Tanya Donelly
Encyclopedia
Tanya Donelly is an American Grammy-nominated singer songwriter and guitarist
based in New England
who co-founded Throwing Muses
with her stepsister Kristin Hersh
. She then went on to work in The Breeders
and Belly
in the 1990s. In the late 1990s, she settled into a solo recording career, working largely with musicians connected to the Boston
music scene.
Donelly is best known for her Grammy nominated work in the mid-1990s as lead vocalist and songwriter for Belly, when she scored a national radio
and music television
hit with her composition "Feed the Tree
". Belly recorded on Sire
/Reprise Records
and 4AD Records; Donelly's solo works have been released on Warner Bros. Records
and 4AD
.
Over the years she has listed several musical influences. In one interview she named her guitar playing influences as Marc Ribot
, The Beatles
, and former band mate Hersh. More recently she mentioned Leonard Cohen
as a songwriting hero, citing her then current listening favorites as Lucinda Williams
and Joan Wasser
, and listing Boston-based groups like the Dambuilders
, Pixies, and Count Zero as past favorites. Although Donelly mainly performs her own original songs, she has in recent years added covers
of songs by Robyn Hitchcock
, Nina Simone
, and The Beatles
to her repertoire.
" for the first four years of her life. Donelly has described her early school experience as including bouts of nervous shyness from fear that what she has called her family's "hippie
" background was different from that of her classmates.
Donelly has said that she met Kristin Hersh
in school around age eight, quickly becoming close friends. Donelly's father later married Hersh's mother after both divorced in the Eighties. When she was 12 years old, Donelly and her mother were injured in a traumatic car accident that led her to carefully weigh for the first time her spiritual values and her concept of what "God
" was. Previously her upbringing had been an atheist one, but after the car accident a family friend introduced Donelly to the Hindu
traditions of Krishna
, in which she immersed herself for a brief period.
Throughout the 1980s, Donelly worked as lead guitarist and secondary vocalist/songwriter, complementing the work of Throwing Muses
leader Hersh. The group moved from Rhode Island to Boston around 1986, recording albums for the British 4AD label. Although the band's work generally employed complex rhythms and offbeat chord structures, Donelly has said she eventually accepted that her compositions were simpler and had "more traditional songwriting sensibilities" than Hersh's, by the last two years she worked in the band. Some of her tunes from this period include "Green", "Reel," "Pools in Eyes", "The River", "Giant", "Dragonhead", "Honeychain", "Not Too Soon" and "Angel". Kristin's most popular Muse's songs like "Fish", "Dizzy", "Counting Backwards" and most of "The Real Ramona" LP almost always featured Tanya's distinct lead guitar playing, heavy background vocals, inner vocal workings with different lyrics and pop vocal harmonies and melodic hooks.
of Pixies, a Boston-based group who had opened shows for Throwing Muses in the 1980s. The first album's vocals and songwriting responsibilities were centered on Deal. The group released Pod with Donelly in 1990.
The Real Ramona, Throwing Muses' last album with Donelly, which included her "Not Too Soon" and "Honeychain" originals, was released in 1991. In May 1991, Deal and Donelly were asked to contribute vocals to This Mortal Coil
's Blood album on 4AD, with a cover of Chris Bell
's "You and Your Sister," a month before Donelly officially left Throwing Muses.
In December 1991, Tanya Donelly formed Belly
as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, with Thomas Gorman on lead guitar, Chris Gorman on drums, and Fred Abong (previously with Throwing Muses) on bass guitar. This group would become her primary creative focus for the next few years, as Donelly's participation in The Breeders faded after the 1992 release of the Safari EP.
In 1993 Belly released the Star LP, with Gail Greenwood
soon replacing Fred Abong on bass after the release for touring. The album soon peaked at number two on the United Kingdom music charts and featured a single and music video, "Feed the Tree", that quickly was rated number one on the Modern Rock Tracks Survey. The album scored commercial chart successes and was certified as a gold record in 1994 by the RIAA. The band was also nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Performance) and won two Boston Music Awards the same year.
