In Scarsdale by Julia Douglass

Think Julia Douglass"--Allen Foster, Songwriter's Monthly

"Julia is the Lilith Fair with brains" -- Meredith Ochs, WFMU-FM

"Her songs are odd treasures" -- Janet Steen, Time Out New York

Past radio appearances:

WFUV-FM, NPR, PRI "Mountain Stage"

WPKN-FM, Bridgeport, CT

WFMU-FM Jersey City, NJ "Trash Twang and Thunder"

WBAI-FM, NY, NY "The Fred Geobold Show"

WCUW-FM Worcester, MA "The Richard Fox Show"

WERS-FM Boston, MA

WHRW-FM SUNY Binghamton, NY

"In Scarsdale" is Julia Douglass' follow up album to her critically-acclaimed debut album, "Fetish for the Underdog" (Stylus Records).

Beautifully produced by renowned producer Steve Addabbo (Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin), her voice is better than ever, with impeccable phrasing and a humanity that draws listeners in. The spare instrumentation shows off these songs for the gems that they are.

"With 'In Scarsdale' I'm using Scarsdale as a metaphor. You know, it's about when you get older and have to leave the City because you just cannot stand having 5 roommates and 98% of your paycheck is going to your rent in a terrible apartment with thin walls, and your neighbor is a rock band, and there are cockroaches. And you realize it's just not for you anymore. And that's a nice feeling. It's sort of nice to have a bit of growth, and a bit of serenity and clarity about who you are. But it's also sort of poignant to say goodbye to that time in your life, as awful and wonderful as it all was."--Julia Douglass

Originally from Hopkins, Minnesota, Julia Douglass was a French horn player well on her way to a classical and academic music career. She received her Bachelors Degree in Music from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, and then moved to New Haven and Yale to do graduate work. Upon receiving her Masters Degree from the Yale School of Music, in 1990, this former member of The Duluth Symphony (second chair French horn), decided to forego the Ph.D., quit graduate school, and immediately moved to New York City.

"I'm not sure why I moved to New York," says Douglass. "I didn't want to go back to Minnesota. I didn't want to be a professor, I didn't want to play the French horn. I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I was looking for adventure and New York was close to New Haven, and New York seemed like a good place to have a twenty-something midlife crisis."

But it took awhile for things to work out, and while she was experimenting with songwriting, she first took up digs at the Brandon Residence for Women on the Upper Westside, run by The Salvation Army. "At first it was quite a novelty," says Douglass. "It made me feel like Sylvia Plath. But well, after awhile, I started to feel a little too much like Sylvia Plath."

She had the good fortune to be fired from her first job. An insufferable position in the publishing industry, thus allowing her to stay out very late on a school night, where she made her New York debut as a singer with a impromptu 4am performance on the stage of McGovern's Bar then at 305 Spring Street. She went over great, they booked her for another gig, and she even met her husband. "Thank God I was fired," says Douglass. "What a wonderful night that was. That's when my life really began." And the rest is history.

Due to sky high rents, Douglass was recently forced to leave her beloved Manhattan and move to Westchester. "I knew this was going to happen," she says. "I wrote 'In Scarsdale' two years ago as a joke, when I was laughing with my groovy downtown, arty friend Russ, who has a rent controlled apartment in Soho and is always bragging about it. And I would be dying because year after year my rent would just go higher and higher. I kept saying 'promise to call me when I'm in Scarsdale.' And we would laugh and laugh. And look what happened. I guess the writing was on the wall."

"But you know what? I'm getting a lot of good nights sleep in Westchester." Although Douglass is not exactly in Scarsdale, she is pretty darn close. "I'm on the Scarsdale line. it's just a matter of time you know...."

A popular New York City performer, Douglass is a generous artist who combines humor, intelligence and a ferocious intensity that resulting in performances that are hilarious, moving and above all, extremely musical.

Discography

"In Scarsdale" (Smirk records, 2002), producer: Steve Addabbo (Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin)

"Fetish for the Underdog" (Stylus records, 1998), producers: Jamie Candiloro, Ken Richards avilable on amazon.com

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