Before Alanis and Tori showed up on the scene...beforeCourtney and Liz, Fiona, Tracy and Jewel got a taste of the limelight...therewas 16-year-old Tanya Donelly. She played guitar alongside her half-sisterKristin Hersh in the Throwing Muses, writing some of that band's most engaginglytuneful songs, and helping to break the ground upon which so many womenin rock now walk. Then there was Tanya Donelly as the trusty accomplice,joining Kim Deal in 1990 to help launch the Breeders, another trailblazinglandmark in the genre soon to be know as alternative rock. And yet again,only three years later, Donelly made another inspiring piece of rock historyby following her pop instincts into the spotlight as the leader of her ownband, Belly. She took home her first gold record, earned a Grammy nominationfor her efforts, and successfully completed the journey from undergroundhero to mainstream success without compromising her unique musical vision.
Now it's time to open to another promising chapter inDonelly's dynamic career, one that's been a long time coming. It's 11 yearssince Throwing Muses became the first American band to be signed by thetasteful British label 4AD, but Donelly has finally taken the next logicalstep. On September 9, Reprise will release Lovesongs for Underdogs,a disc that introduces the next incarnation of one of the most enduringvoices to come out of the American rock underground. Meet Tanya Donelly,solo artist.
Anyone who's watched and listened to Donelly emerge asa singular talentone whose gift for writing challenging yet accessiblematerial is matched by her gutsy guitar playing and gorgeous voicemaybe wondering why it's taken so long for her to put her own name about thetitle. The answer has a little to do with Donelly's patience, and a lotto do with her romance with the idea of the rock band.
"It was a combination of wanting to build up confidence,and also really believing in the concept of a band," Donelly explains. "To this day, I still believe in the concept of the band. When bandswork, they're my favorite thing in the world. But it's very rare."
"Belly was like that for a while. It was very mucha combination of four people. We were all coming from different placesmusically, and for a while that tension was a positive thing. But eventuallywe started to stifle each other."
It was in the wake of Belly's amicable breakup that Donellyrealized it was time to make the leap from collaborator/band-leader to soloartist. Rather than hiring slick session players to back her, she calledon some old friends from the Boston music scene to join her in the studioat Fort Apache. Former Pixies drummer David Lovering, Throwing Muses drummerDavid Narcizo and former Letters To Cleo/current Veruca Salt drummer StaceyJones all pitched in, as did guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Rich Gilbert(Human Sexual Response/Zulus/Concussion Ensemble), who added to the mixof everything from pedal steel to bowed saw. Most of the bass duties werehandled by Donelly's husband, former Juliana Hatfield Three bassist DeanFisher. He'll join Gilbert, Narcizo and keyboardist Elizabeth Steen inthe touring band.
True to its title, Lovesongs for Underdogsfinds Donelly exploring the imperfections, awkward moments and self-doubtof romance, without giving in to jaded self-pity. "Everything I everlearned is wrong," she sings against a warm rush of melodic guitarson the explosive chorus of "Pretty Deep," a song that makes goodon the fresh pop promise of Belly's Star. Buoyed by muscular rockguitars and a bracing backbeat, she happily "gets sucked into it again"on "The Bright Light."
Elsewhere, Donelly takes advantage of the flexibilityinherent in a solo album, creating her most musically ambitious and varieddisc to date. Powerful guitars give way to melancholy strings and acousticguitar, framing the singer's ode to the majestic power of pop ("Mysteriesof the Unexplained") and a haunting mediation on emotional isolation("Acrobat").
The mandolin-like sound of a tiple (played by Gilbert)lends a folky edge to the short and bittersweet "Goat Girl." But, as always, it's the distinctive melodic sensibility Donelly bringsto guitar-based rock that marks Lovesongs for Underdogs asher record. Donelly's hands-on approach extended to her co-producing thedisc with engineer Wally Gagel. Gagel, whose past credits include the FolkImplosion's "The Natural One" and Sebadoh's Harmacy, handledthe majority of the sessions. Tanya also coaxed her manager, Fort Apacheowner Gary Smith, out of semi-retirement to produce four tracks, includingthe tough and tuneful single "Pretty Deep." (Smith's past creditsinclude discs by the Throwing Muses, Pixies and Juliana Hatfield.)
"Making the record was a great experience,"Donelly reflects. "It was great to finally be free of my musical monogamy. I brought people in according to who I wanted to play on what. So theonly constraints left on the songs were the ones that I put on them." As anyone familiar with Donelly's past work knows, she's always been blesswith uncanny musical instincts. Lovesongs for Underdogs isthe culmination of a decade spent learning to trust those instincts, tointegrate her infectious sense of rhythm, her indelible melodies, and herrichly impressionistic lyrics and ultimately, to follow her own name.
Source: http://www.repriserec.com/tanyadonelly/biography.html
