Country Music Artist - Penny Dale
Web Site - MySpace.com - Photos - Tunes (Buy) - Merch (Gysy Cowgirl) -Contact
Bio:
"I grew up rock, and grew into country", Penny Dale, from Gypsy Cowgirl. Penny is a self-professed "Gypsy Cowgirl", which she has adopted as her motto, her bold, skeleton GIRL logo and her sound; which is a unique mix of rock, country and southern roots.
On her new album Undaunted, Penny ranges from the hard driving Keith Urban-esque "Happy End" and southern rocker "Til the Day I Die", to the beautiful and softer "Georgia Time" and heartbreaking "Pretty Lies". And on each she delivers a no bull-sh@! style and artistic integrity that is undeniably real, engaging, and commercially viable; a hard line to walk and something only the best artists do. "You can bet, everything on this album that I wrote, is real; it's something that has actually happened to me."
Penny was raised in Atlanta, Georgia where she grew up listening to Stevie Nicks, Skynyrd and Prince; mixed with David Allen Coe, Hank Jr., Tracey Chapman and Hal Ketchum. "I grew up listening to everything from pop, rock, rap, and rebel country. But when I open my mouth, it just comes out country; I couldn't stop it - and I tried! I call it rock-based country."
Penny's professional career began in Los Angeles where her unique style and voice were first noticed by legendary rock vocalist Rosemary Butler. Penny had been singing in a popular cover band that was playing around LA and Las Vegas, and was introduced to Rosemary through a friend. Butler took Penny under her wing and the two began work on a ten-song debut to shop for record deal and to introduce Rosemary as a producer.
Rosemary's past work with legendary rock and country artists including James Taylor, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Emmy Lou Harris, were a perfect mix with Penny's edgy country vocals and her rock background. With Rosemary's direction (and a few of her good friends: Albert Lee, Andrew Gold, Herb Pederson, etc.), Penny and Rosemary ended up with a 10-song debut that made a buzz in the industry. The songs were written by some of Nashville's best: Carolyn Dawn-Johnson, Jill Colucci, etc.
With extremely positive feedback, Penny moved to Nashville and began writing and developing her OWN sound that she had always longed to make. Penny met with several producers and managers before choosing producer Eric Fritsch. Eric Fritsch is the man behind the curtain for several critically acclaimed " alternative country" artists such as Scott Miller (Sugar Hill) and Saddlesong (Courtney and Carter Little).
Fritsch's Eastwood Studios in East Nashville was the perfect choice, it had been garnering attention for alternative sounds of country and rock. Penny recalls, "As soon as I played him (Eric) the first couple of songs, he immediately said he heard "hits" and he was IN on the project! I needed to be with someone that believed in me as well as was thinking outside the box."
Penny has just finished "Undaunted" and performs with member's of Fritsch's " house" band: Matt Crouse (drums), Park Chisholm (bass) and Eric Fritsch (guitars).
" Undaunted" can be purchased at cdbaby.com/pennydale, or through the pennydale.com website, as well as her own "Gypsy Cowgirl" Brand merchandise.
Stay tuned! this is only the beginning for this young and talented artist.
Music:
Review:
By PHIL SWEETLAND
Country Music/Radio contributor, The New York Times
Penny Dale is a direct descendant of both Jesse James and of Bohemian gypsies, and this once-in-a-lifetime combination of bloodlines from the American West and Eastern Europe runs throughout her music.
Listen to these lyrics from Penny's most autobiographical song, "Gypsy Cowgirl," on the debut album Undaunted: "I grew up Rock/and grew into Country/I mellowed out a bit/but I'm still hungry/Make my own rules/and then break a few/Because I'm free."
This is an artist who loves Country, but is equally enamored of the attitude and snarl of Rock. Her logo features a Grateful Dead-styled skull with a red rose in its ear, and a cowboy hat on its head.
She was born Penny Dale Ziska, a Bohemian name, and raised near Atlanta. Her father's relatives had emigrated to America from Bohemia. Frank and Jesse James were distant relatives of her father, and Frank James occasionally came to their family reunions.
"You're a little gunslinging gypsy," Penny's father told her.
Her family wasn't overly musical, though her mother loved to sing and her father was "a showboat" who favored Rock via Elvis and Johnny Cash, did oil paintings, and loved the outdoors. Penny was the youngest of three children, all girls. Her sisters were 10 and 14 years older than she was, always a plus for musicians. "They all gave me records," Penny recalls. One sister passed Bruce Springsteen albums on to her baby sister, while the other gave her the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. One Fleetwood Mac song in particular mesmerized Penny, and as a result singer Stevie Nicks quickly became her idol.
"I just played 'Rhiannon' over and over," she says. "It just epitomized to me what I felt Stevie Nicks was. It was beautiful, dark Rock. That's why I love bands like Evanescence and Live today."
Through school, Penny was exposed to a variety of musical styles; Prince, Classic Rock, and even sang an Amy Grant tune in the Miss Chamblee High competition. Near the end of high school, she began a long romance with a singer/songwriter who got her into artists including Tracy Chapman and Hal Ketchum. At the University of Georgia, she studied English and Journalism and received the perfect gift from her boyfriend - a guitar.
After graduating UGA Penny landed work as a backup singer for touring bands, opening for headliners like the Spin Doctors. Mutual friends introduced her to LA-based Rosemary Butler, one of Pop's top background vocalists. Butler took Penny under her wing and began producing her, working with legendary session players including Andrew Gold and Albert Lee. The result was a 10-song album which featured songs by many top Music Row writers - Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Chapin Hartford among them.
The indy album received a lot of attention, but Penny soon decided that her heart and her musical future lay in Nashville. She also wanted to write her own material, critical for an artist this unique. Penny played a 6-song showcase at Billy Block's Western Beat. Only one of the six tunes was self-written, and that one got the biggest response of the night.
Meanwhile, Penny still loved her high-school sweetheart. They planned a romantic island getaway to St. Simon's, but he got cold feet at the last minute and didn't go. "He never did meet me at the beach, and he got married a year ago," Dale says. The heartbreak made Penny even stronger, and that star-crossed relationship helped her write some of her best songs, including "Georgia Time," "Little Town," and "Meet Me At The Beach."
She played her music for many producers and managers in Nashville, until she finally found the perfect producer for her work. Eric Fritsch is a musical wizard who plays many instruments and has worked on alt.-country projects for former V-Roys star Scott Miller and Saddlesong's Courtney and Carter Little. "Sometimes when you first meet people, they don't get it, and they don't see you," Penny says. "I immediately got the feeling that Eric got it. He wasn't going to try to remake what was me."
Dale and Fritsch went to work at Eastwood Studios in East Nashville, in the "Barn" as Eric calls it; fitting for the Gypsy Cowgirl. They recorded 12 tracks, 11 of which Penny wrote or co-wrote. One is the highly autobiographical "Cowboys And Angels." "I like to write by myself, and I have found a group of folks I also co-write with," Penny says. "I like it when I've started a song and have an idea, and then can take it to someone who might be able to further it along."
With this album, Penny Dale has truly found her voice as both a songwriter and an artist.
"I have worked in this business a long time with many of the greatest artists in the world," Rosemary Butler says. "I have seen what it takes to make it in this business. Penny Dale has got it."
Some of Music Row's best are already noticing. At last, the Gypsy Cowgirl is ready to ride.
Performing Artists are listed alphabetically by last name:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
If you would like to be added to this directory email us: .
