Piney Gir

Storytelling is the key to Piney's appeal. Her enthralling brand of melancholic glamour draws you into a curiously tender world of drunkards, heartbreak and a menagerie of animals. Sure it's painful, but Piney somehow manages to make you feel good about being sad.

At her best there is more than a twinge of Kirsty McColl to Piney's tales of love and disappointment. 'Love Is A Lonely Thing' uses a gentle harp and wistful woodwind to create the mystical air of enchanting despair, worthy of a lost and lonely Disney princess forced to live in the cold reality of 21st century dating.

Deceptively deep, The Yearling begins from a place of hokey kitsch that is perfectly charming in a 1950s lift music way, but that begins to grate after about the third listen. Nevertheless, after the mid album lull of coma-inducing repetitive tracks such as 'Blixa Bargold's Bicycle', Piney manages to defy expectations and generate some incredibly heartfelt, well constructed and dangerously honest love songs.

'Weeping Machine' is a rousing rallying cry to everyone that has had the unfortunate experience of a much less that perfect lover and the necessary exorcism of their memory that follows. Haunting choirs of ethereal groans mimic the ghosts of exes long past that haunt us still.

Lute-like sultry tones mixed with Parisian accordion on 'There Was A Drunk' tugs at the heartstrings of a disengaged generation all too used to feelings of use and abuse without any hope of understanding. Contrasted with this is the adorable, light-hearted ditty that is 'Blithe Spirit'. Simplistic guitar mixed with cheeky, childish chimes and a skipping syncopated beat makes for a summery breeze through Piney's sunnier side.

Finishing the album with a flourish, 'For The Love Of Others' manages to meld Piney Gir's styles. Here we find a tune which effortlessly flows from sighing jazz horns to stripped down guitar led marching beats, finally incorporating gospel choirs to elevate your spirits in hymn-like exaltation.

Despite being Kansas-born, the red-haired vixen is now London based, so those of us in the South can be sure of the opportunity to catch her live show in the near future. If bitter sweet ballads are your thing then Piney Gir definitely merits a listen.
- Daily Music Guide

Welcome to the world of Piney Gir. It’s a world inhabited by a wonderful but frustrated artist who’s released four albums and never really received the recognition they deserved; an artist who conjures songs which take you to a lovely, fuzzy place full of lush, warm vocals and violins that swirl around you and make you smile. A world where folk runs free.

This LP contains a number of familiar elements which will please the beard stroking, real ale drinking end of the folk spectrum, but there’s also a much more accessible feel to The Yearling that should ensure it has the same mass appeal as Laura Marling’s Alas, I Cannot Swim.

However, where you were left feeling that Marling became ‘folk’ because critics couldn’t really figure out where else to place her, Piney Gir genuinely slots into the genre’s Green Man loving aristocracy. There are stories here, and that’s what we want from our folk music, isn’t it? ‘Oleanna’, for example, tells a sorry tale of heartache across geographical borders that would even break Maggie Thatcher’s iron-clad heart.

If yarn-spinning isn’t really your thing, fear not: the soft vocals and Celtic string arrangements of ‘Not Your Anything’ and ‘Love Is A Lonely Thing’ – which feels as though Ms Gir should be performing it draped over a piano in a 1920s film – both prove that there is still much to be enjoyed on this album.

The Yearling is full of songs that wrap themselves around you like a giant blanket and administer a great big musical hug. It’s wonderfully unassuming, undeniably sweet and the perfect gateway into the landmine filled world of folk music.
- Artrocker

First off, a warning. I do not recommend listening to the album if you’re feeling a bit negative about your love life, for whatever reason – ructions in current relationships, the end of a relationship or singledom. Seriously. It’ll have you bawling before you know it.