In 1995, Belly released a second album, King
, which progressed the avant folk-rock influences, power-pop
jangle guitar sounds, and vocal harmonies of the first album into a direction driven more by vocals and driving rhythms, varying the pace within the songs to create tension. Flangers and chorus effects were evident in the guitar sounds. Though critically well-received, this album, produced by Glyn Johns
, did not match the commercial success of Star. The band broke up in 1996, with Greenwood soon joining L7
and Donelly marrying former Juliana Hatfield
bassist Dean Fisher in September.
entitled "Judy Staring at the Sun," which appeared on Catherine Wheel's 1995 album Happy Days. The single version featured Donelly and Catherine Wheel's lead singer Rob Dickinson
singing in trade-off vocals, but after the final Belly album, Catherine Wheel's record label insisted that the song be re-recorded to remove most of Donelly's vocals, replacing them with Dickinson's, although Donelly's voice can still be heard during the chorus of the reworked version.
The 1995 tribute album
Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall
for MCA Records
, included the cover of "Josie and the Pussycats" performed by Tanya Donelly and Juliana Hatfield
.
In November 1996, Donelly put together a group of musicians to tour internationally with, just prior to her first solo release, the Sliding & Diving EP on 4AD. Included on the tour were husband Fisher on bass, keyboardist Lisa Mednick (formerly of Juliana Hatfield
's group), drummer Stacy Jones (formerly of Letters to Cleo
and Veruca Salt
), and Madder Rose guitarists Mary Lorson
and Billy Coté. The album release featured Donelly on vocals, guitars and keyboards, Rich Gilbert (of Human Sexual Response, Goober & the Peas, Blackstone Valley Sinners) on pedal steel, Fisher on bass, and drummers David Lovering (formerly of the Pixies) and Jones.
After the 1997 dual solo release of Pretty Deep with two different B-sides, she toured North America with Fisher, Throwing Muses' drummer Dave Narcizo
, Gilbert, and keyboardist Elizabeth Steen. She soon released her solo debut LP Lovesongs for Underdogs
, recorded with Gilbert, Fisher, Jones, Narcizo, and engineer Wally Gagel on assorted instruments. In April 1999, Donelly and her husband welcomed a daughter, Grace Bee Fisher.
, and at a Rhode Island festival.
She continued to record and release symbol-laden, alternative folk-pop solo EPs and full-length LPs on 4AD in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Belly's Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly retrospective was also released in 2002.
As Donelly's writing continued to mature into a softer rhythmic vein than with the Belly material, allusions to motherhood were heard in songs like "Life is But a Dream" and "The Night You Saved My Life" on her 2002 Beautysleep
release. Mark Sandman
, of Boston's Morphine
indie-rock group, sang on "Moonbeam Monkey." Donelly's background vocals are heard on several tracks of the 2003 self-titled Throwing Muses reunion album, which she helped promote with public performances as backing vocalist and guitarist for a few concerts in 2003. Boston post-punk
band Mission of Burma
included Donelly's backing vocals on their reunion album, Onoffon in 2004.
The same year, she released Whiskey Tango Ghosts
, a sparely arranged, acoustic album laced with Gilbert's pedal steel guitar touches. The album's personnel included Steen on piano, Narcizo on drums, and Fisher on guitar, bass, and drums. The album's lyrics explored, in part, marital relationships and family life. Donelly has said the album's minor-key tone was influenced by "a horrible war, a horrible administration, a bleak, mean winter."
She then followed that acoustic album release with three weekend shows of old and new songs performed in 2004 before audiences at The Windham, an old hotel in Bellows Falls, Vermont
. Backing Donelly in concert were Fisher on guitar, Gilbert on pedal steel and acoustic guitar, Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders, Joan as Policewoman, Lou Reed, Antony and the Johnsons) on violin and backing vocals, Joe McMahon (of Señor Happy and Will Dailey) on upright bass, Bill Janovitz (lead singer of Buffalo Tom) contributing vocals, and Arthur Johnson (of Come
) on drums. The performances were recorded by Donelly's manager, veteran producer Gary Smith
of Fort Apache Studios
, which helps operate the small concert space and recording room in The Windham's lobby. While Donelly included some of her longtime lyrical allusions to nature imagery, such as bees and honey, in the songs recorded at the Vermont concerts, she said that some of her new material reflected a more direct approach, relying less on symbolic analogy. The topics of religion and spiritual hypocrisy, which first began to interest her after her childhood automobile accident, were reflected in the lyrics to "Kundalini Slide," performed at these concerts. The album of the Vermont performances is titled This Hungry Life
and was released by Eleven Thirty Records on October 17, 2006, in the US and October 24, 2006, in Canada.
