 |
 |
|
| | |
Bio BeeBop
'livin an breathin' 'kickin an screamin'
Over the last 10 years, Carol has fronted the NZ bands Blue Highways and Mt Misery. She has just released her second album "Crossing the dirty river" on Ode Records. Through her company PRESS GO she www.myspace.com/pressgovideo.
BEFORE THE WORLD WAS ROUND
Carol lived in five countries before settling in New Zealand. Her dad had been a young RAF pilot who flew Sunderlands (huge sea planes in WW11) when he married her mom, an English beauty managing the family jewellery business in Manchester. Three kids later and looking for better prospects as a mechanical engineer after the war, Mr Bean moved the family to Ontario Canada, land of hot summer sun, tornados and six foot snow drifts. For the kids it was a fun time and Canada remains forever in Carol's heart. The song "Kicking & Screaming" came out of those childhood memories.
After six years of wet snow suits hanging beside the back door, Mrs Bean announced "Enough of this snow!" Packed tightly into a brand new 2-tone station wagon, the Beans travelled slowly across the U.S.A. on Route 66 as many families had before, from Detroit to LA where clever Mr Bean, the RAF pilot, had scored a job within the space industry. It was a life-altering experience for the little English kids moving from Mohawk Lane, Hamilton Ontario to 10th Street, Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles --- the land of smiles, beaches, movie stars, and eternal golden weather.
Carol first started to learn guitar with the good looking, one-eyed, 17 year old Ry Cooder at McCabe's Music Store. She then spent time learning her chops from Dave Cohen, an LA session musician at the legendary music venue the Ash Grove. The Ash Grove was where she saw Lightnin Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Mance Lipscome, Doc Watson, Sonny and Brownie, Clarence White and of course Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal. Carol's first guitar, an old Martin 0021, was spotted by Ry in the window of Reno's Music on Pacific Coast Highway in Manhattan Beach. To buy it, she had to audition for the guitar's owner - a bluegrass musician from San Fernando Valley. She played Ry's version of the Ma Rainey song 'Milkman Come Here', made her way nervously through the song and got to buy the guitar.
Carol's song 'Land of Smiles' is about these experiences of growing up in Los Angeles while 'Downstairs Blues' is a salute to the Mohave Desert section of Route 66 that she re-visited as a musician years later. Her songs 'Freeze Frame' and 'Eastbourne Jetty' have recently been picked for the sound track of a Hollywood movie called Player 5150.
Since living in GODZONE, Carol has worked as a midwife, tobacco picker (yep), teacher and a national arts adviser. Carol's band BLUE HIGHWAYS played the blues circuit for10 years and her musical interests in alt-country created the Mt Misery Band. Carol's mission is to "Put the blues back into bluegrass". She plays solo and a duo with her partner Lester Mundell on harp. A featured guest at the 2008 Auckland Music Festival as well as the Wellington Folk Festival, she has become a regular at The Ruby Lounge, Wellington.
"Wellington is the home of great blues n soul and rock n roll. It also has a thriving acoustic music scene; singer-songwriter, improvisation, folk and bluegrass. My upbringing in America, and the musical influences I was lucky enough to encounter, helped make the stories in my songs come alive. Read the Road Signs is my first album. The next is being created in the studio as we speak. Big UPS to Robbie Duncan, master engineer and owner of Braeburn Recording Studio Wellington (braeburn@ihug.co.nz)."
"Crossing the dirty river" was produced by Carol Bean & distributed by ODE Records.
Read the Road Signs was produced by Carol with assistance from Clinton Brown (NZ) and Tom Villano (USA).
Cover photography: James Gilberd www.photospace.co.nz
Graphic designer: Denise Durkin www.illustrationwish.co.nz
| | |
|
| | |
|
