September Gurl - Clients - Courtney Fairchild

*Courtney Fairchild* http://www.myspace.com/courtneyfairchild [BIOGRAPHY] [PHOTOS] [PRESS] [TOUR DATES] [AUDIO]

BIOGRAPHY I have been tasked with writing my biography...a new record - another publicity campaign - another jaunt across the country playing shows - another chance to reach your ears and, assuming a job well done, your heart. While I would love to thrill you with the grandiosity of my musical feats over my decade as a songwriter, I'm generally not the type to gloat about the glory of beer-soaked nights in smoky bars, seemingly endless road trips in cars that resemble (in appearance and odor) rolling locker rooms, or detailed descriptions of couches and floors on which I have slept. Besides, in depth descriptions and discourse on all of these topics can be found in the biographies of my peers. I would hate to be repetitive, or worse, shatter your image of a working musician's life. Suffice it to say I have played my fair share of shows across the country in smoky bars, many of which bear legendary names and many of which do not. I have shared the stage and recorded songs in rooms with many of my heroes, most of whom would not incite the smallest glimmer of recognition were I to list their names, as well as a few whose names might potentially ring a bell in the recesses of your mind. You might have unknowingly heard a song or two of mine in the background while watching TV, assuming you're into reality television. Ultimately, none of these things will accomplish the task of telling you who I am as a songwriter and musician. So, I digress and hereby abandon the aforementioned topics. I came into the world in 1981 which has always seemed to be a bit of a cosmic joke. Had I been born twenty years earlier, you most likely would have run into me in Los Angeles in the 770s playing alongside songwriters who are "more my speed" than the vast majority of my contemporaries. I am a Texan born and raised in Dallas which has always been an odd fit. However, I spent the first twenty-four years of my life there, so it will always be my home and its influence over my character is abundant, even if it's not always apparent in my accent or political leanings. I have been a singer since I could open my mouth and utter a tune, a gift bestowed upon me by my mother who has always had a deep love and appreciation of music. At the age of fourteen I began writing, and like most kids my age, I had a fleeting love affair with the music of my youth. Combined, the two led to my rescue of the crappiest Yamaha guitar ever made from the depths of the hall closet. By seventeen, with the help of a fabulously patient guitar instructor, I began to write and perform my own songs. I befriended many local Dallas musicians, all of whom were at least a decade my senior. With their help, encouragement, and constant willingness to distract the bouncers at the doors of various clubs and bars while I snuck in, I became a regular performer at the haunts of Dallas' finest songwriters and performers. At eighteen, I released my first record independently which, through a series of events that could fill hundreds of pages, led me to Los Angeles, CA. It was there that I met and began to work with the staff of Stanley Recordings. Between 1999 and 2002 I took numerous trips during breaks from my studies in creative writing at the University of Texas at Dallas to record what would become my second record, Long Way, with Stanley Recordings engineer and producer John Would. In 2002, I signed with the label which has been my musical home since. Through my friendship and work with John I was introduced to a myriad of new music (Joe Henry, Rickie Lee Jones, American Music Club...) that opened my eyes to the limitless intellectual and emotional depths that songwriting can reach when approached as a true art form. I found refuge and identity with these writers on the fringes of mainstream music. Since then I have dedicated my energy and time to producing songs that create that kind of refuge for my listeners. In 2006, after what can only be described as an embarrassingly typical few years of growing pains (heartbreak, lost friends, marriage, divorce), I was offered the opportunity to move to Philadelphia to work at the new home of Stanley Recordings label operations. While the studio remains in California, Jeff Silberman (who, along with John Would, co-founded Stanley Recordings in 1996) relocated to his hometown of Philadelphia. During a drunken summer night Jeff offered to bring me north to embark on a new chapter of my career. After a sober conversation the following day, his offer stood, and in November of that year I arrived at the front door of Stanley Recordings East in Philadelphia. In September of 2007 my third Stanley Recordings release Quit was ushered into the world. My long-time Texas drummer, Gabriel Martinez, was somehow convinced to leave the familiar comforts of Dallas for what he would most likely describe as "the frozen badlands of Philly" to play with Jeff and I full-time. Keyboardist and vocalist Ami Verrill rounds out the band with John flying in from L.A. to play guitar on occasion. Quit went on to receive