In June 2005, Donelly mentioned on her official "Slumberland" message board that her future plans included working on a children's compilation album with Boston musicians such as Chris Toppin, writing a book, working with Mark Eitzel
and Greek songwriter Manolis Famellos, and occasionally performing live. She planned to focus future performance plans on a few cities like Boston, New York, and London, playing live when time permitted as she raised her daughter. In March 2006, she gave birth to another daughter, Harriet Pearl Fisher.
In early 2006, Donelly sang on two songs on the debut EP from the Boston-based band Dylan In The Movies. In October 2006 she recorded a cover of Neil Young
's "Heart of Gold" with producer Paul Kolderie for the American Laundromat Records
benefit CD titled Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity.
She wrote four songs for the pop girl group Girl Authority
for their second debut Road Trip
, one of which is titled "This Is My Day". Her daughter, Gracie, is a fan of the group, according to an article in The Phoenix
.
Two shows at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 6, 2007, were a musical reunion of sorts, as Donelly co-headlined with Hersh.
In 2008, Donelly teamed up with Dylan in the Movies to cover The Cure's "Lovecats" for American Laundromat Records
tribute compilation "Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure".
A 2010 feature in Spin Magazine profiles Donelly's new career as a postpartum doula
.
In December 2010, Donelly teamed up once again with singer and songwriter Brian Sullivan's band, Dylan In The Movies, to release the single "Girl With the Black Tights" on American Laundromat Records. Donelly shares a co-write credit and sings on the track.
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
based in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
who co-founded Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses is an alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island, that toured and recorded extensively until 1997, when its members began concentrating more on other projects. The group was originally fronted by two lead singers, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, who both wrote the...
with her stepsister Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she also continues to perform as lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock group Throwing Muses and the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave...
. She then went on to work in The Breeders
The Breeders
The Breeders are an American alternative rock band formed in 1988 by Kim Deal of the Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. The band has experienced a number of line-up changes; the current line-up consists of Kim Deal , her twin sister Kelley Deal , Jose Medeles , Mando Lopez Todd the Fox...
and Belly
Belly (band)
Belly was an alternative rock band formed in 1991 by former Throwing Muses members Tanya Donelly and Fred Abong. The band was based in Boston, Massachusetts, though all of the original members grew up in Newport, Rhode Island. The band consisted of Donelly on lead vocals and guitar, Abong on bass,...
in the 1990s. In the late 1990s, she settled into a solo recording career, working largely with musicians connected to the Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
music scene.
Donelly is best known for her Grammy nominated work in the mid-1990s as lead vocalist and songwriter for Belly, when she scored a national radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and music television
Music television
Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from bands, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite or cable. Music TVs may host their own shows charts, award prizes. Examples are VIVA, Scuzz, MTV, JBTV, MuchMusic,...
hit with her composition "Feed the Tree
Feed the Tree
"Feed the Tree" is a song by Belly, released as the band's first single from their debut album, Star, in 1993. It is also the band's biggest hit, reaching number one on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States...
". Belly recorded on Sire
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
/Reprise Records
Reprise Records
Reprise Records is an American record label, founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operated through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:...
and 4AD Records; Donelly's solo works have been released on Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
and 4AD
4AD
4AD is a British independent record label that was started in 1979 by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent, funded by Beggars Banquet Records, and is still active today...
.
Over the years she has listed several musical influences. In one interview she named her guitar playing influences as Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot
Marc Ribot born May 21, 1954) is an American guitarist and composer.His own work has touched on many styles, including no wave, free jazz, and Cuban music. Ribot is also known for collaborating with other musicians, most notably Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and composer John Zorn.-Biography:Ribot was...
