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BIOGRAPHY
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Carolyn AlRoy grew up in Princeton, NJ, home of eclectic oddballs
and intellectual misfits. She went to Rutgers to study acting, but
ended up becoming a poet. She studied with Poet Laureate Robert
Pinski, doing readings throughout the New York City area throughout
the 90's until she began pursing her doctorate as a licensed psychotherapist
and writing songs. "The process of songwriting is similar to
therapy", according to AlRoy. "When I hear patients use
unusual language, it makes me stop and ask questions... the language
holds something that is not directly expressed, but is tangible".
She has a private practice in Manhattan where she helps people with
their inner demons during the day before showing off her own in
New York clubs by night.
GORGEOUS ENORMOUS is AlRoy's debut album, and is co-produced by
singer-songwriter Matt Keating and indie rock producer Adam Lasus
(Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah). The album is a breath of fresh air:
familiar but completely original. The songs in GORGEOUS ENORMOUS
are influenced by artists such as Crowded House and Matthew Sweet.
AlRoy's music vacillates between upbeat power-pop numbers with jangly
guitars and quietly lilting folk ballads. Featuring an all-star
band including drums by Mark Brotter from HEM, bass by Jason Mercer
(Ron Sexsmith, Ani DiFranco), and Matt Keating on almost everything
else, AlRoy's songs alternately shine with exuberance and melancholy.
From the spaghetti-Western influenced Reality Song to the chamber
pop extravaganza Valentines Day, to the grungy Sound of Revolution,
AlRoy's engagingly exquisite voice traverses different genres seamlessly.
Her cover of Helter Skelter ranks up there as one of the best Beatle
covers ever with it's subversive take on that 60's classic. It is
disturbingly slow and achingly tense; if Charles Manson had heard
this one first, he would have never gotten around to killing anybody.
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