katie, this band sees the songstress sailing towards a more beloved lush and organic sound with her trademark strong and inspired personal stories. Katie has co-written songs with a host of Anzac luminaries including Tim Finn, Don Walker, Sia Furler, Josh Pyke, Tom Shapcott and her fellow ‘Captains’ band mates.
Jimmy Barnes (b. 1956) is an Australian rock singer.
Barnes was born James Dixon Swan on the 28th April 1956 in Glasgow, Scotland, and moved to Australia with his family when he was six years old.
He first came to public attention as the lead singer with popular Australian pub-rock band Cold Chisel, which he joined in 1973 and with whom he recorded seven albums between 1978 and 1983. When the band split up in 1983 he launched a solo career almost immediately; his first album, Bodyswerve, entered the Australian charts at number one. It was the first of a remarkable run of top charting albums for Barnes, as each of his first six solo albums entered the charts at number one, a feat that no other Australian artist is likely to match.
In 1986 Barnes recorded two singles with INXS, duetting with that band's singer Michael Hutchence on a cover of The Easybeats' "Good Times", and "Laying Down the Law", which was co-written by Barnes with INXS members Andrew Farriss and Hutchence. "Good Times" was used as the theme song for the Australia Made series of concerts that toured the country in the summer of 1986-1987. Both songs later appeared on the soundtrack of the 1980s teen vampire film The Lost Boys.
Following Hutchence's death in 1997, Barnes appeared live on stage with INXS at shows throughout Australia between 1999 and 2001.
His album Double Happiness, released in July 2005, reaffirmed his popularity, entering the ARIAnet albums chart at number one, his seventh album to do so. Barnes was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on the 23rd October 2005 for his solo career efforts. Coupled with Cold Chisel's previous induction, Barnes is the only artist to be entered into the Hall of Fame twice.
Barnes is also the father of singer David Campbell, who recently starred in the Australian production of the musical Sunset Boulevard, and was a contestant on the Australian television programme Dancing with the Stars. The two perform the duet "Wichita Lineman" on Double Happiness. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Sara Beth Bareilles (born December 7, 1979) is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and pianist. Bareilles was born and raised in Eureka, California, United States. After graduating from UCLA in 2002, Bareilles performed at local bars and clubs. She issued two demos of mostly live tracks in 2003: The First One in April and The Summer Sessions in October. In January 2004, Bareilles released her first studio album, Careful Confessions.
Chris Isaak (born June 26, 1956 in Stockton, California as Christopher Joseph Isaak) is an American Rock'n'Roll singer, songwriter, and occasional actor.
Isaak's music can be described as a blend of country, blues, rock'n'roll, pop and surf rock.
He signed a contract to Warner Brothers Records in 1984 for his first album "Silvertone". Isaak's contract was renewed in 1988 when Warner moved him to their Reprise Records label.
His best-known song is "Wicked Game". Though released on the 1989 album "Heart Shaped World", an instrumental version of the song was later featured in the David Lynch film 'Wild at Heart' (and also years later in the 2000 film The Family Man). An Atlanta radio station DJ began playing the full version and it quickly became a nation-wide top ten hit. The music video for the song was directed by Herb Ritts and was a big MTV and VH1 hit; shot in black and white, it starred Isaak and model Helena Christensen rolling on the beach, embracing and whispering in each others' ears.
In 1999, Isaak's "Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing" was featured in Stanley Kubrick's final film 'Eyes Wide Shut', starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
In 2001, Chris Isaak starred in his own television show, 'The Chris Isaak Show'. It aired from March 2001 to March 2004 in the United States on the cable television network Showtime. This adult comedy show featured Chris Isaak and his band playing themselves with the episode plots based on fictional accounts of the backstage world of Chris Isaak - the rock star next door.
In 2004, his track "Life Will Go On" was featured on the 'Chasing Liberty' soundtrack, which starred Mandy Moore and Matthew Goode.
He hosted a talk show on the Biography cable channel in the United States in 2009 that offered a unique twist - each guest was a musical artist, and both Chris and the artist performed various songs throughout each show. Eight episodes aired in early 2009, featuring guests Trisha Yearwood, Stevie Nicks, Glen Campbell, Michael Buble, Chicago, The Smashing Pumpkins, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), and Jewel.
Isaak has also appeared in numerous films, mostly playing minor cameo roles, though he starred with Keanu Reeves and Bridget Fonda in the 1993 Bernardo Bertolucci-directed 'Little Buddha', and also played a major role in David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me' (1992). Other motion pictures include 'Married to the Mob' (1988), 'The Silence of the Lambs' (1991), 'That Thing You Do!' (1996), and 'A Dirty Shame' (2004). He also guest-starred on the Super Bowl Sunday (1996) edition of the television sitcom Friends and on the HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon (HBO).
Chris is also an amateur boxer, avid surfer and a former Golden Gloves champion. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.