Yes, the ex-Schla La La and eponymous leader of the Piney Gir Country Roadshow has returned, this time with a solo effort. As you’d expect, The Yearling is quirky, lo-fi and imbued with a DIY aesthetic which gives the album a particular charm. However, what is unexpected is just how much it ranges through different styles of songs. From the innocuous opening of ‘Hello Halo’, ‘Say I’m Sorry’ and ‘Blithe Spirit’, the album ranges from the self-pitying lament of ‘There was a Drunk’ (the refrain of which, “I’m really quite nice when I’m sober”, might resonate a little too closely with many listeners) to the pseudo-nursery rhyme of ‘Blixa Bargold’s Bicycle’ and the defiance of ‘Lion (I am One)’, creating a tapestry of somewhat mismatched ideas and motifs.

That’s not to say that the record is scattergun – it’s far from that. As you might expect from a set heavily influenced by country music, threaded throughout the whole album is a sense of regret, of vulnerability, of disappointed romanticism. That comes out in frankly heartbreaking fashion towards the end of the record on the double-header of ‘Love is a Lonely Thing’ and ‘Weeping Machine’ – if these two leave you cold, you’re a heartless beast. Indeed, you do end up wondering just what poor Piney went through during the creative process in order to come up with two such soulwrenching pieces of music.

It’s not all doom and gloom, though: final song ‘For the Love of Others’ takes a more positive tone, and rounds off the record in a more upbeat – albeit still contemplative – mood. It’s not always an easy record, it’s often a slightly subdued listen, and it’s a constantly quirky and emotionally involving experience. The Yearling won’t set the world alight, but it’s certainly a beguiling and satisfying little record that is a worthy addition to Piney Gir’s oeuvre. - Drowned In Sound

So here comes Miss Piney Gir, a Kansas country lady based in London, with her third album and vintage dresses and toys as part of the project troupe as far as visuals and tunes go.

Do not take it lightly, though. Her musicianship is clearly exposed through moving and carefully crafted songs that vary greatly in influences such as acapella teasers like ‘199 to Elephant and Castle’, country jazz with perky guitar in the introductory ‘Hallo Halo’, traditional rhythmic rock in ‘Say I’m sorry’, comic spells with quirky lyrics and ghost-like effects in ‘Blithe Spirit’ and latin Caribbean tunes wrapped in insect buzz like ‘Bumble Bee’ to form sleepy lullabies or love songs like ‘Oleanna’.

For an album with 16 tracks that could have felt overlengthy and slightly pretentious, her display and mastership in the arrangements using instruments (or sound effects!) as enchanting as violins, accordion, guitar, clarinets, whistles, mandolin, tuba, trumpets, bells, Glockenspiels, cheap toy keyboards or tape recorders is a surprising delight. One track will lead you swiftly to the next in a dance of deeply rooted folk with highly accomplished experimentation and originality. Piney Gir – The Yearling and This Summer’s Darling - For Folks Sake

We have been in love with Piney Gir since Truck Records released her debut album, 'Peakahokahoo', in 2004.

Since then she released an album and various singles with her band, The Piney Gir Country Roadshow, who perform country versions of her solo songs, as well as original tracks.

This month she returns with her second solo album, 'The Yearling', released by her own label Hotel Records, on 14 Sep. You can also catch her live at a number of dates in the coming weeks.

We caught up with Piney to ask our Same Six Questions.

Q1 How did you start out making music?
I was forced to take piano lessons at the age of four. We bought an old second-hand piano and my mom fixed it up, painted it, made the seat all nice and cushy. My glamorous Aunt Mary lived across the street and she would come over and give me lessons. The first song I learned was the Russian folk song 'Volga Boatmen' and I would practice and practice. I hated practicing my scales but I'm glad I did it now. Learning piano and singing a lot at Sunday School gave me a musical education from the get go.

We went to church, sometimes as often as four times a week, and music was a big part of our worship service. It was a real happy, clappy kind of church with a drum kit, horns, strings, guitars, an organ, piano, it was like a mini-orchestra every Sunday. The whole congregation would sing and clap and play tambourines, sometimes people would dance in the isles. There was proper 'speaking in tongues' and all sorts. It was also a really culturally and racially diverse church which, looking back, a few years ago, I think in middle America that was unusual.

