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3rd Coast Music 7/2016 (copyright John Conquest)
JULIE CHRISTENSEN & STONE CUPID The Cardinal
(Stone Cupid ****)
As and when a definitive history of alt country gets written, the opening arguments will be over Who’s On First? One conventional wisdom gives that honor to Jason & The Scorchers (est 1981), another, for no good reason that I can see, to Uncle Tupelo (est 1987: disclaimer, I never did care much for Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt or Wilco). However, there seems little dispute that the first wave included The Long Ryders and The Divine Horsemen. One could try and fit X and Lone Justice into this scenario, but it takes a bit of doing. Founded in 1983 by punk rocker Chris Desjardins (he calls himself Chris D, but I have no patience with such affectations), The Divine Horsemen were pioneers, but the band ultimately served mainly as a launching pad for Desjardins’ then wife and co- vocalist, Julie Christensen.
The only album, as far as I know, that made it to the UK was the first, Time Stands Still (Enigma, 1984), which I remember liking a a good deal, however, I’ve been told that Desjardins was somewhat lacking in social skills (Christensen describes him as always having a metaphorical “hammer in his hand while I was Julie Creamcheese from Iowa”), thus had few supporters at Enigma or friends in the media, so the band soon moved to SST Records for whom they cut three albums and two EPs before breaking up in 1988 (as did Desjardins & Christensen). Desjardins’ relationship with SST was so toxic that, unlike many of the label’s acts, he was unable to recover the band’s masters, so there have been no reissues.
However, even before the band’s demise, I had become a Christensen devotee, thanks to her appearance on a compilation album, Don’t Shoot (Zippo [UK], 1986), singing a stone country cover of "Almost Persuaded," credit where credit’s due, deftly produced by Desjardins, with Greg Leisz on pedal steel. This one track did two things for me, it totally persuaded me that Julie Christensen was, or anyway could be, one of the all-time great country singers, the other was that, David Houston’s 1966 #1 hit notwithstanding, she irrevocably made "Almost Persuaded" a song that could only be convincingly sung by a woman. She also cut "Once More" with Brantley Kearns, but it wasn’t used, damn it. Though recorded before "A Town South Of Bakersfield" (Enigma, 1986), "Don’t Shoot" was released after it, so, while arguably the better album, it was regarded as a knockoff (except by some **** at "Time Out In London" who shall remain nameless).
Seems some other people noticed that Christensen can sing a bit. Desjardins, for one, signed her up after hearing her harmonize "Hello Walls" with Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs (“I think he took a shine to me right there”). After a couple of bands in her native Iowa, Christensen moved to Austin the late 70s and there fell in with jazz bassist Roscoe Beck of Passenger, who, three months after she left The Divine Horsemen, invited her to audition as a back-up singer for Leonard Cohen, with whom she toured for the next six years. Round the same time, she was signed to Polygram but a Todd Rungren produced album (“It was her ability to sing with conviction in a variety of approaches that made her extraordinary to me”) was shelved and Christensen dropped in an A&R reshuffle (how often have I heard this one?), of which she says, “I’ve done a lot of work on my resentments.” However, her voice could be heard singing backup vocals on albums by Exene Cervenka, John Doe, Robben Ford, Janiva Magness and many, many others.


