Album Notes

Elephant Crossing originally released as a (vinyl) LP only and now available on CD too, is the album debut of singer/songwriter Inneke23 and her band The Lipstick Painters. Musical whirlwind Inneke23 is already more than 10 years active in the Antwerp (Belgium) music scene. As bass player in legendary garage rock band De Bossen, as member of all female punk band Hari'kiri, and now as team leader of alt. country band Inneke23 and the Lipstick Painters.

From the start Inneke23 has been singing and writing her own songs. Gradually she focused more and more on the Americana side of her work, inspired by country music and American singer/songwriters such as Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Mary Gauthier, Jonathan Richman, Loudon Wainwright III, Steve Earle, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, The Carter Family, the Jayhawks, The Gourds,…Her first album was the self-released 'Not With A Band'. Belgium Radio 1, impressed with the album, awarded her with the honorary title "queen of lo-fi".

The new decennium had arrived and Inneke23 decided to focus all her efforts on the realization of her two dreams: making music and travelling. She toured Europe with (ex-Jayhawks) Mark Olson & the Creek Drippers, a band that also included singer songwriter Victoria Williams. Next she hitch-hiked through the USA and discovered the America she'd always dreamt about. That included spending the night in the desert of the Joshua Tree, near the mythical "grave" of her idol Gram Parsons.

These experiences resulted in a new collection of songs, that Inneke23 decided to record with a bunch of enthusiastic musicians, who shortly thereafter became her new backing band; The Lipstick Painters. The results of that songwriting and those sessions became their debut album 'Elephant Crossing'.

The songs on Elephant Crossing have been written in places all over the globe; in Zagreb, Sesto Callende, The Mojave-desert and of course Antwerp, the city where Inneke23 lives and works.

The album title points to crucial moments in Inneke23's life. Moments when important decisions had to be taken. Moments when she always, one way or the other, was confronted with the image of an elephant.

The name Lipstick Painters came to Inneke23 in a dream. She dreamt that she had missed a show of her favorite band, The Jayhawks. Obviously very sad and disappointed her friends tried to cheer her up by telling her that upstairs in a little room a great band would be playing at the after show party. The name of that band; "The Lipstick Painting". Unfortunately she woke up before the show started, but she never forgot the name of that mysterious band.

For more information: www.inneke23.be
For more music that matters, www.corazong.com