"Ravishingly melodic!" -- Ani Difranco
"Here we have a homegrown, full blown musical visionary, and a window into a part of the new San Francisco sound. This train is headed somewhere" --puremusic.com
"She's the freshest voice in San Francisco" --San Francisco Magazine
Since releasing Boots on her own label, Petridish, Noe's life has taken off like a rocket. Ani Difranco heard the CD and invited Noe and her trio to open for her on a month long national tour. Since opening for Ani Difranco in February-March, Noe has toured with such diverse artists as They Might be Giants, Dar Williams, and Boz Scaggs, enjoying equally warm responses from these varied audiences, perhaps a testament to what several writers have called her "universal appeal," and yet, her voice as a songwriter is unique.
Noe's artistry runs strong and deep. As a small child growing up in San Francisco, she made up songs, strumming along on an autoharp-- usually tunes about witches dancing around cauldrons, or about Pan and his nymphs and other characters from Greek mythology. What began as a childhood passion for myths has evolved into a grown up passion for myth making.
Thematically, Boots is an urban odyssey, seen through the eyes of a girl. Unlike Noe's previous songs, in which she usually seemed to be singing as characters she had invented, and very odd characters at that-- (a servant to a sorcerer, a doomed Cessna pilot, a dying transvestite...), Boots is strongly rooted in Noe's own experience as a woman. "In so many of my favorite stories," says Noe, "these troubled men dream of finding a woman to save them. You read stories like that and you're troubled, and you start dreaming of the same thing. Then one day you wake up and say, 'Wait, I am the woman in those stories. But I'm troubled! So now who's going to save me?' I think that's where Boots begins."
Born of 12 months of sonic experimentation and obsessive tinkering, Boots was produced by bass player/keyboardist Todd Sickafoose. Real drummers and electronic drummers come out to play and find that they like each other. Old synths collide with acoustic guitars and violins. Loops sing, bells ring, and low sounds rumble from the sewer.
Catch Noe performing live with her trio, Todd Sickafoose on bass and keys, and Alan Lin on violin and electronics.
Music, lyrics, pictures, ranting and more at http://www.noevenable.com
"Noe Venable's shivering, gravelly soprano and ghostly melodies are like poems and exorcisms." -Portland Mercury
"Venable spins out her songs like a Pied Piper who's already taken the kids and has come back for more." -San Francisco Weekly
"She's sweet, sad, and slightly odd in refreshing, artful ways." -Santa Barbara Independent
"At best, a Venable performance - whimsical, funny, impulsive, rapturous - posits the idea of a darkly creative genius flailing away under the vaudevillian's tux and tails. Sneaking swigs from a flask of peppermint schnapps, she's delirious from the power of her warring impulses." -San Francisco Bay Guardian
"Listening to Noe Venable's music requires one to dip their conscience into the whirl, and a willingness to go where it may, willy, nilly, topsy, turvy, naked or clothed." -Radioactive Pickle (Portland OR)
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