, The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, and former band mate Hersh. More recently she mentioned Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
as a songwriting hero, citing her then current listening favorites as Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams
Lucinda Williams is an American rock, folk, blues and country music singer and songwriter. She recorded her first albums in 1978 and 1980 in a traditional country and blues style and received very little attention from radio, the media, or the public. In 1988, she released her self-titled album,...
and Joan Wasser
Joan Wasser
Joan Wasser is a violinist and singer/songwriter in the indie rock world. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders. She has released three albums as a singer songwriter, the 2006 Real Life the 2008 To Survive and the 2011 The Deep Field...
, and listing Boston-based groups like the Dambuilders
Dambuilders
-History:The Dambuilders was a band in the early 1990s Boston rock scene. The founding members - Dave Derby, Tryan George and Eric Masunaga - hail from Hawaii and had played in a number of bands before moving to Boston in 1990. The band began as the Dambuilders in Hawaii in a three-piece and...
, Pixies, and Count Zero as past favorites. Although Donelly mainly performs her own original songs, she has in recent years added covers
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of songs by Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Hitchcock
Robyn Rowan Hitchcock is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. While primarily a vocalist and guitarist, he also plays harmonica, piano and bass guitar....
, Nina Simone
Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...
, and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
to her repertoire.
Childhood
In a 1994 book by writer Liz Evans, Donelly said that her parents, Richard and Kristin Donelly, shuttled the family "between Rhode Island and CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
" for the first four years of her life. Donelly has described her early school experience as including bouts of nervous shyness from fear that what she has called her family's "hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
" background was different from that of her classmates.
Donelly has said that she met Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh
Kristin Hersh is an American singer/songwriter who performs solo acoustic concerts; she also continues to perform as lead singer and guitarist for alternative rock group Throwing Muses and the hardcore punk-influenced power trio 50 Foot Wave...
in school around age eight, quickly becoming close friends. Donelly's father later married Hersh's mother after both divorced in the Eighties. When she was 12 years old, Donelly and her mother were injured in a traumatic car accident that led her to carefully weigh for the first time her spiritual values and her concept of what "God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
" was. Previously her upbringing had been an atheist one, but after the car accident a family friend introduced Donelly to the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
traditions of Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
, in which she immersed herself for a brief period.
Throwing Muses band beginnings
Around age 14, Hersh's and Donelly's fathers both gave them their own guitars and they initially started playing along with Beatles songs. Soon after, the two started to play along with songs written by Hersh's musical father and then began to write original songs of their own. Donelly co-founded Throwing Muses with Hersh and other members like Elaine Adamedes at around age 15.Throughout the 1980s, Donelly worked as lead guitarist and secondary vocalist/songwriter, complementing the work of Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses
Throwing Muses is an alternative rock band formed in 1981 in Newport, Rhode Island, that toured and recorded extensively until 1997, when its members began concentrating more on other projects. The group was originally fronted by two lead singers, Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly, who both wrote the...
leader Hersh. The group moved from Rhode Island to Boston around 1986, recording albums for the British 4AD label. Although the band's work generally employed complex rhythms and offbeat chord structures, Donelly has said she eventually accepted that her compositions were simpler and had "more traditional songwriting sensibilities" than Hersh's, by the last two years she worked in the band. Some of her tunes from this period include "Green", "Reel," "Pools in Eyes", "The River", "Giant", "Dragonhead", "Honeychain", "Not Too Soon" and "Angel". Kristin's most popular Muse's songs like "Fish", "Dizzy", "Counting Backwards" and most of "The Real Ramona" LP almost always featured Tanya's distinct lead guitar playing, heavy background vocals, inner vocal workings with different lyrics and pop vocal harmonies and melodic hooks.
1990s: Breeders and Belly
By 1990, Donelly had additionally begun working in a side project called The Breeders with Kim DealKim Deal
Kimberley Ann Deal is an American singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the bassist of the alternative rock band the Pixies and the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for The Breeders. Deal first joined the Pixies in January 1986 as the band's bassist, adopting the stage name Mrs...
of Pixies, a Boston-based group who had opened shows for Throwing Muses in the 1980s. The first album's vocals and songwriting responsibilities were centered on Deal. The group released Pod with Donelly in 1990.
