Syd Straw is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw (The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game

The Pajama Game is a musical based on the novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell. It features a score by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross. The story deals with labor troubles in a pajama factory, where worker demands for a seven-and-a-half cents raise are going unheeded...

), she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar

Pat Benatar is an American singer and four-time Grammy winner. She had considerable commercial success particularly in the United States...

, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joined the Golden Palominos (also including Michael Stipe

Michael Stipe

John Michael Stipe is an American singer and lyricist. He was the lead vocalist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.Stipe is noted and occasionally parodied for the "mumbling" style of his early career as well as his social and political activism. He was in charge of R.E.M.'s visual image; often...

, Matthew Sweet

Matthew Sweet

Sidney Matthew Sweet is an American alternative rock/power pop musician. He was part of the burgeoning Athens, Georgia music scene in the early and mid-1980s before gaining commercial success during the early 1990s...

, and Anton Fier

Anton Fier

Anton Fier, , is an American drummer, composer and bandleader. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio.Fier was an early member of The Lounge Lizards and The Feelies. He was in The Lodge , worked with Pere Ubu, was briefly in the Voidoids and founded The Golden Palominos...

). She released her first album, Surprise, in 1989; it featured contributions by Stipe, Fier, Richard Thompson, Jody Harris

Jody Harris

Jody Harris is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter and composer who was born in Kansas and became a central figure in the seminal No Wave scene in New York City in the 1970s.-Career history:...

, Peter Blegvad

Peter Blegvad

Peter Blegvad is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and cartoonist. He was a founding member of the avant-pop band Slapp Happy, which later merged briefly with Henry Cow, and has released many solo and collaborative albums...

, and a number of other well-known musicians. A second album, War and Peace, appeared in 1996. Recorded with a relatively obscure Midwest rock group called the Skeletons, it chronicled a brief and unhappy romance. In 2008, she released a new album, entitled Pink Velour, on her own label, Earnester Records. According to an earlier interview, the title track “is about my family moving back and forth between the east and the west, and my being kidnapped by my mother on Valentine's Day in 1969, and about not seeing my dad for almost seven years.”

A frequent backup singer and contributor to duets

Duet (music)

A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...

 with other musicians, Straw has also maintained an intermittent acting career, appearing on the television shows The Adventures of Pete & Pete

The Adventures of Pete & Pete

The Adventures of Pete & Pete is an American children's television series produced by Wellsville Pictures and broadcast by Nickelodeon. The show featured humorous and surreal elements in its narrative, and many recurring themes centered on two brothers both named Pete Wrigley, and their various...

and Tales of the City

Tales of the City

Tales of the City refers to a series of eight novels written by American author Armistead Maupin. The stories from Tales were originally serialized prior to their novelization, with the first four titles appearing as regular installments in the San Francisco Chronicle, while the fifth appeared in...

.
Syd Straw can be heard singing harmony and backing vocals on the Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones

Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...

 albums Traffic From Paradise

Traffic from Paradise

Traffic From Paradise is the seventh album by musician Rickie Lee Jones, released in September 1993.-Track listing:Songs written by Rickie Lee Jones, except where noted.# "Pink Flamingos" – 6:31# "Altar Boy" – 2:27# "Stewart's Coat" – 4:31...

and The Evening of My Best Day

The Evening of My Best Day

The Evening of My Best Day is an album by American singer/songwriter Rickie Lee Jones, released in 2003.-Track listing:All tracks composed and arranged by Rickie Lee Jones; except where indicated# "Ugly Man" – 4:20# "Second Chance" – 4:53...

. She is also featured on Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke

Leo Kottke is an acoustic guitarist. He is widely known for his innovative fingerpicking style, which draws on influences from blues, jazz, and folk music, and his syncopated, polyphonic melodies...

's Peculiaroso

Peculiaroso

Peculiaroso is an album by American guitarist Leo Kottke, released in 1994.-History:Coming more than two years after the Great Big Boy album, where all tracks included vocal parts, Peculiaroso returned to Kottke's usual mix of vocal and instrumental selections...

, which Jones produced. For a number of years she has given an annual "Heartwreck" live performance on Valentine's Day.

In 1994, Straw teamed up with Wilco

Wilco

Wilco is an American alternative rock band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was formed in 1994 by the remaining members of alternative country group Uncle Tupelo following singer Jay Farrar's departure. Wilco's lineup has changed frequently, with only singer Jeff Tweedy and bassist John...

 to contribute the song "The T.B. Is Whipping Me" to the AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

 benefit album Red Hot + Country

Red Hot + Country

Red Hot + Country was the follow-up to No Alternative in the Red Hot Series of compilation albums, a series produced to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues...

 produced by the Red Hot Organization

Red Hot Organization

Red Hot Organization is a not-for-profit, 501 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture.Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilation albums, related television programs and media events to raise...

.

Discography

• Surprise (1989)
• War and Peace (1996)
• Live at the Triple Crown (2001) (with The Adventures Of...)
• Whole Wide World (2005)
• Pink Velour (2008)

Compilation Albums

• "Blue Shadows On The Trail" on Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films
  Stay Awake (album)
  Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films is a 1988 tribute album recorded by various artists performing songs from Disney films...
  
  , 1988 (one of Various Artists)
• "Meeting Across The River" on The Songs of Bruce Springsteen, 2000

External links

• Discography: Syd Straw
• Syd Straw Group Fan mailing list
• LAist Interview
• PUNKCAST#397 Video from St Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn - Feb 14 2004
• PUNKCAST#670 Video from Tonic, NYC - Feb 14 2005