BIO
Lou Bradley’s vitality and distinctiveness blow you away. From her roots in Sydney’s northern beaches to her idyllic life today in the hills behind Mullumbimby on the NSW far north coast, Lou’s experiences have an authenticity that’s reflected in memorable songs sweeping across a vast terrain of life, love and friendship.
In an often derivative music industry, where every new artist is instantly “the new someone else”, Lou Bradley defies comparisons. Her originality is already the talk of the Australian country music scene, but her style is beyond genre categorization. She’s folk, she’s alternative country, she’s pop — she’s a genuine storyteller and the brightest new Australian singer-songwriter to emerge in years. As she sings in “Too Far Gone”, the arresting opening track on her album:
Lou grew up in Avalon Beach, singing in her first band at the age of 12. Playing music professionally from the age of 15, she left home in a leap of teenage rebellious faith, living with her band mates, moving their home around from Dee Why to Redfern, wherever the gigs were. At 16 she found her life partner and three children soon came along. Her own music took a back seat while she raised kids and tried her hand at band management.
Then at age 25 Lou’s songwriting muse took hold. A fan and student of the work of Lennon & McCartney, Jagger & Richards, Buddy Holly, Burt Bacharach, Carole King and Joni Mitchell, Lou’s efforts were unforced as song crafting came naturally to her. With a full life already lived, the songs began to flow.
“At a time when good songs and songwriters are hard to find, Lou Bradley has burst onto the music scene like a breath of fresh air with her heartfelt good honest music,” says Rod McCormack, producer of Lou’s debut album Love Someone. A prolific producer and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist, Rod was Lou’s first choice to work with, chiefly for his production work on Paul Kelly and the Stormwater Boys’ 2005 album Foggy Highway.
For Lou, Love Someone is the result of a long period of exploring the ups and downs of her life in sanguine and poignant musical tones. Many of the album’s thirteen tracks were written in the past year, since her career took a decidedly upward turn — winning an inaugural John Butler JB Seed grant, touring through the Northern Territory, and then attending the 2006 Australian Country Music College in Tamworth. But the most intensely personal and moving song on the album, “One Shoe”, has its roots in the untimely passing of her eldest sister in August 2000.
“One Shoe” is destined to become Lou’s signature song, an instant classic that triggers an immediate response in all who hear it. Tears, goose bumps, chills up the spine. It’s an outpouring of love that took years to reveal itself, a one-off so bound up in a history of tangled family emotions and lost opportunities, Lou did not even consider including it on her album for fear of seeming mawkish. But to producer McCormack it was a no-brainer, the standout among a swag of exceptionally compelling songs.
“Small Town Blues” is another haunting track lyrically and melodically, drawn from years lived in intimate communities. As peaceful and energising as Avalon Beach or Mullumbimby are, as warm and supportive as village life can be, the downside of living routinely among familiar faces is rendered affectingly. Honest to a fault, Lou admits that the song is also about more than geography. “You can blame it on the town but really it’s something within yourself that you can’t escape,” she says.
While “Too Far Gone” is Lou’s uncompromising claim for individuality and “Old Fashioned Girl” her statement on maintaining integrity in a complicated world filled with too much choice, “Love Someone” — Lou’s first buoyant single — is an honest account of unresolved feelings for a childhood sweetheart and the internal tussle involved in turning romantic love into platonic friendship.
Each song on the Love Someone album is a personal journey for Lou, and a universal truth that speaks to all. Add to the mix one engaging melody after the next and a stellar lineup of musicians including Rod McCormack, Jeff McCormack, Mick Albeck, James Gillard and Bill Chambers, and you have a release sure to be on repeat play in CD players around Australia.
Rod McCormack was introduced to Lou by renowned recording engineer Ted Howard, who met her at the College of Country Music. Ted remembers his first impressions of Lou very clearly. “She was a bit of a standout. She’s got those bright eyes; she’s taking everything in. She’s funny and she’s quirky. She cracked me up.”
Even so, when the recorded songs came to Ted for mixing, he was amazed by what he heard. “Lou’s got such a strong character. The record has real personality. When I was mixing ‘One Shoe’ I had tears in my eyes. That never happens.”
Gina Jeffreys, working on her own new album at the time her husband Rod McCormack was producing Lou, was immediately struck by this new talent.
“I just love her real way of portraying a story through song,” says Gina. “You have no doubt in your mind that every Lou Bradley song is a chapter straight out of her heart. ‘One Shoe’ was the first song Rod played to me in demo form, and I remember welling up with emotion as Lou held out the raw feelings of her heart almost like an open wound. Nothing pretentious or painstakingly crafted like a Nashville tune, but real, open and honest words with a sweet lulling melody.
“There is no denying Lou is the real deal. A beautiful singer with amazing stories to tell, with a unique sound like you have never heard before.”
Gina’s forthcoming album Walks of Life contains a song that Lou, Gina and Rod co-wrote, “You Make My Heart Sing”, and Lou is now being approached to contribute songs for other artists, such is her reputation already growing as an insightful and innovative tunesmith.
Lou Bradley’s Love Someone will be launched at the 2007 Tamworth Country Music Festival. The title track is her first single and is out now.