We sang all types of different songs, some gospel, some bluegrass, some more contemporary stuff, some old traditional hymns, all of the songs had one thing in common (besides God and God-related themes). They all had very strong melodies, after singing the same strong melodies every week I started to teach myself how to sing harmonies and I think I'm really lucky to have had all that singing practice each week.

Q2 What inspired your latest album?
Growing up. 'The Yearling' is a story about coming-of-age, accepting the bittersweetness of saying goodbye to people, things, places. It's a story of love and loss; there's a lot of pain and hope simultaneously in life all the time.

'The Yearling' is a book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It was written in the 30s and was later made into a film; I read it in my formative years and it always stayed with me. It's a story about a little boy, he was an only child just like me. His father gets bitten by a rattlesnake and has to kill a deer to use its liver to suck out the poison. They discover that the deer has a fawn and so they raise the baby fawn; they name it Flag. The boy and the fawn grow up together, they face adolescence together, they deal with the drama of living in the 30's in the Florida backwoods. As the baby deer matures he starts to threaten the existence of the household. Flag eats the crops that they so desperately need to survive the impending winter, and so the boy has to choose between Flag (his only friend) and the survival of his own family.

Any way you slice it, this story is not going to have a happy ending, and well... the year I wrote 'The Yearling', I didn't really believe in happy endings.

Q3 What process do you go through in creating a track?
A song hits me and I just have to let it take its course, I'm powerless with it. It's like I'm channelling something... it sounds cheesy, but it's as if I am a vessel for this voice inside me. I feel very lucky that I find songwriting so effortless; if I over-think a song I will ruin it, so the best thing is to just sit still with a pen and some paper and get out of the way while the song spills out onto the page.

Sometimes a song will hit me while I'm on the bus/train/tube/plane and then I have to get my phone out and sing into it (which will always get a funny look from someone nearby). Once I write it down I might make a few tweaks to lyrics or whatever, but it's pretty much a done song when it leaves my head. I do have times when I don't write anything but I don't really consider that writer's block, I consider it an incubation period for my thoughts.

At the moment I'm writing loads but I had a six month dry spell after 'The Yearling' was finished so it's about time for the ideas to come flooding out again. This bit is my favourite bit, developing the ideas and going into the studio to translate the ideas into something more concrete. I expect to be back in the studio later this year. I like to have the songs finished and written before I lock myself up in the studio to make the record.

Actually, each stage of the artistic process has its pluses and minuses. Playing live is great fun because you can see how your music connects with people and that's really satisfying. Without that stage of the process it wouldn't feel finished. I think a songwriter needs it all to be fulfilled; to see though the whole life of a song from creation to completion and sharing it with the public.

Q4 Which artists influence your work?
I am a big music fan, but I don't really enjoy categorising music. I wouldn't say, "I only love synth pop from 1981". I'd say, "I really love anything that is good..." And that can include anything from The Everly Brothers, Erasure and Patsy Cline to Schoolhouse Rock and Larry Least...

I adore Claude Debussy, his whole tone scales create a lush sense of space in music. The Andrews Sisters have a superior sense of blending harmonies that seemingly only real sisters can achieve. Stevie Wonder writes amazing music and his delivery is so heartfelt. Vintage Guns N Roses is great for fist in the air fun at The Crow Bar or at a house party. I love Nirvana too... And Violent Femmes and Johnny Cash, Fugazi, Diana Ross & The Supremes really it's so hard for me to make a list.

I adore Dolly Parton, for her voice, for her music but also for her personality. She is such a strong woman who sticks to her guns, she didn't let Elvis take her publishing away on 'I'll Always Love You' and years later when Whitney Houston covered it she was proven to have made the right decision.

She started her own amusement park (which I'm faunching to go to!), she's a great actress (have you seen 'Nine To Five'? What about 'Straight Talk'? Or 'Best Little Whorehouse In Texas'?), and when she goes on stage she puts on a proper show - she will play a white mandolin studded with rhinestones and she will do it with three inch fingernails, she will dance with camp half-naked cowboys, she will sing every note perfectly and she'll have five costume changes without losing one false eyelash. I consider her to be one of my heroes.

