Profile

Once upon a time, a pigtailed kid with a big stick stood on a Georgia Mountaintop, singing the birds right out of the trees. At sixteen she began a big zigzag all over this country and far beyond. Then she hit the Pacific Northwest and a certain wild river captured her heart. She homesteaded there for six years.

To this river is dedicated Joanne Rand's seventh self-produced album. Into the River. "Dive in! The river is yours, the river is now, river of life."

During the late 1980s this same river gave Rand the guts to come out as a radical singer songwriter, capturing hearts throughout the US. She has been touring and recording ever since, weaving her life into her work: from the loss of her brother to AIDS (songwriter, Jordan Rand), to the birth of her daughter in 1999. Rand, whose style has been dubbed "Psychedelic-Folk-Revival" and "Acoustic Ritual," spins songs of transformation and grassroots power. From audiences of 60,000 to personal appearances for hospice patients, weddings and birthing mothers, Rand moves hearts along a wide spectrum of human existence.

With roots in classical piano, gospel, folk, rock and indigenous music, Rand's career has included performances with Bonnie Raitt, John Hartford, Richie Havens, Janis Ian and members of the former Grateful Dead. During the 1990s Rand anchored Seattle's hometown music scene. At the same time Rand's quartet was voted Best Acoustic Band in Sonoma County by a California reader's poll. With the release of her January 2003 CD, Rand moved back to the wild Northern California rivers and mountains that fed her soul for almost twenty years and the wildness that sparked her as a kid on a mountaintop. She has recently spawned a new band: "The Rhythm of the Open Hearts". A score of new songs written during 2003-04 are being released this summer on her new CD, entitled "Where Our Power Lies."

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Contact
www.joannerand.com