The Real Ramona, Throwing Muses' last album with Donelly, which included her "Not Too Soon" and "Honeychain" originals, was released in 1991. In May 1991, Deal and Donelly were asked to contribute vocals to This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil was a gothic dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many of whom...
's Blood album on 4AD, with a cover of Chris Bell
Chris Bell (musician)
Christopher Branford "Chris" Bell was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist born in Memphis, Tennessee. Along with Alex Chilton, he led the power pop band Big Star, which recorded albums during the early 1970s...
's "You and Your Sister," a month before Donelly officially left Throwing Muses.
In December 1991, Tanya Donelly formed Belly
Belly (band)
Belly was an alternative rock band formed in 1991 by former Throwing Muses members Tanya Donelly and Fred Abong. The band was based in Boston, Massachusetts, though all of the original members grew up in Newport, Rhode Island. The band consisted of Donelly on lead vocals and guitar, Abong on bass,...
as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, with Thomas Gorman on lead guitar, Chris Gorman on drums, and Fred Abong (previously with Throwing Muses) on bass guitar. This group would become her primary creative focus for the next few years, as Donelly's participation in The Breeders faded after the 1992 release of the Safari EP.
In 1993 Belly released the Star LP, with Gail Greenwood
Gail Greenwood
Gail Greenwood is an American musician notable for performing with the bands Belly and L7. Having originally learned to play the baritone horn, she switched to guitar after high school. Her first band, the Dames, won the WBRU Rock Hunt in 1986...
soon replacing Fred Abong on bass after the release for touring. The album soon peaked at number two on the United Kingdom music charts and featured a single and music video, "Feed the Tree", that quickly was rated number one on the Modern Rock Tracks Survey. The album scored commercial chart successes and was certified as a gold record in 1994 by the RIAA. The band was also nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Performance) and won two Boston Music Awards the same year.
In 1995, Belly released a second album, King
King (Belly album)
King is an album released by Belly in 1995, two years after their previous album, Star. Although the members had tightened their focus and polished their hook-laden songs, the album and its singles were commercial failures in the grunge-friendly atmosphere of 1995, and the band broke up shortly...
, which progressed the avant folk-rock influences, power-pop
Power pop
Power pop is a popular musical genre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American pop and rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of musical devices such as strong melodies, crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements, and prominent guitar riffs. Instrumental solos are...
jangle guitar sounds, and vocal harmonies of the first album into a direction driven more by vocals and driving rhythms, varying the pace within the songs to create tension. Flangers and chorus effects were evident in the guitar sounds. Though critically well-received, this album, produced by Glyn Johns
Glyn Johns
Glyn Johns is a musician, recording engineer and record producer.-Career:He has worked with such artists as Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Easybeats, The Band, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Eric Clapton, The Clash, The Steve Miller Band, Small Faces, Spooky Tooth, The Ozark...
, did not match the commercial success of Star. The band broke up in 1996, with Greenwood soon joining L7
L7 (band)
L7 was an American rock band from Los Angeles, that was active from 1985 to 2000. Due to their sound and image, they are often associated with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.-History:...
and Donelly marrying former Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield , is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter and author from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
bassist Dean Fisher in September.
1990s solo career begins
In 1995, during her post-Belly/pre-solo career, she recorded a track with Catherine WheelCatherine Wheel
Catherine Wheel were a four-piece alternative rock band from Great Yarmouth, England. The band was active from 1990 to 2000, experiencing fluctuating levels of commercial success, and embarking on many lengthy tours.-Biography:...
entitled "Judy Staring at the Sun," which appeared on Catherine Wheel's 1995 album Happy Days. The single version featured Donelly and Catherine Wheel's lead singer Rob Dickinson
Rob Dickinson
Rob Dickinson is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter previously of the band Catherine Wheel. He is now a solo artist. Dickinson was raised in Norfolk, England, and is the younger cousin of Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson....
singing in trade-off vocals, but after the final Belly album, Catherine Wheel's record label insisted that the song be re-recorded to remove most of Donelly's vocals, replacing them with Dickinson's, although Donelly's voice can still be heard during the chorus of the reworked version.