Q5 What would you say to someone experiencing your music for the first time?
Don't try to put it in a box please, it won't fit. To see how schizophrenic my musical influences are you get an idea of how varied what I create might be. I find it very hard to pick a style and stick to it, which I think is a good thing. It means with every song I have the ability to reinvent myself and that's exciting for me and hopefully refreshing for people to listen to.

My music is always heartfelt and sincere, it is never contrived. People sometimes tell me they admire how honest my music is, which for me is an ultimate compliment. I also think melody is the most important thing about a song. Without melody there is no song. The harmonies, the production values, the guitar riffs or whatever, that's the frosting and it makes the cake really tasty, but ultimately the cake has to be there and it has to be moist and delicious, otherwise you just have a bowl of frosting with some crumbs and you can't put a candle in that.

Um, so yeah, cake = melody, frosting = everything else, candle = birthday wishes and good stuff like that. I think I make a yummy cake-song-cake-thing.

Q6 What are your ambitions for your latest album, and for the future?
Like most songwriters, I really want my music to connect with people. I am so proud of this album and I think if people open their hearts and ears they will love it. I hope so. I guess I just want a chance to touch people's lives with my art.

For the future, well... I will tour the UK to promote this album in the fall, I will tour America to promote the album when it comes out over there on Grey Day. I will do some one-off shows on the continent. I've recorded the next album already (it's a Country Roadshow album called 'Jesus Wept'), I have an audio book finished and waiting in the wings, I would love to write a musical one day, it is a dream of mine to visit Japan, I would really like a puppy, I want to perfect my cheesecake recipe, and I would like to get a tattoo with a heart and a scroll on it. - CMU

Piney Gir's third album, produced alongside her new friends The Age Of Reason, comes at you in a whirlwind of calamitous quixotism, with affairs of the heart and the trails, tribulations and misfortunes of lost loves and relationships taking centre stage. The breezy, jangly, carefree pop of Say I'm Sorry recalled The Sundays, whilst Blixa Bargeld's Bicycle takes us on a quirky, Vaudevillian route of Regina Spektor on speed, echoed once more through the almost jaunty 30s pop of Blithe Spirit. Gir creates a fusion of electro, country, jazz and an idiosyncratic take on pop which makes her raconteur yarns and troubadour narrative seem like an enchantment created by a magical femme fatale. Just like a female Jonathan Richman or Bright Eyes, Gir's unconventional craft is littered with fables and couplets that you'd be hard pushed to find elsewhere. Journeying through what could be a lost level of twee in Super Mario Land with the dreamy electronica of Early Days, and the 80s Casio keyboard heartbreak of Miss Havisham. The Yearling is a wonderful album, full of joy and gusto, which can help heal the most broken of hearts. - Narc Magazine

Having dabbled in electronica and country Piney Gir aka Angela Penhaligon, returns with a third album that ranges wider but retains her blend of the fanciful and the heartfelt. Originally from Kansas, she's assimilated British whimsy, and songs such as Abelha: Bumblebee and the delicious Of All The Wonderful Things emanate eccentric music hall charm. The Gram Parsons tendencies remain in places, but her songs are just as likely to feature cheap synthesizer or even woodwind. After this low-budget charmer, Piney Gir deserves a bigger allowance and wider attention. - Q Magazine

Piney Gir is a name that many musicians cite as an influence emanating from her varied and extensive musical cv that begun after she wrote her first song aged nine. Originating from Kansas, USA, she was notably the leading lady in female groups The Schla La La’s, Vic Twenty and The Panther Girls before leaping headfirst into a solo career that has seen her span genres including jazz, country and electronic pop.

