BLAME SALLY is a San Francisco folk-rock quartet with an attitude, combining acoustic textures with Americana harmonies and an independent spirit.
To coincide with their first UK & Ireland tour, Blame Sally will be releasing Live at KVIE Studios, which was recorded in Sacramento for US Public Television last December. Featuring thirteen songs, including three previously unreleased and several from their acclaimed current studio album Speeding Ticket And A Valentine, the album will be available in the UK & Ireland from October 15.
The four women who make up the band – Pam Delgado (drums, percussion & vocals), Renée Harcourt (guitar, mandolin, banjo & vocals), Jeri Jones (guitar & vocals) and Monica Pasqual (keyboards, accordion & vocals) – have some experience with improbable complexities and contradictions. Almost everything about their history is contrary to conventional wisdom. For one thing, they put their individual careers aside to start Blame Sally when they were in their late 30s and 40s – the age at which bands are traditionally supposed to break up and begin solo careers. For another, this is obviously an all-woman band – “girl groups” usually being the province of youthful upstarts, not mature singer/songwriters. Splitting the front person status among each of the four members goes against the agreed-upon maxim (agreed upon by everyone but the Beatles, anyway) that every group needs a single strong focal point. And didn’t they get the memo that women, in particular women in show biz, are supposed to be packing it in at this point, not making fresh introductions?
The members of Blame Sally don’t have to work too hard to find the depth in their songs: Having lived a little leaves no choice but to go deeper. In 2006 Harcourt was diagnosed with and successfully fought breast cancer and Pasqual’s long-time boyfriend was diagnosed with MS. Needless to say, these don’t really compare with flat tyres on the tour van or other worst-case adversities common to bands starting up right out of college.
Blame Sally got started in 2000 when Pasqual was putting together musicians to play at a launch concert for one of her solo projects. She and Harcourt had known each other since mutually participating in a songwriting competition years before. For this supposedly singular promotional show, Pasqual also enlisted two of the most sought-after side musicians on the scene, her old friends and band mates Jeri Jones and Pamela Delgado. It was the one-off gig that’s lasted 12 years – and counting.
“We were fed up and disillusioned with the music scene,” says Harcourt, “so when we started playing together, we were like, ‘Let’s just do this for fun, with no expectations of achieving any type of quote-unquote “success”.’ Of course that meant it became the most successful project that any of us have had.”
“This is a group of experienced, passionate and dedicated musicians, all over 45, making thoughtful and sometimes rather dashing music.” The Telegraph
Artist’s website: www.blamesally.com
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