A group of long-time San Francisco Bay Area songwriter friends who front different Americana/Roots projects round out the bill for Kwame Copeland’s CD release party at The Starry Plough in Berkeley, CA, Thursday, September 23, 2010. That’s tomorrow.
Alameda songwriter Kwame Copeland has written and played bass and guitar for a variety of notable Bay Area projects that have included The Straw Coyotes, Two Headed Turtle, Deborah Crooks Band, Adrian West Band, and Grace Woods. In 2008, he formed his own eponymous band to perform his mix of Americana, folk, and rock.
A year later, he entered the studio to begin work on “Simple Things,” an original collection of rock and jazz-inflected songs co-produced by Copeland and Oakland producer Ben Bernstein (New Monsoon, Petting Zoo Studios). While Copeland has played on many recordings in the past and was featured on a Bazaar Cafe compilation CD, “Simple Things” is his debut release.
Copeland’s long-time songwriter peer Mario Desio will open the Starry Plough gig with his project The Secret Identities. Deborah Crooks Band, in which Kwame plays lead guitar, will close out the night.
KWAME COPELAND CD Release Celebration w/Deborah Crooks Band & The Secret Identities, Thursday, September 23, 2010, at 9pm. 3101 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705-1822. Tickets are $8 at the door.
Deborah Crooks (www.DeborahCrooks.com) is a writer, performing songwriter and recording artist based in San Francisco whose lyric driven and soul-wise music has drawn comparison to Lucinda Williams, Chrissie Hynde and Natalie Merchant.
Singing about faith, love and loss, her lyrics are honed by a lifetime of writing and world travel while her music draws on folk, rock, Americana and the blues. She released her first EP “5 Acres” in 2003 produced by Roberta Donnay, which caught the attention of Rocker Girl Magazine, selecting it for the RockerGirl Discoveries Cd. In 2007, she teamed up with local producer Ben Bernstein to complete “Turn It All Red” Ep, followed by 2008’s “Adding Water to the Ashes” CD, and a second full-length CD “2010. She’s currently working on a third CD to be released in 2013.
Deborah’s many performance credits include an appearance at the 2006 Millennium Music Conference, the RockerGirl Magazine Music Convention, IndieGrrl, at several of the Annual Invasion of the GoGirls at SXSW in Austin, TX, the Harmony Festival and 2009’s California Music Fest, MacWorld 2010, Far West Fest and many other venues and events. She toured the Northwest as part “Indie Abundance Music, Money & Mindfulness” (2009) with two other Bay Area artists, and followed up with “The Great Idea Tour of the Southwest in March 2010 with Jean Mazzei.