The 1995 tribute album
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall
Ralph Sall
Ralph Sall is a record producer, music supervisor, composer, songwriter, and screenwriter. He is the president of Bulletproof Entertainment, a company involved in several facets of the entertainment industry, including film, television, comic books and graphic novels, music, internet and live...
for MCA Records
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc., which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group , of which MCA Records was still part. MCA Records was absorbed by Geffen Records in 2003...
, included the cover of "Josie and the Pussycats" performed by Tanya Donelly and Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield , is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter and author from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
.
In November 1996, Donelly put together a group of musicians to tour internationally with, just prior to her first solo release, the Sliding & Diving EP on 4AD. Included on the tour were husband Fisher on bass, keyboardist Lisa Mednick (formerly of Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield
Juliana Hatfield , is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter and author from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
's group), drummer Stacy Jones (formerly of Letters to Cleo
Letters to Cleo
Letters to Cleo was an alternative rock band from Boston, Massachusetts perhaps best known for the 1993 single "Here & Now" from their full-length debut album Aurora Gory Alice...
and Veruca Salt
Veruca Salt (band)
Veruca Salt is an alternative rock band founded in 1993 in Chicago, Illinois. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included vocalist-guitarist Louise Post. Guitarist Stephen Fitzpatrick has been with the band since 1999 and drummer Kellii Scott has worked with the group on and off since 1999...
), and Madder Rose guitarists Mary Lorson
Mary Lorson
Mary Lorson is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Perhaps best known for her time as the lead singer of Alternative Pop group Madder Rose, Lorson founded the group Mary Lorson and Saint Low in 1999, and that group released three full-length discs. Lorson and Billy Coté created the...
and Billy Coté. The album release featured Donelly on vocals, guitars and keyboards, Rich Gilbert (of Human Sexual Response, Goober & the Peas, Blackstone Valley Sinners) on pedal steel, Fisher on bass, and drummers David Lovering (formerly of the Pixies) and Jones.
After the 1997 dual solo release of Pretty Deep with two different B-sides, she toured North America with Fisher, Throwing Muses' drummer Dave Narcizo
David Narcizo
David Narcizo, born May 6, 1966, in Newport, Rhode Island, United States, is primarily known for his work as the longtime drummer for Throwing Muses....
, Gilbert, and keyboardist Elizabeth Steen. She soon released her solo debut LP Lovesongs for Underdogs
Lovesongs for Underdogs
Lovesongs for Underdogs is the solo debut album by Tanya Donelly, who had formerly recorded with Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and Belly. It was released on September 9, 1997. Two singles were released for promotion of the album. "Pretty Deep" was released in July of 1997, while "The Bright Light"...
, recorded with Gilbert, Fisher, Jones, Narcizo, and engineer Wally Gagel on assorted instruments. In April 1999, Donelly and her husband welcomed a daughter, Grace Bee Fisher.
Career since 2000
In 2000, Donelly performed live in her first reunion with Throwing Muses at a special fan gathering called "Gut Pageant" in Cambridge, MassachusettsCambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, and at a Rhode Island festival.
She continued to record and release symbol-laden, alternative folk-pop solo EPs and full-length LPs on 4AD in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Belly's Sweet Ride: The Best of Belly retrospective was also released in 2002.
As Donelly's writing continued to mature into a softer rhythmic vein than with the Belly material, allusions to motherhood were heard in songs like "Life is But a Dream" and "The Night You Saved My Life" on her 2002 Beautysleep
Beautysleep
Beautysleep is the second album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2002 .Tanya's last music video to date was "Keeping You"...
release. Mark Sandman
Mark Sandman
Mark Sandman was an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor and multi-instrumentalist.An indie rock icon and longtime fixture on the Boston/Cambridge music scene, Sandman was best known as the lead singer and slide bass player of the band Morphine...
, of Boston's Morphine
Morphine (band)
Morphine was an American alternative rock group formed by Mark Sandman and Dana Colley in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1989. They disbanded in 1999 after frontman Sandman died of a heart attack....
indie-rock group, sang on "Moonbeam Monkey." Donelly's background vocals are heard on several tracks of the 2003 self-titled Throwing Muses reunion album, which she helped promote with public performances as backing vocalist and guitarist for a few concerts in 2003. Boston post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
band Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma
Mission of Burma is an American post-punk band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979. The band was formed by Roger Miller , Clint Conley , Peter Prescott and Martin Swope...
included Donelly's backing vocals on their reunion album, Onoffon in 2004.
