Biography

Courtney Yasmineh has hit the ground running with her most powerful release to date BEAUTIFUL LONELY out summer of 2009 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 still personal and filled with hard won insight, but there is a confidence and maturity to Courtney's voice now 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 deliver 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, flew in from NYC to record all the drum tracks at Rob Genadek's studio in Minneapolis. Courtney comments, "Charley is such an incredible musician. Drummers from around the twin cities came by to watch him work. His performances were incomparably brilliant and bad ass 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 Franzich at the Churchyard Studio in Minneapolis. That acoustic folk rock/gospel album featured the guitar work of Dean Magraw, who Courtney counts as one of her most influential musical collaborations. "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.

Fall/winter 2009 is full of promise for Courtney and her band mates. With John Lehmkuhl on electric guitar with an arsenal of pedals and effects, Rob Genadek on drums and manning the laptop for additional tracks and loops, and Courtney playing rhythm electric and acoustic guitars, the Courtney Yasmineh band will be performing in the US and the UK, as well as France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

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