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Stone Cupid Releases The Cardinal
Stone Cupid with Julie Christensen New Album The Cardinal -Released 2016
Singer-Songwriter Christensen co-fronted LA punk-roots pioneers Divine Horsemen, Sang with Leonard Cohen for Many Years
U.S and Internationally
Going For Adds
. Co-founded and co-fronted legendary LA punk-roots band Divine Horsemen.
. Sang and toured extensively with Leonard Cohen over a six-year period.
. Todd Rundgren produced her major label debut.
. New cut Saint on a Chain won a place alongside Patty Griffin, Robbie Fulks, and Mary Gauthier on significant new UK compilation Rough Guide to Americana
Julie Christensen, born and raised in Iowa, left school to tour with her first band, which played country rock, landing for a time in Austin, Texas before heading to LA in the early 80s for the pioneering punk-roots rock band Divine Horsemen. She shared concert bills and close friendships with some of the greats who still populate Americana/Roots Rock today, like Exene Cervenka and John Doe of X and Dave Alvin of the Blasters.
From there, the versatile singer-songwriter took yet another musical turn - this time into a musical partnership with Leonard Cohen. Julie sang with Cohen from 1988-1993, travelling around the globe, including The Vienna Opera House, stadiums in Madrid and Athens, major rock festivals, and a three-night stand at The Royal Albert Hall. When Hal Willner put together his now-legendary concert of Leonard Cohen songs, “Came So Far For Beauty,” he chose Julie as a lead and backing vocalist. where she sang alongside Nick Cave, Rufus and Martha Wainwright, Linda Thompson, and Antony Hegarty. At a 2006 show Julie and Lou Reed, duetted on Cohen's song "Joan of Arc". Footage from those tribute concerts would become part of the 2005 documentary film that helped relaunch Cohen's career: “Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man.” In January 2016 Alejandro Escovedo invited Julie to sing at his special Leonard Cohen Evening at Moody Theatre in Austin.
As a solo artist, Julie has recorded five albums, beginning with 1997's Love Is Driving. After her last, Weeds Like Us, was released in 2012 to critical acclaim, Julie put together a rocking new band Stone Cupid. The Cardinal is its powerful debut release.
"The Upshot: Erstwhile Divine Horse-woman and Leonard Cohen vocalist finally leads her own outfit, bringing songwriting excellence and a passionate voice." Blurt Magazine

"Her swagger is true to her rebellious punk-rock roots, and refined through working with the likes of Cohen, Iggy Pop, Public Image Limited..." Christensen has worn coats of many different colors, and this one's red.” No Depression



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No Depression January 2016
You may not have heard of Stone Cupid, but you certainly have heard its founder, Julie Christensen, whose sublime vocals graced many recordings and live dates with Leonard Cohen. She formed this band in Nashville to explore her rock side and wrote its songs solo or with some folks you might know -- Chuck Prophet, David Olney, Kevin Gordon, and Cohen himself. Her return should not come as a complete surprise, since she co-fronted the LA punk-roots band Divine Horsemen in the early 1980s. To quote Skip Anderson in his ND review last year, "Her swagger is true to her rebellious punk-rock roots, and refined through working with the likes of Cohen, Iggy Pop, Public Image Limited, and Todd Rundgren [who produced an unreleased solo album]." Christensen has worn coats of many different colors, and this one's red. The Cardinal took flight on January 22.--Amos Perrine http://nodepression.com/article/bakers-dozen-upcoming-roots-albums-seen-through-photographers-eye

Former Punk Rocker Sings a New Tune in Musical Hotbed East Nashville
NO DEPRESSION
BY SKIP ANDERSON
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015

Julie Christensen bowed deeply to the standing-room-only crowd at The Family Wash, a venerable East Nashville music venue, as her band, Stone Cupid, kicked into a full-bore jam. She blew a two-handed kiss to the audience, exited stage left, and watched from the audience as her bandmates closed out the show. She climbed back onstage for the encore—a powerful rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem.” It’s a song Christensen knows well. And she should—she sang on Cohen’s studio version and countless times in concert with him. Her stirring performance in the Family Wash hushed the room. It was the acclaimed vocalist’s final performance at the humble hangout.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in

All told, Christensen’s performance that night fell somewhere between rock, alt-country, and roots music. Musically, she is a far cry from where she first made her mark with her now-former husband as co-leaders of the influential Los Angeles punk band the Divine Horsemen. Between 1984 and 1987, the band produced three studio albums and two EPs. They played the West Coast circuit including Club Lingerie and the Music Machine, which was a popular venue that often featured heavy-hitters such as the Circle Jerks. The Divine Horsemen’s sound foreshadowed alt-country before there was such a genre as evidenced by the twangy, tremolo-ridden Telecaster in “Tears Fall Away” from their first album, Time Stands Still, on Enigma Records (1984). Chris sang low, while Christensen let fly powerful high harmonies throughout the band’s catalog. As their popularity grew, they headed east, playing the Eastern seaboard several times including D.C.’s famed 9:30 Club and the legendary CBGB in New York.