Summer of 2009 sees Piney Gir release her third full length solo album entitled ‘The Yearling’, produced with sonic collaborators The Age of Reason and allowing for a dramatic direction change yet again through its genre transcending qualities. Experimental at times, with a nod towards her country roots once more, yet encompassing twee moments and folk traditions on it’s 16-track zig zagging journey. And still the electronica rears its digital head, making this perhaps Piney’s most mature and accomplished body of work to date, displaying her sharp aptitude for musicality and a boldness for taking risks.

Aesthetically Piney is an amalgamation of Cath Kidson kitsch and a kooky kind of wonderland, all vintage chintz and country plaid. Effective and striking, and ultimately quite ironic as musically she doesn’t necessarily fit the mould of this visual persona. It’s an unusual combination that makes for a very unusual artist and that in itself is stimulating in today’s musical minefield.

‘The Yearling’ is unleashed on the 14th September in all it’s DIY ethic glory, and if the torrent of rave reviews already being lavished upon it are to be believed this could be the songstresses' further defining moment. So to celebrate this achievement and to offer an introduction into the past, present and the future of her talent, Piney Gir answered some 4or The Record questions via the wonder of email...


4or The Record: For anyone that doesn’t know anything about Piney Gir, tell us how you got involved in music and about your extensive musical cv.
Piney Gir: Gosh! My musical CV is vast because I started playing piano at the age of 4; my aunt was a pianist and she lived across the street from me so she gave me lessons. I was at church 2 or 3 times a week and it was a real happy/clappy church so I learned a lot about harmonies (bluegrass & gospel mainly) there and from the age of 10 I started playing the drums. I went to Uni to study percussion but loads of my stuff got stolen at the end of my freshman year so I changed my instrument major to voice (because nobody can steal that).

When I came to England in 1998 I was invited to join a synth-pop duo called Vic Twenty and we put out a single and toured with Erasure. When we split I put out my first solo album ‘Peakahokahoo’ on Truck Records in 2004. I then formed The Piney Gir Country Roadshow (kinda by accident) and we put out ‘Hold Yer Horses’ also on Truck Records in 2006. Now 'The Yearling' is about to come out on Hotel Records (which is mine & Paris Motel’s label) and I’m really proud of it.

4TR: The name Piney Gir is intriguing, why did you call yourself that and does it have a meaning?
Piney Gir: From the moment I could speak I made up this name for myself: ‘Piney’ and people would be like ‘is that really your name?’ and I’d get mad if someone didn’t call me Piney… so for ages people called me Piney. I think they stopped when I went to school, but it’s kinda always been there as my ‘other’ name.

Gir is because I had this bowl haircut that kind of made me look like a boy and I didn’t want people to get confused so I often said ‘I’m Piney and I’m a GIR!’ (because I couldn’t really say ‘girl’ properly).

4TR: Your don’t necessarily stick to one sound or genre through your music, so in your own opinion how would you describe your music?
Piney Gir: I think this is the hardest question in the world. I am influenced by so many styles of music. Jazz, country, electronica, 60’s doo-wop, 80’s synth-pop, gospel, bluegrass, classical music, indie rock, lo-fi casio beats, bossa nova… All these influences come across on ‘The Yearling’ and I just wouldn’t know how to pigeonhole it. We use a lot of found sounds, so percussion comes from tea cups, cutlery, an empty accordion case… you name it; if it’s in a studio we’ve probably hit it with a spoon, sampled it and put it on the record.

4TR: Was that the sound you have always aspired to create or have you found it has evolved over the years since you released your first album?
Piney Gir: The sound has definitely evolved organically from album to album. I find that songs spill out of my head and I do my best work when I don’t over think anything. Once the song is written it is usually pretty clear how it needs to be treated in the studio. Some trial and error happens (of course!) but usually when the melody is in place the rest simply HAS to go in the direction that it goes because that’s what it’s made to do. The song dictates itself. Does that sound weird?