The same year, she released Whiskey Tango Ghosts
Whiskey Tango Ghosts
Whiskey Tango Ghosts is the third solo album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2004. The album marks a departure from Donelly's previous pop work in favor of a country and folk-influenced sound...
, a sparely arranged, acoustic album laced with Gilbert's pedal steel guitar touches. The album's personnel included Steen on piano, Narcizo on drums, and Fisher on guitar, bass, and drums. The album's lyrics explored, in part, marital relationships and family life. Donelly has said the album's minor-key tone was influenced by "a horrible war, a horrible administration, a bleak, mean winter."
She then followed that acoustic album release with three weekend shows of old and new songs performed in 2004 before audiences at The Windham, an old hotel in Bellows Falls, Vermont
Bellows Falls, Vermont
Bellows Falls is an incorporated village located in the town of Rockingham in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,165 at the 2000 census...
. Backing Donelly in concert were Fisher on guitar, Gilbert on pedal steel and acoustic guitar, Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders, Joan as Policewoman, Lou Reed, Antony and the Johnsons) on violin and backing vocals, Joe McMahon (of Señor Happy and Will Dailey) on upright bass, Bill Janovitz (lead singer of Buffalo Tom) contributing vocals, and Arthur Johnson (of Come
Come (US band)
Come was an American alternative rock band from 1990-2001. Come was formed in Boston by Thalia Zedek , Chris Brokaw , Arthur Johnson , and Sean O'Brien .-Band history:...
) on drums. The performances were recorded by Donelly's manager, veteran producer Gary Smith
Gary Smith (record producer)
Gary Smith is an entrepreneur, record producer, and artist's manager known for his work recording albums by alternative rock musicians since the mid-1980s at Fort Apache Studios...
of Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios
Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio internationally renowned for alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986. The studio is currently located in the village of Bellows Falls, Vermont in space leased in an old hotel called The Windham, owned by the town of Rockingham,...
, which helps operate the small concert space and recording room in The Windham's lobby. While Donelly included some of her longtime lyrical allusions to nature imagery, such as bees and honey, in the songs recorded at the Vermont concerts, she said that some of her new material reflected a more direct approach, relying less on symbolic analogy. The topics of religion and spiritual hypocrisy, which first began to interest her after her childhood automobile accident, were reflected in the lyrics to "Kundalini Slide," performed at these concerts. The album of the Vermont performances is titled This Hungry Life
This Hungry Life
This Hungry Life is the fourth solo album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2006. The album was recorded live in front of an audience at a closed hotel in Bellows Falls, Vermont in August 2004.-Track listing:All songs by Tanya Donelly, except where noted...
and was released by Eleven Thirty Records on October 17, 2006, in the US and October 24, 2006, in Canada.
In June 2005, Donelly mentioned on her official "Slumberland" message board that her future plans included working on a children's compilation album with Boston musicians such as Chris Toppin, writing a book, working with Mark Eitzel
Mark Eitzel
Mark Eitzel is a musician, best known as a songwriter and lead singer of the San Francisco band American Music Club.-History:Eitzel spent his formative years in a military family living in Okinawa, Taiwan, Ohio and the United Kingdom. He moved to America in 1979.He started making music while he was...
and Greek songwriter Manolis Famellos, and occasionally performing live. She planned to focus future performance plans on a few cities like Boston, New York, and London, playing live when time permitted as she raised her daughter. In March 2006, she gave birth to another daughter, Harriet Pearl Fisher.
In early 2006, Donelly sang on two songs on the debut EP from the Boston-based band Dylan In The Movies. In October 2006 she recorded a cover of Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
's "Heart of Gold" with producer Paul Kolderie for the American Laundromat Records
American Laundromat Records
American Laundromat Records is an indie label based in Mystic, CT.The label has produced several tribute albums, including Dig For Fire - a tribute to PIXIES, Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young, and High School Reunion - A Tribute to Those Great 80's Films...
benefit CD titled Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young for Charity.