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New Release - Rough Guide to Americana (2nd Edition)
Link to whole story and Saint on a Chain Stream is here.
World Music Network is pleased to announce the release of The Rough Guide To Americana on 26 February 2016. The record is one of the most recent additions to our Rough Guide series and can be purchased as a one-off, or ordered as part of our subscription service.

The Rough Guide To Americana

This Rough Guide avoids digs down, presenting home-grown Americana that is happening right now. Award winning rock writer and musician Sylvie Simmons handpicked the tracks on this album to showcase the genre’s best twenty-first century takes on the themes of old country.

Listen to the album or order it here

Pain and trouble are rife in country music: you can barely sink a whiskey in Nashville without a side-order of melancholy and fries. Delivering a healthy dose, Giant Sand opens the album with anguished track ‘Man On A String’. Closing the album with dark desperation, Mary Gauthier too intones her sadness on ‘Oh Soul’.

Religion also makes regular cameo appearances in Americana and the Lord’s watchful eye pops up in more than a few of tracks here. Chuck Prophet’s ‘I felt like Jesus’ is a sour-tasting love-song with one spurred boot in country, the other firmly planted in goodtime rock and roll. Spiritual paean ‘Saint On A Chain’ comes from legend Julie Christensen and her new outfit Stone Cupid. Christensen has authored five albums and sung with the glitterati of American music, from Leonard Cohen to Lou Reed. Far from the saccharine carols of yore, on Malcolm Holcombe’s tack ‘Words of December’, his heroine ‘prayed on her knees and cried in the bedroom’. American giant Patty Griffin’s laidback feel and striking high voice contemplates God as ‘… a wild old dog, someone left out on the highway’.

Artists on this compilation: Giant Sand, Patty Griffin, Noah Gundersen, Robert Earl Keen, Sean Taylor, Robbie Fulks, James McMurtry, Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Chuck Prophet, Reed Foehl, Stone Cupid with Julie Christensen, Jim White, Malcolm Holcombe, and Mary Gauthier.



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Review of The Cardinal from BLURT online
The Upshot: Erstwhile Divine Horse-woman and Leonard Cohen vocalist finally leads her own outfit, bringing songwriting excellence and a passionate voice.

BY MICHAEL TOLAND 2/2/16

Julie Christensen has a hell of a resumé, from bouncing around the Austin music scene in the early ‘80s to joining then-paramour Chris D. in the wooly and wonderful Divine Horsemen to a quarter of a century singing for Leonard Cohen. It’s taken decades, but now she’s finally leading her own band: Stone Cupid. Joined by guitarists Sergio Webb (David Olney) and Chris Tench, drummer Steve Latanation and bassist Bones Hillman (formerly of Midnight Oil), Christensen makes essentially styleless rock, guitar-oriented and loud but rarely raucous.

Craft dominates, with all arrangements circling the song – not unexpected, given her many years with Cohen. Which isn’t to say that Christensen doesn’t cut loose when she feels necessary – her quavering wail sometimes injects a bit more passion than is really necessary. But she generally keeps herself in check, serving the songs – mostly original, and it’s a testament to her writing that she’s on par with tunes by Kevin Gordon and Chuck Prophet – with aplomb, whether she’s singing ballads (“Broken as I Am,” “No Mercy”), rockers (“Shed My Skin,” “Gasoline”) or epics (“Live and Not Die Trying,” “Saint on a Chain”). Solid and soulful.

DOWNLOAD: “Shed My Skin,” “Live and Not Die Trying,” “Broken as I Am”
http://blurtonline.com/review/stone-cupid-julie-christensen-cardinal/