4TR: Not at all! In that case what influences you musically?
Piney Gir: I really love melody; to me this is the most important aspect of a song. So I’m really influenced by music with strong melodies. I love Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash, but I equally love Bjork and the Cole Porter Songbook and Debussy and The Violent Femmes and Paul Simon’s Graceland and old Disney music. There’s just so much great stuff out there; I can’t list it all. At the moment I’ve got into The Four Lads. They are about as wholesome as it comes; I love that era (the 50’s).

4TR: How does your writing process work? Is it more storytelling as opposed to coming from an autobiographical standpoint?
Piney Gir: It is inevitable that all music with lyrics would have the artist’s own slant on any type of story… so I guess I would say both. I actually feel like I’m not very involved in songwriting as a method (despite being a songwriter!). I feel like I’m channeling music from somewhere else. The less I think about it the better my songs are, so I just let them spill out and think about the details after I’ve written it out. I think I’m very lucky that I don’t struggle with the creative process. I’m almost always writing, but if there are moments when I’m not, I consider it an incubation period and eventually the songs spill out again. I think the worst thing a creative person can do is to freak out if they are not actively creating… that only makes it worse. I quite like the bit where I scribble down ideas that are half done and waiting for the other half to pop into my head and onto the page. That’s the act of creating and going into the studio is making that creative act a tangible thing that can be shared. I love it, all of it.

4TR: You are about to release your 3rd solo record ‘The Yearling’, this time in conjunction with collaborators The Age of Reason – how did you come to work with them?
Piney Gir: Firstly, I met Alex on the synth pop scene when I was in Vic Twenty and he was in Baxendale. We did a gig together at Cherry Jam and we were fast friends from the get go. We’ve remained friends for years and he’s always been really supportive of my work. Simon (the other half of Age Of Reason) came to be my guitarist because the other Simon (the Country Roadshow guitarist) fell off a roof a few weeks before our big main stage gig at Bestival. So AOR Simon offered to step in for Roadshow Simon. In the end it turned out that Roadshow Simon’s broken arm was put in a cast that was the right shape for playing guitar (fate or what? P.s. I’m so glad Roadshow Simon didn’t suffer worsely from falling off a roof!)… so AOR Simon never got to play with the Roadshow but that is how he and I met and started to work together. AOR Simon and Alex have grown up together all their lives and are practically like brothers, so it felt like a very natural team of people to collaborate with.

4TR: What do you think they have brought to the record?
Piney Gir: Together we all developed this sound that is consistent throughout 'The Yearling'. I don’t actually know how to define that sound, but I know that it took three of us, locked in a windowless basement in Hackney for a year to achieve it and it was very much a team effort!

4TR: You have a very strong image – how important is that to you and/or representing your music?
Piney Gir: The image is about giving Piney an identity. I need her to ‘front’ the band because without her… Well, I don’t think I have it in me to get up on stage in front of 100’s of people and bare my soul. It’s a scary thing to do and so intimate because my lyrics are quite blunt and honest really. Piney gives me a persona to hide behind. The songs are 100% me, but Piney is the voice and the vehicle to get it out there. If it was just me, I might stare at my shoes and sing at the floor, I would feel vulnerable. Piney enables me to perform and enjoy it and connect with people. She’s the ultimate ’raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens’ kind of alter ego that’s fun to get lost in. Besides, having an alter ego feels kinda like being a super hero and I like that!

Watch the video for new single 'Say I'm Sorry'...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dJs_jTGlZ8

4TR: Your videos are renowned for their imagery, are you involved in the whole conceptual process behind your videos and what are you aiming to represent about you and your music through them?
Piney Gir: I am very lucky to have talented people that want to work with me. The directors I’ve done videos with are my friends and we bounce ideas off of one another and it snowballs into more ideas until we’re all excited talking about the endless possibilities. At the end of the day though, I do have to put my faith in these people (that’s why the trust and friendship is so important). Because I am a songwriter and not a director I will not tell them how to do their job, in the same way that they would not tell me how to write a song. So we brainstorm together but we reach a point where I have to let it go and they can get on with what they do best… I simply cooperate with them to achieve the vision.