She wrote four songs for the pop girl group Girl Authority
Girl Authority
Girl Authority is an American pop girl group from Massachusetts.The group consists of nine girls, ranging in ages 11 to 16. The group was established in the summer of 2005 by the group's vocal coach/executive producer Samantha Hammel, Scott Billington and the CEO of Rounder Records John Virant.All...
for their second debut Road Trip
Road Trip (album)
Road Trip is the second album from Girl Authority. Unlike the first album, Road Trip is a mixture of cover songs and original songs performed by Girl Authority...
, one of which is titled "This Is My Day". Her daughter, Gracie, is a fan of the group, according to an article in The Phoenix
The Phoenix (newspaper)
The Phoenix is the name of several alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States by Phoenix Media/Communications Group of Boston, Massachusetts including the Boston Phoenix, the Providence Phoenix, the Portland Phoenix and the now-defunct Worcester Phoenix...
.
Two shows at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 6, 2007, were a musical reunion of sorts, as Donelly co-headlined with Hersh.
In 2008, Donelly teamed up with Dylan in the Movies to cover The Cure's "Lovecats" for American Laundromat Records
American Laundromat Records
American Laundromat Records is an indie label based in Mystic, CT.The label has produced several tribute albums, including Dig For Fire - a tribute to PIXIES, Cinnamon Girl - Women Artists Cover Neil Young, and High School Reunion - A Tribute to Those Great 80's Films...
tribute compilation "Just Like Heaven - a tribute to The Cure".
A 2010 feature in Spin Magazine profiles Donelly's new career as a postpartum doula
Doula
A Doula is someone who provides non-medical support to women and their families during labour and childbirth, and also the postpartum period. The term can also be used to describe other supportive roles for other life events such as abortion, death and more....
.
In December 2010, Donelly teamed up once again with singer and songwriter Brian Sullivan's band, Dylan In The Movies, to release the single "Girl With the Black Tights" on American Laundromat Records. Donelly shares a co-write credit and sings on the track.
Singles & EPs
- Josie and the Pussycats, duet with Juliana HatfieldJuliana HatfieldJuliana Hatfield , is an American guitarist/singer-songwriter and author from the Boston area, formerly of the indie rock bands Blake Babies and Some Girls. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts....
, is included on LP Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits (1995) - Sliding & Diving (EP, 1996.11.25)
- The Bright Light, disc 1 (EP, 1997.10.06)
- The Bright Light, disc 2 (EP, 1997.10.06)
- Pretty Deep, disc 1 (EP, 1997.07.21)
- Pretty Deep, disc 2 (EP, 1997.07.21)
- Sleepwalk (EP, 2001.11.19)
- Heart of Gold (7" Gold Vinyl, July 2007)
Albums
- Lovesongs for UnderdogsLovesongs for UnderdogsLovesongs for Underdogs is the solo debut album by Tanya Donelly, who had formerly recorded with Throwing Muses, The Breeders, and Belly. It was released on September 9, 1997. Two singles were released for promotion of the album. "Pretty Deep" was released in July of 1997, while "The Bright Light"...
(1997.08.09) - BeautysleepBeautysleepBeautysleep is the second album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2002 .Tanya's last music video to date was "Keeping You"...
(2002.02.18) - Whiskey Tango GhostsWhiskey Tango GhostsWhiskey Tango Ghosts is the third solo album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2004. The album marks a departure from Donelly's previous pop work in favor of a country and folk-influenced sound...
(2004.07.26) - This Hungry LifeThis Hungry LifeThis Hungry Life is the fourth solo album by Tanya Donelly, released in 2006. The album was recorded live in front of an audience at a closed hotel in Bellows Falls, Vermont in August 2004.-Track listing:All songs by Tanya Donelly, except where noted...
(October 2006) - Beautysleep And Lovesongs Demos (October 2006 - Free download from www.tanyadonelly.com with release notes by Tanya Donelly)
External links
- Official artist website
- 4AD artist website
- Beggars Banquet and Beggars Group labels
- Tanya Donelly site at Fort Apache
- Tanya Donelly at Rolling StoneRolling StoneRolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...