Album Notes

GOOD GIRL BLUES is....

.... an honest rock n' roll record, full of unabashed guitars and unrestrained vocals. From the dissonant, gnarly art-rock bounce of "My Love is True", the 7/8 math-y gospel of "Sunday", to the quiet anxiety beneath the soft and pretty "Cut", Good Girl Blues strives for a sound that is as uninhibited as it is vulnerable. There is a sense of what the late Janis Joplin once put as "getting underneath" the music - a bare-bones feeling of intensity that lays the foundation for tangled, often messy chord progressions and darkly pristine melodies. Casting irony aside, Good Girl Blues is a rock record truly unconcerned with appearances.

JULIE MEYERS is:

Julie Meyers never wanted to be a solo artist. Despite being a singer and songwriter since her early teens and despite countless performances, sharing the stage with musicians like Sebadoh and Evan Dando(arguably responsible for the singing and the songwriting during aforementioned early teens), Julie has never released a solo album. Instead, she has cut her musical teeth playing guitar, bass and keyboards, singing, and writing with various Sacramento acts (SquishtheBadMan, The Famous Celebrities, The Foreign Cinema, Anton Barbeau, David Houston, The Splints, and a brief but heady stint with The Sores). Working alongside producer Dave Middleton (who played drums on all the songs) and Brian Grupe (who played bass), Good Girl Blues is her first full-length release under her name. Julie will spend most of 2007 touring behind Good Girl Blues regionally and on the East Coast, both with a band and yes, solo.

Julie Meyers
Good Girl Blues
Self-released

By Matthew Craggs
more stories by this author

Friday, March 30, 9 p.m., Luna's café, 1414 16th Street. $6.

With a mash-up of rock, pop, blues and folk, the Sammie-nominated songstress Julie Meyers brings another welcome female voice to a still predominantly male local-music scene. And what a voice. Meyers’ girl-next-door appeal may not prepare you for her quick flips from soft and lovely to raw and forceful, but what’s most impressive is that she’s always in control. In “Sunday,” for example, with a simple drum-and-guitar rhythm for support, Meyers sings her way up to what the listener fears might be a breaking point--only then to pull back at the last second. Hearing her dodge a musical implosion is like watching a high diver pull off a skilled maneuver that might just as easily have been a belly flop. You root for her, and it’s all the more satisfying when she succeeds so beautifully.