airplay at AAA and commercial radio stations across the county. It also gave us a great excuse to play shows all across the south and northeast. What can a native Texan say about life in Philadelphia? At the end of the day, they are different planets. There's the miracle of waking up to snow on the ground and the reality of having to dig your car out of it. There's the comfort of a more liberally minded environment and the adjustment to what I can only describe as "the Philadelphian mentality." There's the pride of a city that once knew the meaning of the word ruin and lived to tell the tale. There's the real live cast of characters that populate my day-to-day, none of whom could be any more interesting or subversive had they been dreamed up by likes of Hunter S. Thompson, Katherine Dunn, or Tom Robbins. Having left the homogonous sprawl of Dallas, all of the things about my new home (both good and bad) have affected me deeply. During the summer of 2008 I sequestered myself in a friend's guest house and wrote the majority of my latest record, 11 Chances. Fueled at times by copious amounts of bourbon and an illness that left me with a fever and a series of bizarre dreams, I hammered out the skeleton of the record. The basic tracks were recorded with my band over three days in October 2008. The following month, I flew to Los Angeles to record vocals and put the finishing touches on the record with John. Now, two months later, as the release of 11 Chances approaches, I am sitting in my office in a well-worn row house in South Philly. It was once the home of Stanley Silberman (Jeff's father and the namesake of the label). Now it houses the offices of Stanley Recordings East, Gabriel, Ami, and I call it home, and it is the place where we all make music together. It seems to me that most modern music has devolved into bits and bytes of saccharine soaked information - a quick sugar high that decays the brain and leaves the listener hungry, yet too comatose to realize it. With 11 Chances we set out to create the opposite effect...to create a record that satisfies the intellect as well as the heart. In a society that places such high value on normality, we are an abnormal band of friends doing what we do best...making the music that we love on the fringes of a dying industry commonly known as the music business...becoming a part of the tide that will come when that industry, as we know it, breathes it's last breath. Courtney Fairchild Philadelphia - January 26, 2009

PHOTOS Click on a thumbnail to download that hi-res JPEG (suitable for publication):

TOUR DATES Jun 5, 2009 * The Living Room New York, New York Jun 14, 2009 Women Who Rock at PUCK * Doylestown, Pennsylvania Jun 15, 2009 * The New York Songwriter's Circle at The Bitter End * New York, NY Jun 27, 2009 * Steel City Coffee (Co-Bill with Lotus Hill) * Phoenixville, Pennsylvania Check myspace.com/courtneyfairchild for a complete list of tour dates!

PRESS Courtney Fairchild - Buddy Magazine - April 2009 Courtney Fairchild - 11 Chances Review By: Tom Geddie As a teenager, Courtney Fairchild wasn't old enough to get into the places where she sang her songs, but her mature, soothing voice and intelligent, wistful songs made her seem five to ten years older. Now she's grow up, if the late 20's is grown up, and has been to college and seen some of the world and tested herself a bit and released some CDs. Her fifth (by my count) CD, 11 Chances, has basically that same voice, the same wistful-sounding songs, the same intelligence wrapped around a bit more experience. Dissatisfied with “bits and bytes of saccharine-soaked information” in so many pop songs that leaves listeners hungry, she set out to satisfy the intellect as well as the heart. Her songs are rooted in reality, but closer to the edges than to the pop culture mirror. On the title song, for example, a “pretty boy” who claims to know everything and to be important wonders why he's alone. The alt-pop sound is full enough for radio, which means that Fairchild's still-mesmerizing voice is sometimes more than an additional instrument in the well played mix. When her voice dominates, as it does on, for example, “Constellate,” the songs take on extra strength. John Would produced and played electric, acoustic, and slide guitars, piano, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, tambourine, and various noises. The rest of the Stone Hand Tortillas are Jeff Silberman (bass and backing vocals), Ami Verrill (piano and backing vocals), and Gabriel Martinez (drums and percussion). Fairchild accomplished her goal, at least with this listener; I don't feel hungry after listening to 11 Chances. Courtney Fairchild Courtney Fairchild deftly blends heart and intellect The Intelligencer By: NAILA FRANCIS It's just inevitable, and so Courtney Fairchild gives ample warning: "If you're going to be my friend or somehow a part of my life, you're going to make an appearance someday." And by that she means in one of her songs. Consider that her new album, "11 Chances," is peopled with the familiar: the ex-wife who didn't follow her from her native Texas to Philadelphia, where she's lived for almost three years now; the ex-best friend and