Johnette Napolitano

“Amazing, you’re amazing.”
From “Amazing”/Scarred'

An L.A. daughter whose name is synonymous with songs about the city’s honking traffic blur and Hollywood Boulevard’s forgotten dreamers, Johnette Napolitano has followed her musical fancies for more than two decades, most famously with Concrete Blonde, as a singer-songwriter-musician whose boundless voice was an instrument of power and passion.

The lurking smells and secret lairs of the French Quarter after hours took listeners into deepest, darkest New Orleans on “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song).” No bus tour of the stars’ homes was as evocative of the long-gone glamour of Tinseltown Town as “Still in Hollywood” (the real “I Love L.A.”). Concrete Blonde's biggest hit, the haunting, soothing “Joey,” became a radio staple that fans still cheer for at her solo shows. Along the way, she’s explored othe musical avenues with Pretty & Twisted, Vowel Movement,The Heads, and a collaboration with Concrete Blonde and Los Illegals.
Scarred, Napolitano’s staggering new solo album, finds the artist in an unconstrained, more cinematic phase of an already rich career. Living under Joshua Tree’s endless sky and bazillion stars has inspired the songwriter to dig into emotional new territory. “I'd figured by this point in my life, I'd be in writing/art/semi-retirement mode, and wanted to be in a place like this and just be Georgia O'Keeffe,” she says. “I can make all the noise I want because there isn't anything out here, so the only thing to do is write and work on my art stuff. If you'd had told me I'd still be making records and touring at this point, I wouldn't have believed it, but why the hell not? But it's very spacy out here, and quiet, and I can hear ideas come through. I don't know what it is about the place, but it just clears my head.”