CYNDI HARVELL WEBSITE

 

BIO:

 Here's my story. I'm sticking to it. So listen up.

I grew up in the deep, deep south where we eat fried catfish and grits and drink sweet tea -- not iced tea, sweetened -- but sweet tea. It is basically one word, split into two for you non-southerners.

My barbie dolls sang musicals, and I sang along with the various pop princesses of the time -- Tiffany, Paula, Janet, Madonna -- dancing around the living room with my friends. I also liked to climb trees, create secret clubs with the neighborhood kids, and sell seashells from the driveway.

Fast forward to 1999: I took my little Yamaha off to college, to the mini-music-mecca of Athens, GA, where I met a friend who helped me form my first band. Terrified and shy and lacking confidence, I played some open mics and my very first full-band shows to responsive crowds. For the very first time in my life, I felt like I knew where my place was in the world. After a couple years, I made my first album and built up a little following.

In the fall of 2004, I sold my stuff at a flea market and headed west. It was the best decision of my life. I started up my own band again - lucking out by finding Mike Stevens and John Howland. It was like reuniting with old friends. We meshed together like peanut butter and jelly and wonderbread. We played around the bay area, as an acoustic trio, eventually landing at Ex'pressions College for Digital Arts to record a demo we could sell at our shows. Here we met Jack Douglas (a producer with an impressive resume, including Aerosmith, John Lennon, Patti Smith, the Who). Seriously. He's even on wikipedia. Jack took an immediate liking to us, and sent us on to local producer Jim Greer, who adopted us like stray kittens. Hungry stray kittens.

After mixing our Expressions demo and getting to know us a bit, Jim decided to sign us to his local label, Fortune Records, and record a real full-length album. He helped transform our little baby songs into grown up songs, and in March of 2008, we had the experience of a lifetime, recording our album "The Night Turned to Song" in Caspar, California - in a studio by the sea. That album led us to be included on the bay area KFOG's Local Scene 5 CD and featured on their morning show, in addition to being played on Americana radio across the U.S. and Europe. We played San Fran's HUGE Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in October '08 and the Gilroy Garlic Festival in '09 (over 100,000 attendees!).

2010 began with the recording of our 2nd album together "From the Echo," back again at Old School Studios in Caspar. It's an album about freedom and release and moving away from the things that hold us back toward the things that give us hope. Real life stuff, folks.

It's coming out Fall 2010, and I can't WAIT for you to hear it. =)