Sally Dworsky

According to Garrison Keillor, Sally Dworksy has “the voice of an angel;” But her new CD Boxes is wholly of this world. With both feet on the ground and a voice as determined and graceful as moving water, Sally tells stories of life on earth at an axial tilt: Time fades and things change. Loved ones pass and new life emerges. Missed trains are sometimes blessings; and throughout this song cycle there is redemption in love and power in life’s mystery. Not that everything here turns out just right, but it does…turn.

Sally produced Boxes on her own, but demurely describes the process as effortless, given the group of luminaries with whom she surrounded herself. They’re all old friends of hers (and of each other) and also happen to be some of the most sought after players in Los Angeles, due to their remarkable and instinctive feel for song. That number includes drummer Jay Bellerose (Paula Cole, Sam Phillips, Ray LaMontagne, Joe Henry and T-Bone Burnett); bassist Jennifer Condos (Joe Henry, Ray LaMontagne, Sheryl Crow, Don Henley); multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz (K.D. Lang, Bill Frisell, Loudon Wainwright, Beck, Dave Alvin); Guitarist Mark Goldenberg (Jackson Browne, Paula Cole, Shelby Lynne), keyboardist Patrick Warren (Aimee Mann, Fiona Apple, Sam Phillips, Seal,); and engineer Ryan Freeland, who has worked with nearly every artist mentioned above.

Sally grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota surrounded by a family of musicians, and immersed herself in the Twin Cities thriving theatre and music scene. The path eventually led to Los Angeles where Sally continued singing for her supper: harmonizing with artists like R.E.M., Peter Gabriel, Don Henley, Teddy Thompson and many others, as well as giving voice to animated characters in films including The Lion King, Shrek and Prince of Egypt. She released a solo EP, Habit Trail, and later paired up with singer/songwriter Chris Hickey to lead the much-lauded band Uma. They released fare well in 1998, and continue to participate in each other’s solo work (the two wrote many of the songs on Boxes together and Hickey does a little singing and strumming here as well). As a songwriter, Sally has collaborated with Eels, Joe Henry, Jane Siberry, Larry Klein and Jonatha Brooke, to name a few.

Sally periodically returns to her native Minnesota and performs on radio’s A Prairie Home Companion with her brother Rich, the pianist and musical director of the show. Sister and brother collaborated on a record of beloved songs by other writers, Start It All Over Again, which was released last year.

Sally has never stopped singing, but Boxes reveals her to be a songwriter with great depth, quirky honesty, and a heart-warming voice that is both heavenly and intensely down-to-earth.