Courtney Yasmineh

Courtney Yasmineh hit the ground running in the summer of 2009 with the release of her pop/rock masterpiece BEAUTIFUL LONELY out on her own Stupid Bitch Records label.

Her second collaboration with Minneapolis based studio guru and producer Rob Genadek, Beautiful Lonely is everything fans have come to expect from Courtney's music and more.

The collaborative process this time around, started with Mr. Genadek sending Courtney back to the notebook several times until, after a year of writing twenty-six new songs, they had eleven that they both liked. "I was really mad at him at the time, but I'm glad he pushed me. It's really paying off now because we have songs that we can perform over and over and love them every time we play them", Courtney says, "The arrangements are really concise and to the point, so they're always rewarding."

As with Courtney's past albums, the songwriting is personal and filled with hard won insight, but there is a confidence and maturity to Courtney's voice that speaks for the lover and dreamer in everyone.

The title track, Beautiful Lonely, is a story of a woman who's a mystery in her small town, and that town could be Sinclair Lewis' Main Street, or Rembrandt's Amsterdam. "The townspeople know by her Mona Lisa smile that the taste of sugared almonds can't be denied. Must be a phantom lover they say; she looks too good to be alone that way...."

Daydrunk, an ode to the twelve hour "one to one" fun of sitting with a potential lover on bar stools all day and well into the night, getting to know each other better and wondering who's going to make the first move.

Songs like Stones and In Common wrestle with the pain and disillusionment of romantic love gone wrong, but Courtney gives us so much primal emotion and clear metaphor that we are satisfied at the song's conclusion and even feeling bad feels good in the end. "At the back of his hand, she was already leaving, cold cold stones, at the foot of their bed. And the words that he said had her already kneeling, piling the stones at the foot of their bed....every harsh word, every faithless act, every compromise, every stone a lie...".

An album meant to be enjoyed in its entirety, BEAUTIFUL LONELY is a true road trip, rock out, sing along, crank it up record. Courtney and her fellow rockers delivered the gamut of great pop/rock: the seductiveness, the freewheeling fun, and the raw intense anger of a true classic.

The celebrated drummer Charley Drayton, of B52s and the Keith Richards' Xpensive Winos fame, flew in from NYC to record all the drum tracks at Rob Genadek's studio in Minneapolis. Courtney comments, "Rob and I were both thrilled that Charley had agreed to play on the record.  His wife is Chrissy Amphlett from the Divinyls and Charley worked on a lot of her music, plus he had been recently out touring with Fiona Apple, so he just had a great feel for a female songwriter's rock project. And Charley is such an incredible musician. Drummers from around the Twin Cities came by to watch him work. His performances were incomparably brilliant and sexy as hell."

Jeff Victor, another long time friend and colleague who has played on all of Courtney's recordings over the years, played a crucial part in bringing the eleven songs to life. "We were down in Jeff's basement for like a month. He is a wizard on keyboards. He helped arrange all sorts of crazy instrumentations. The tuba on Brother is Jeff on keyboards. He was magical." Courtney goes on to say that there was plenty of heated creative banter between Rob and Jeff, and plenty of stories dating back to their high school days when they were first working in music together.

Courtney's first record, Flirting with Salvation in 2003, was produced by Tim Frantzich in Minneapolis. That acoustic folk rock/gospel album featured the guitar work of Dean Magraw, who Courtney counts as one of her greatest inspirations. "Dean is one of the finest guitarists in the world, and he was willing to work with me when my musicianship and writing held only a glimmer of potential. He taught me a great deal about professionalism and spirit and dedication."

Sufi Line, Courtney's 2004 concept record, her first project with Rob Genadek, received critical acclaim and airplay on independent stations in the US and Europe. Lufthansa Airlines played tracks from that record on their in-flight playlist during summer of 2008. Courtney says, "It was the Sufi Line album that brought me some attention from European DJs and critics who were interested in Americana and Roots music coming from independent artists in the US.  They wrote to me on myspace, they found my songs on CDBaby and iTunes and they made me realize that there might be an audience for my music in Europe."

Courtney went back to Rob Genadek's Brewhouse Recording Studio and told Rob about the unsolicited attention her album was getting in Europe.  "That was when Rob said that I needed to take my band to Europe and play some shows.  I had no idea how to make that happen."

By the time Beautiful Lonely was finished, in the spring of 2009, the first tour was in the works. Courtney manages all aspects of the tour booking and promotion herself.  Rob Genadek agreed to sign on as the band's touring drummer and act as musical director. Courtney and her band have gone on to return to the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands, Belgium, and France several times to play famous rooms like the Bedford and the 12Bar Club in London. They have been featured on a variety of radio and television programs all across the US and in Europe, including the Netherlands Public Radio Songwriters' Show broadcast from the OBA Library in Amsterdam.

The band's fifth European tour, March 2012, marks the release of a brand new album entitled "Wake Me Up When Its Over" on her Stupid Bitch Records label.