4TR: Are we right in thinking you have made this album in the absence of label support? And if that is the case was that a result of wanting to control the entire creative process of making the record?
Piney Gir: Yes, I have no label here. That kinda wasn’t my choice (I am not such a control freak really!) but after shopping the album around and getting all kinds of great feedback from labels, and feeling really strung along by some of them (err… you know who you are guys!) I thought, ‘Sod it! I am not going to wait around for some label. I want my baby out in the world!’ And so I’m putting it out myself.

It seems like the music industry is in a weird place at the moment. I could either get caught up in that weirdness or pretend it isn’t happening and get on with things. I chose option b and I’m glad I did. It’s a lot of hard work though.

4TR: What can audiences expect from a Piney Gir show?
Piney Gir: I always, always make an effort to put on a show. We have themes to each gig and sometimes we do interactive songs that involve audience participation, sock puppets, conga lines, underwater gigs and all sorts. I try to project the fun Piney persona that she is… I think a gig is an event and should be treated as such. If someone is up on stage, I feel it is his or her responsibility to entertain; otherwise what’s the point in being up there? I find lots of approaches to live music entertaining but my way of expressing myself is by making each gig inclusive and special and sprucing things up with a bit of glamour.

4TR: How easy is it to translate the multi-instrument, multi-layered sound on record into sounding right for the live environment?
Piney Gir: For a start there’s up to 9 of us in the Age Of Reason & The Reasonettes, so that is a pretty good way of getting a layered sound. Our normal touring party is about 6 and I think in that instance it’s more important to do a good live show than to try and re-create the experience you have listening to the album. The album has some crazy studio-as-an-instrument affectations which I think wouldn’t translate well in a live capacity. I do have a concert in the pipeline that will include a string section and possibly a choir (the last track on 'The Yearling' features a gospel choir and there are strings all over this album) so watch this space because that’s going to be great!

4TR: Where do you find you get the best reaction to your music or shows?
Piney Gir: There’s no rhyme or reason to that. I have had a lot of great shows at a lot of great places and sometimes I’ll go back to the same place and it won’t have the same vibe. I don’t know why that is. I do really love playing in Scandinavia, Greece, Turkey because they simply treat you like royalty in those countries. It’s nice to be treated like a princess sometimes.

4TR: What can we expect for the rest of 2009 from you in the wake of releasing ‘The Yearling’?
Piney Gir: Well, the album comes out in the UK September 14th… I’m doing some live dates around then… The single ‘Say I’m Sorry’ is out in October, so a few more live dates around then. My album is out in the States (on Greyday Records) in October as well and I’m planning a whistle stop tour of the West Coast of America to promote the album. I have a Christmas single coming out in the UK, which I’m currently making the video and b-side for right now! The Piney Gir Country Roadshow’s album is done now too, so I guess we need to think about getting that one out next. Oh yeah, and there’s this audiobook I’ve had in the pipeline for a while, Mark Radcliffe narrates it and there are lots of indie pop stars doing a Radio 4 style dramatic reading on it, it’s beautifully illustrated too. Yeah, my work is cut out for me actually… Bring it on! The devil makes work for idle hands anyway, right? - 4or The Record

Here are some things you should know about Piney Gir (pronounced like girl): she is from Kansas, she sings songs that are vaguely country, with a touch of indie elctronica, she wears big poofy dresses, and her new single Of All the Wonderful Things is a music box of absurdly sweet melody and daisy flower lyrics that could have been plucked out of The Sound of Music.