songwriting partner who couldn't cope with her divorce and relocation; a dear friend who lost her husband to tragically unforeseen circumstances; even a casual acquaintance who mentioned her desire to get a tattoo of the bleeding heart of Jesus Christ on her thigh ... The references are occasionally specific, but most of the time, unrelated incidents and individuals are woven together, the distinct serving as arresting detail in an otherwise ambiguous narrative. "I try not to do anything out of malice or spite," says Fairchild, who performs Saturday at The Fire in Philadelphia with her band The Stone Hand Tortillas. "It's like a puzzle. You get an idea and start a song, and then start pulling things together, which is why a lot of times they end up being two or three stories rolled into one." Whatever the subject, she has only this requisite: that each song heft as much weight intellectually as emotionally. And so "11 Chances," her fourth fulllength album for Stanley Recordings, is a sophisticated collection that ponders fractured relationships and the pain of separation, delusions of arrogance and the hypocrisy of faith. Even her adopted hometown of Philadelphia gets its own ode with the vibrantly limned "My Eyes Adjust," while the fickle music industry takes its fair share of hits. The anchor throughout is Fairchild's voice, a thick, smoky instrument glinting - at times plaintively, at others sardonically - from a warm, smooth synthesis of country-tinged rock and folkpop. The singer-songwriter and acoustic guitarist doesn't write with an agenda, but she does want audiences to know how seriously she takes her craft. "I can't stand lyrics that are so dumbed down and spoon fed, which is what a lot of music today is about," she says. "I think that's my job as a songwriter, to put something out there that might inspire somebody in some way or make them feel connected or like someone understands what they're going through." Advertisement But her appreciation for strong lyrics doesn't necessarily translate to prolific creativity. Never mind that Fairchild independently released her first EP at 18 and was signed to Stanley Recordings, then based solely in California - the label's operations have since moved to the South Philadelphia row house where she lives - shortly after. A creative writing major at the University of Texas-Dallas, she actually recorded her second CD, "Long Way," during breaks from college. Her writing over the course of her career has continued to come in spurts. "When I was younger, I would freak out if a year went by and I didn't write a song. I would think my career was over, but now I can go for long stretches without writing anything and then in a week, four or five songs come out," she says. "I'm no Leonard Cohen. I write very sporadically unless a record is happening." She has been writing songs since she was 17, a natural progression stemming from an early affinity for music and poetry - and the salvaging of an old Yamaha guitar from the bottom of a hall closet. Fairchild also grew up in a musical family. Although they weren't professionals, her mother and greatgrandmother both played piano, and mom also sang with a Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus in Dallas. Fairchild's own piano lessons were short-lived - she quit at 5 after about just two years of taking them - but she always loved to sing, performing at church functions and in the school choir. And by 18, she already was a fixture among the clubs and bars in Dallas. "At the time, there was a surge in women-fronted bands and there was a group of women who'd taken me under their wing and they would sneak me into the bars," says Fairchild. Partially on the advice of John Would, who co-founded Stanley Recordings and has produced all of her albums for the label - a multi-instrumentalist, he plays on them, too, and a cover of his song "Banjo Shaker" appears on "11 Chances" - she avoided majoring in music. "He said it would ruin me if I did," recalls Fairchild. "Besides, I've always been a songwriter and there's no degree in that, and if you know all the rules, it's hard to break them." For a picture/song montage of Fairchild, visit media.phillyburbs. com/media/newsroom/bcctintell/photogallery/courtneyfairchild/ cti-cni-photo.html Courtney Fairchild and The Stone Hand Tortillas appear at The Fire, 412 W. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, on Saturday with Blake Allen and The Beggars. Show time is 7 p.m. Tickets are $7. Information: 267-671-9298. Rockher By: Cat Veit Courtney Fairchild's 11 Chances Album: 11 Chances Artist: Courtney Fairchild Label: Stanley Recordings Info: www.MySpace.com/CourtneyFairchild It's the voice. It's the voice that will ultimately stop you dead in your tracks as you saunter drunk from the bar to the foul one-stall bathroom of a smoky club. It's the kind of voice that evokes a sincerity and grit you feel deep inside, allowing you to almost telepathically envision the tortured life-story of an artist in one 4 minute song. If I heard singer-songwriter Courtney Fairchild in a bar, I'd stop too. Her 4th full length release, 11 Chances, recorded at a friend's guesthouse in the summer of '08 and