Julie Christensen and Stone Cupid

Julie Christensen has honed her chameleon craft. She has often sung Joan of Arc to Leonard Cohen's flame. On three tours of duty, Julie was a proud part of sharing Leonard's music with the world. She's also sung with Steve Wynn, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Lou Reed, and Van Dyke Parks. With Chris D., she headed up the post-punk Divine Horsemen on SST. Others utilizing Julie's kaleidoscope talents are Iggy Pop, PiL, Robben Ford, and k.d. lang. Her two acclaimed independent Stone Cupid albums are a soulful hybrid of jazz and folk. Two new ones have just come out on Household Ink in the last year. One is "Where the Fireworks Are"-- the poetry of emotion and politics stirred up together. The other is "Something Familiar", a collection of standards, ballads, and blues. Contributors include Santa Barbara's Headless Household, noted drummers Kenny Wollesen and Jeff Ballard, Greg Leisz, Dave Palmer, and Karen Hammack, a mainstay of the Stone Cupid musical collective. Along with friend and fellow Cohen backup singer Perla Batalla, Christensen has been a featured member of the Leonard Cohen song projects produced by Hal Willner. "Came So Far for Beauty" (on which the documentary film "I'm Your Man" was partly based) in fact held another two performances in Dublin in October 2006. Julie again participated, performing a fiery Joan of Arc with Lou Reed, which was reprised at his show in Santa Barbara in November. "Julie Christensen is one of the truer singers you’ll ever hear — straight up, no mannerisms, perfect taste...She's got an engraver's way of etching/buffing a lyric. Listen to her takes on “But Beautiful,” “Stolen Moments” and “Blame It on My Youth,” from her piercing new Something Familiar, and recognize how she could sing with both Leonard Cohen and Chris D."

(Greg Burk) L.A. WEEKLY

"From the heart-wrenching title track, which serves up an aching does of harsh reality, to the cascading piano that drives the plaintive “Something Pretty,” Where the Fireworks Are is a collection of songs spanning the emotional spectrum. It provides an evocative musical chariot for Christensen to weave her vocal magic." (Brett Leigh-Dicks) VC REPORTER