Loene Carmen

Loene Carmen
Born Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Genres Alternative country, Country rock, Folk, Outlaw country, Singer Songwriter, Rock'n'Roll, Torch Singer
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter, Actress
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1987–present
Website www.loenecarmen.com

Loene Carmen, also known as Lo Carmen, is an Australian singer, songwriter, musician and actress.

Early life and career

Carmen was born in Adelaide, Australia and raised amongst its 1970s rock'n'roll music community,[1] daughter of rock/jazz/blues pianist Peter Head, founder of The Mount Lofty Rangers. She wrote and publicly performed her first original song aged ten, accompanied by her father. After forming a variety of bands across various genres since the early 1990s (beginning with 12 piece Nashville inspired country revue act Honky Tonk Angels, which also featured Justine Clarke and Noah Taylor),[2] Carmen began focussing on a career as a solo singer-songwriter in 2002.

Film

Carmen was discovered at sixteen working in a Kings Cross pizza bar and cast as the "wild and haunted"[3] Freya Olson in John Duigan's The Year My Voice Broke (1987) for which she was nominated for an Australian Film Institute Best Actress award.[4] Other notable roles followed including Australian prostitute/whistleblower Sallie-Anne Huckstepp in the docudrama Blue Murder and Christine in Alkinos Tsilimidos' gritty drama Tom White, for which she also received nominations for Australian Film Institute Best Supporting Actress, Film Critics Circle Best Actor - Female 2004 and IF Best Actress 2004.[5][6] In 2011 Carmen was reunited on screen with Noah Taylor in Australian film Red Dog.[7]

Music

Carmen has independently released five albums,[8] most recently 'The Apple Don't Fall Far From The Tree' (2013), with her father Peter Head, a collection of original ballads alongside honky tonk heartbreakers and moody classics drawn from their piano bar repertoire,[9] 'built on Head’s elegant and melodious playing and Carmen’s playful purr of a voice that draws you deep into the songs' Post To Wire.[10] The release of 'The Apple Don't Fall Far From The Tree' saw Carmen and her father opening for Kinky Friedman and The Handsome Family.[11][12]

After temporarily relocating to Georgia while her partner Aden Young shot Sundance television series Rectify, Carmen recorded and released 'The Peach State' (2012), a suite of solo country songs, in Nashville with Johnny Cash engineer David Ferguson.[13] No Depression called it “...stark country-soul and shimmering blues ...a direct line to the heart that showcases her glorious voice."[14]

Carmen's 'magnetically absorbing'[15] fourth album It Walks Like Love was released on 5 December 2009.[16] The album was produced by Burke Reid and recorded with musicians from teenage punk band The Scare and long time collaborator Sam Worrad from The Holy Soul on bass. Special guests include Jed Kurzel (Mess Hall) on duet "Oh Apollo!", father Peter Head on piano with Tex Perkins and daughter Holiday Sidewinder also making an appearance on backing vocals.[17]

Rock'n'Roll Tears, co-written and recorded with Jed Kurzel and Sam Worrad, was lauded as ‘dead sexy and cool … a shimmering wonder’ by Mess & Noise[18] and attracted positive reviews.[19] Tracks Nashville High and Rock n Roll Tears were featured in the Australian series Love My Way.[20]

In 2004, Slight Delay was released on Reverberation Records, the boutique label owned by Rusty Hopkinson of You Am I.[21]

Carmen's debut solo album Born Funky Born Free was self recorded in her bedroom. Carmen programmed the beats on her father’s ancient drum machine and played most of the instruments. Guest musicians include Simon Day (RatCat) and James Cruickshank (Cruel Sea). The title track "Born Funky Born Free" was featured in the film Fat Pizza.

Carmen also released a mini-album Leave It at the Door(2010), a 2003 home recorded collaboration with "the mysterious Krystina" under the moniker T: Lo and a limited edition mini album Hard Candy Christmas(2010) under the name Sweet Carmo—featuring 'rough n ready solo home recordings' of country classics by artists such as Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette. "Loene Carmen's Parallel Universe", a lounge room variety show filmed for the internet, featured guest performances by Louis Tillett and Mick Harvey and was directed by Aden Young.[22]

Carmen performs solo or with a rotating line-up of musicians that has included Mess Hall, The Holy Soul, Warren Ellis and Jim White (Dirty Three) and "X"'s Cathy Green. Solo she has opened for Gareth Liddiard (The Drones), Renee Geyer and The Secret Sisters in Australia as well as Mick Harvey in Europe.[23] She showcased solo at SxSW in 2009[24] In band mode she has opened for Beasts Of Bourbon, Magnolia Electric Company, Mess Hall, The Drones, Paul Kelly and the Dirty Three.[25] In an interview she explained "I prefer to have a core band that I can play with but I’m not a machine playing all the time so when I need people I just have to hope they are available. Plus, I like the idea of being like Chuck Berry, just picking up bands in every town or for different gigs. And that way the songs sound different each time too.[26]"

Writing

Carmen has published essays in anthologies Meanjin on Rock 'n' Roll: All Yesterday's Parties[27] and Your Mother Would be Proud: True Tales of Mayhem and Misadventure (edited by Jenny Valentish & Tamara Sheward) and contributed to two of the "Women of Letters" collections (edited by Marieke Hardy and Michaela McGuire)'.[28]