Piney Gir, otherwise known as Angela Penhaligon is such a master of the cute and whimsical that it seems difficult to believe she could be real. The slow swayed rhythm of her songs references classic tempos and genres, but with a nave doe eyed conviction and her voice, part Jenny Lewis, part Kimya Dawson singing cupcake lyrics that brings about a wistful smile on any unsuspecting listener. Perfect for a slow sunny afternoon, sipping lemonade on a perch overlooking a wide grass field. Or inside a non-air-conditioned cramped apartment, desperately swaying an old fan and melting in Piney Gir's world. Seeing polka dots and petticoats dancing to cowboy hats and acoustic guitars, unsuspecting of the flick in her voice, embracing these old fashioned styles with a sensibility that seems as out of place and wonderfully refreshing in this modern day world. - Baeble Music

In the last couple of years, the Macbeth pub in Hoxton has become synonymous with the Amy Winehouse/Blake Civil-Fielding's saga, for it was its previous landlord that Civil-Fielding arranged to have beaten up. These days, though, the Macbeth is a cool little pub hosting some great gigs, and tonight is a perfect example.


Piney Gir
This rainy Tuesday night the ever excellent Piney Gir and The Age of Reason (and The Reasonettes) headline with support from Cartridge and The Monroe Transfer.
Cartridge are first on, with their synth, cute pop and seven piece instrumental band from London, The Monroe Transfer, really kick start the night with their blend of shoegazy modern classical music with Eastern European influences (if you can imagine such a thing). The band, helped by a viola, violin, double bass, samples, guitars (at one point played with a bow), cello and drums, play an emotional maelstrom of a set. Don't expect to sing along, but do expect to be swept away.

But it's our headliners, Piney Gir and The Age Of Reason (and the Reasonettes) that really steal the show. Dressed in a nautical themed blue dress accessorized with a bespoke pillbox sailor's hat, Kansas born Piney takes the stage accompanied by four male musicians and The Reasonettes, three fabulously dressed and pitch perfect backing vocalists.
Their set tonight looks back in time with songs inspired by great sounds from the past: from the 1940s opener, Hello Halo (a poppy song about a friend’s cat called Halo), to Doo Wop, jazz, 60s pop (the faux naïve and cute Bumblebee also know as Abehla, bumblebee in Portuguese) and even mediaeval influences in the poignantly gorgeous Weeping Machine.

The theme of most of the songs is love and heartbreak, and it sounds like the delicious Piney Gir has had her fair share of chagrin, but this is not a woman who locks herself at home watching crap TV; this is a woman who first and foremost is a musician and all her woes are channelled into composing perfectly crafted tunes with the right balance of sorrow and irony.

Where Lucky Me (written with members of Oxford band Goldrush) and The Great Divide are up tempo numbers one can dance to, Miss Havisham is an intensely touching tune about breaking up and what an ordinary act that is, but also how extraordinarily painful it can be.
Piney is not crying over spilt milk, but asking her ex lover how he could turn something like what they had into such a cheap and ordinary split. And then she asks Miss Havisham ( the jilted bride from Dickens’ Great Expectations in case you didn’t know) what she would do in her situation.

But it's Weeping Machine that grabs my heart with its violent sugar coated claws. Piney's emotions are so palpable that she doesn't even need to have words in the poignant chorus, which is instead filled just with a howl of "oohs", like a distressed animal, so effective that it almost makes me writhe and cry.

It’s soon back to the dancefloor and the sing-a-long, because Piney has a gifted song-writing hand and a song about divorce (Greetings, Salutations, Goodbye from her first album, Peakahokahoo) delivered country style, is all about fighting back. The music is so upbeat it makes you want to go line dancing (and possibly get a divorce).
Ms Gir is also lucky enough to have a stunning, malleable, pitch perfect voice. She can sound like a little girl one minute and a filthy seductress the next. Singing her songs she goes through every emotion contained in them. She has the audience wrapped around her little finger, thanks to the playful rapport she has with them. She interacts, she gets them involved and she tells funny jokes.

Being such a prolific songwriter, Piney has a country project too, Piney Gir Country Roadshow, another excellent outfit playing country music with a modern urban edge.
With so much talent and hard work one has to wonder why Piney Gir isn't an international star yet. Her new single Of All The Wonderful Things featuring Eamon Hamilton of Brakes, and My Imaginary Baby featuring The Piney Gir Country Roadshow, is out May 4th on Purr Records, go buy it and give this girl the success she deserves. We truly can't let such a star fall through the net. - Open Magazine