with the help of "copious amounts of bourbon", showcases a voice incredibly forlorn and original, yet a tad reminiscent of Tracy Chapman as she channels her soothing, warm alto register. Slick production works in tandem with a grassroots indie-folk sensibility peppered with organic banjos, upright pianos, mandolins and tambourines. Electro inspired keyboards occasionally tie it all together keeping the sound current and on point. Each track is painted with intellectual, thought provoking lyrics as candid as diary entries. Lost and unrequited love are just some of the enduring themes that ebb and flow throughout the 11 track record. "Sex drugs and Catholic guilt" eventually round it all out. In a particularly strong track, 'Banjo Shaker' she laments: "I'm in love with what really hurts," a line and hook that will be keep most humming it in their heads for days upon first listen. Her lyrics continue with honest complexity: "every now and then I think that she's in love with me, it's usually when she's drunk and she can barely stand to see." Each love-lorn song feels like stops on an emotional road trip, with stories that guide the listener to the next roadside diner. On 'Nowhere in Texas' her voice takes a wonderfully unexpected baritone dive, as she playfully toys with the listeners ears. At times you wonder if it's the same voice from the earlier title track. Slow and melodic, the slide guitar grooves to illustrate her innate Texas roots. Fairchild's yearning continues as she contends: "they say don't ask these questions the edge is too close, but they never held you so how would they know." Fairchild closes the record with a final word on the state of the new music industry, putting it all into perspective with 'Money Don't Matter.' She preaches: "when you're praying for your biggest break to finding out there's just no way, but the money don't matter if the hope is gone." With the help of an achingly beautiful voice and her veracious lyrics, 11 Chances defines her indifference and her pain, as well as an irrefutable sense of hope that sees her through an occasionally dispiriting landscape. COURTNEY FAIRCHILD RELEASES, 11 CHANCES, ON STANLEY RECORDINGS ON MARCH 10 11 CHANCES IS AN EDGY SONIC LANDSCAPE INSPIRED BY HER RELOCATION FROM HER HOMETOWN OF DALLAS, TX TO HER NEW HOME OF PHILADELPHIA, PA Courtney Fairchild and Stanley Recordings announce the release of 11 Chances. The record is an edgy sonic landscape with songs inspired by Courtney's move from her hometown of Dallas, TX to Philadelphia, PA and the relationships that were formed and ended as a result. The songs of 11 Chances were written for the most part in a friend's guesthouse over the summer of 2008, and were at times fueled by copious amounts of bourbon and an illness that resulted in a high fever and bizarre dreams. The end result is a collection of songs that tell the universal story of the endings that need to happen in order to embark on new beginnings. 11 Chances is a departure in many ways from Courtney's previous albums. It marks her first recording with a full band - Courtney was able to eliminate the many cross-country trips of the past to record with producer John Would (former Warren Zevon guitarist) by bringing John to Philadelphia to record with her live band in the studio. With her unique brand of songwriting at the core of the record, the live band added an element of spontaneity and speed to the recording process, as well as a new edginess that departs from her former recordings. The basic tracks were recorded over three days in October 2007 at Milkboy Recordings in Ardmore, PA with John producing the band. In November, Courtney flew to Los Angeles to track vocals, after which John tracked the finishing touches and mixed the record at Stanley Recording Studios. Longtime Stanley Recordings friend and mastering guru Joe Gastwirt mastered the album. In November of 2006 Courtney moved from Dallas to Philadelphia to be closer to the Stanley Recordings artists, who in short order became her band. The move resulted in the dissolution of her marriage as well as the loss of her best friend and songwriting partners. The title track was the first song Courtney completed after her move and is a way of exorcising the demons of her exodus from Dallas by viewing the situation from the perspective of the friend whom she lost. The leadoff single, "Circles," was written in the car during Courtney's escape to Philadelphia and deals with the broad subject of divorce through the lens of her own experience. "My Eyes Adjust," which is at once a scathing portrait and a loving homage to her adopted home of Philadelphia, was written over 18 sequestered hours with a lot of help from a bottle of Maker's Mark. Courtney's music has been heard on MTV's Road Rules X-Treme, the WB's High School Reunion, and on AAA radio stations across the country. She and her band will be celebrating the album release with shows in Philadelphia, New York and Dallas in March 2009 and will continue to tour into the Spring.

AUDIO Click on a clip of an audio track below to download a mp3: Courtney Fairchild - 11 Chances [2009] Circles [mp3] - 0.84 mb (30 sec clip) London [mp3] - 0.84 mb (30 sec clip)