Discography

Albums
EPs
Other Releases
Guest artist

Filmography

Music videos

Awards and nominations

Band history

Personal life

Carmen married actor Aden Young in Zebulon, Georgia in 2014 after a ten year relationship.[30] They have two sons, Chester Van (b. 2011) and Dutch Bon (b. 2007).[31] Young directed the music video for "Nashville High" and edited Carmen's "Mimic the Rain" clip.[32] Carmen co-composed the score for Young's short film The Rose of Ba Ziz, as well as appearing in it.[33]

Carmen's daughter, Holiday Sidewinder (b. 1990), is also a singer-songwriter.[34] Sidewinder's godfather is actor Noah Taylor.[35]

Carmen cites close family friend Australian soul singer Wendy Saddington as a major influence,[36] after watching hundreds of performances she gave accompanied by Peter Head since the 1980s.[37] Carmen's mother, a film seamstress, made Chrissie Amphlett's iconic schoolgirl tunics[38]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/unseen-footage-photographs-of-legendary-acdc-rocker-bon-scott-with-the-mt-lofty-rangers-in-the-adelaide-hills-emerges/story-fni6uo1m-1226787706510
  2. ↑ http://www.blurb.com/b/2254762-honky-tonk-angels
  3. ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/theyearmyvoicebrokepg13hinson_a0c8cf.htm
  4. ↑ "Winners-Nominees/1980-1989/1987". http://www.aacta.org. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  5. ↑ "Tom White: Awards". imdbpro.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Winners Nominees/2000-2010/2004". http://www.aacta.org. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  7. ↑ http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/film/kriv-stenderss-red-dog-is-an-aussie-winner-from-nose-to-tail/story-e6frg8pf-1226107483190
  8. ↑ "About Loene Carmen". http://loenecarmen.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  9. ↑ http://somethingyousaid.com/2013/09/04/album-review-lo-carmen-peter-head/
  10. ↑ http://posttowire.com/2013/10/02/album-review-lo-carmen-peter-head-the-apple-dont-fall-far-from-the-tree/
  11. ↑ "The Handsome Family USA Loene Carmen & Peter Head". moshtix.com.au.
  12. ↑ "Kinky Friedman Australian Bi Polar Tour - Lo Carmen & Peter Head". www.thevanguard.com.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  13. ↑ http://www.southsydneyherald.com.au/red-wine-musicartist-profile-loene-carmen/#.VTlQuCkbpEc
  14. ↑ http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blogs/news-loene-carmen-releases-new-ep-the-peach-state
  15. ↑ Ryan, Andy (20 Dec 2009). "Loene Carmen - It Walks Like Love Review". http://www.fasterlouder.com.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  16. ↑ http://www.wowhd.com.au http://www.wowhd.com.au/CD/loene-carmen-it-walks-like-love/dp/6614163. Retrieved 25 April 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help); External link in |website= (help)
  17. ↑ Peken, Chris. "Loene Carmen - it Walks Like Love Review". http://www.altmedia.net.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  18. ↑ https://www.atpfestival.com/artist/loenecarmen
  19. ↑ http://www.thedwarf.com.au/news/9552/loene-carmen-announces-new-single-tour-dates
  20. ↑ "Australian Television: Love My Way: Music Credits". http://australiantelevision.net.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ http://www.loenecarmen.com/variety-show
  23. ↑ http://www.freakoutmagazine.it/11-05-2006/news/41337/tour-italiano-per-mick-harvey/
  24. ↑ "2009-03-20/SXSW" (PDF). http://www.austinchronicle.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  25. ↑ "Rock'n'roll Tour For Loene Carmen". http://www.fasterlouder.com.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  26. ↑ http://www.messandnoise.com/articles/3879770
  27. ↑ http://business.highbeam.com/2382/article-1G1-153304789/down-devil-gate-drive-singer-songwriter-and-film-actress
  28. ↑ http://www.readings.com.au/review/sincerely-by-michaela-mcguire-and-marieke-hardy
  29. ↑ "winners-nominees/1980-1989/1987". http://www.aacta.org. Retrieved 25 April 2015. External link in |website= (help)
  30. ↑ http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/tv/aden-young-star-of-us-series-rectify-on-the-dark-role-that-sometimes-haunts-him/story-e6frfmyi-1227173605824
  31. ↑ "Wedding Bliss For Aden Young". couriermail.com.au. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  32. ↑ 'Keeping It Reel, Jack Sargeant in Film Ink, February 2010 Issue
  33. ↑ "The Rose of Ba Ziz (2007)". www.imdb.com. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  34. ↑ http://www.oystermag.com/holiday-sidewinder-issue-105
  35. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/mar/30/noah-taylor-and-goddaughter-holiday-sidewinder-special-relationship
  36. ↑ http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/24/looking-through-a-window-by-wendy-saddington-australias-first-lady-of-soul
  37. ↑ http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/live-reviews/wendy-saddington-and-peter-head-camelot-lounge-marrickville-sydney-29-04-12/
  38. ↑ http://www.oystermag.com/holiday-sidewinder-issue-105

External links

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