Cindy Lee Berryhill returned to New York this month for an acoustic show at Banjo Jim’s with two ace players from her acclaimed 1994 Garage Orchestra album band in percussionist Randy Hoffman, a Harry Partch Ensemble veteran, and the innovative cellist Renata Bratt.
Her first gig here in three years, it brought out a lot of celebrities including Celtic rocker Joe Hurley (better known now, perhaps, as narrator, with Johnny Depp, of the audio book version of Keith Richards' autobiography), Brian Wilson’s percussionist Nelson Bragg, documentarian Matt Kohn (he directed Berryhill's video for “When Did Jesus Become A Republican?”) and Lach, who spearheaded the Lower East Side’s anti-folk scene of the 1980s and '90s--of which Berryhill was a major part.
The trio (in light of the Garage Orchestra, she jokingly called it her “Carport”) performed the titletrack from her 2007 album Beloved Stranger, which was inspired by the devastating effects of the brain injury suffered by her husband, rock journalist and seminal rock magazine Crawdaddy! creator Paul Williams. With Hoffman playing glockenspiel, shaker and snare (using brushes and hands) and Bratt frequently fiddling away on cello, Berryhill clearly had a blast.
"I had so much fun," she says, so much so that the Encinitas, Calif. resident is returning for some East Coast dates in July.
"There were so many people I knew from the days when I lived in New York," she continues. "And I've been writing a lot of songs this year that I got to play."
Berryhill's Banjo Jim's set started out with songs from Garage Orchestra and Beloved Stranger, then focused on new songs written in a frenzied creative spurt over the last six months.
"I went four years without writing a single song--most of Beloved Stranger was written in the early aughts--and things became so difficult care-giving for Paul and taking care of our young son that I didn't perform anywhere or do any Cindy Lee Berryhill stuff," she says. "I couldn't leave Paul alone, and when I was in New York in '08, I had someone looking in on him every day. But when I got back I realized he couldn't be left alone at all."
His dementia worsening, Williams was placed in a nursing home a couple years ago.
"I had to get used to having time again and detoxing and getting my health back and back in shape," says Berryhill. "I couldn't leave the house or go for a run or walk because Paul couldn't be left alone, so I became a shut-in. But something kicked in over the last six months: The flood gates opened, and I started writing up a storm--an unusual intensity of writing for me."
She now has 15 or so songs heading toward a song-cycle, she says, though she notes that she deliberately decided against "going the depressive route of a bunch of sad songs."
"I said to the muse, 'You got to take over, because I want an album more focused on love,'" she continues, "and that's where these songs are coming from--my variations of love songs."
She now wants to do another album, oddly "informed," she says, by minimalist composer Steve Reich and early 20th Century composer Eric Satie, such that "parts of the songs are instrumental," she notes.
"I'd like to get a grant and have the freedom to make an album where it's not even in the music business, where I don't have to worry about what's supposed to play on the radio--which doesn't happen anymore anyway," she adds. "I feel my real ability is as a composer, lyricist, arranger, musician and band leader, not so much as a singer--but I have what I have! At Banjo Jim's it was ensemble work: Sometimes the glockenspiel was doing what voices might be doing and my voice was just a piece of it."
Indeed, Berryhill sang with her rhythmic, almost spoken-word delivery at times, then popping up to her high register on new songs including "When It's Time To Fly," "The Adventurist," "The Heavy" and "I Like Cats, You Like Dogs"--proclaimed "the hit" by a 10-year-old guitar student.
"We'll see what the future brings them," says Berryhill (who encored with her 1980s college radio hit "Damn, I Wish I Was A Man"). "It's funny how songs have their own lives--like children--and bring their own lives to themselves. My job is to stay out of the way and let that happen."
Meanwhile, Berryhill continues to care for her husband. Those interested in helping can make donations through the paulwilliams.com Web site, which features tributes from the likes of Lenny Kaye, Peter Buck, Luc Sante and David Fricke.
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