Half a Person

This one is for my friend, Chris Gethard. He's a very funny comedian who is also a passionate Smiths/Morrissey fan. He hosts The Chris Gethard Show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in New York every month and I recommend going to his show if you can. One of the things I admire about him is his ability to embrace what is real, even at the expense of doing things that are awkward or uncomfortable. You know, like risk telling a joke that's "not funny" and getting shot by a paintball-gun-wielding audience. Or hosting a show naked to raise money for charity. He is genuine, funny, and not at all afraid to be a little clumsy and shy.

Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisGethard!

Sweet and Tender Hooligan

Who else could I dedicate this song to but The Sweet and Tender Hooligans! They have been so nice to me and even invited me to perform with them in May. I had such a great time meeting all these guys. They are just fantastic!

Here's just one story of how great they are- when we got to the Anaheim House of Blues, I was told by the stage crew that I wasn't aloud to perform because I was listed as a separate act from the Hooligans but they had no clearance forms from me (none of us knew I needed this!) and would not be able to perform. I told the Hooligans and they had a few minutes of group huddle. They came up with a plan to tell the stage manager that I was the "intro music" for their stage entrance and that they would be on stage with me. Once I was performing, the guys waited 'til the last minute to casually stroll on stage, get set up and then start their first song as soon as I was done.

Thanks to the Hooligans for skipping the regular intro and crowd cheers so that I could perform at the House of Blues!!

P.S. I made this one uptempo and danceable, just in case Jose wants to try and spin it at one of his DJ gigs.

Picture from back stage at the House of Blues, taken by my boyfriend Josh Cadwising.

Shoplifters of the World Unite

This song ended up being a mish-mash of vocal influences- and because I worked on it over a long period of time, I wasn't even aware of my own vocal shoplifting for quite a while. Maybe you'll be able to name a few of the influences...

This image is from the blog Film Noir Photos which has so many great photos!

Sheila Take A Bow

This one is for the lovely Gina Vadnais who plays flute for The Sweet and Tender Hooligans. I had a great time hanging out and performing with her this past May! One of her kids needs to marry my son so that we can really be sisters. <3

Is It Really So Strange?

I will dedicate this song to Miss Dale who was supposed to go north, but traveled south again... and ended up meeting Morrissey last night- a lifelong dream of hers. Thank you for all your support of my project!

Untitled by Chris Koperski.
Chris is a friend of mine- check out his other work, it's fabulous!

Simon Goddard's Mozipedia comes out Sept 28, 2010

I have just received a wonderful gift in the mail from Simon Goddard: his new book, the amazing Mozipedia ! It's set to be released in the United States September 28, and I highly recommend getting a copy for your very own. Simon is truly one of rock and roll's greatest detectives. He is so very passionate about Morrissey and the Smiths and his dedication shows. I have been using the UK edition Mozipedia as source of inspiration for many of my Smiths covers. I find this book to be endlessly fascinating and helpful.

Thank you so much, Simon! (also, you are a clever jokester!)

Click the picture to go to Amazon.com. Buy it!

The Draize Train

My first "instrumental" or as my boyfriend says, "vocalmental" which may be accurate considering I must be mental to have spent several months on this one. There were two previous versions of this song that I abandoned because I didn't like how they were going. Plus, my computer crashed and corrupted the file several times. Although it took a while to come together, I'm proud of how it turned out! It is very much inspired by Zoe Keating's new album Into The Trees, which you absolutely must check out!

Photo from Flickr by by justagigolo