Vonda shepard jackson browne biography
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I never really wanted to go down that route.
FT: How did you get into music in the first place?
VMC: Well, my stepdad (Charles Bronson) bought my brothers and me a guitar each. Vonda Shepard was a backing singer with Jackson for a time, and I played in her band for some time, so I’ve been fortunate.
FT: Do you remember playing on Irish songwriter Nicole Murphy’s album?
VMC: I do, yes.
Jackson lent Vonda his studio for a month, after hearing her play her new songs at soundcheck everyday, and said “if you can have an album finished by next summer, you can sing with me and open for me”.
Interview with Val McCallum
When your mother is movie star Jill Ireland, your father is David McCallum of The man from U.N.C.L.E.
"When I started, I had no idea Ally would be what it's become," she told Hip Online. And I was hoping that this would--you know, that this would happen, and it's happening." In addition to her work for Ricky Lee Jones, Shepard provided similar backup in recording sessions for such artists as Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell.
On the strength of her club appearances in Southern California, Shepard was signed in 1987 to a recording contract by Reprise Records.
Management--Gail Gellman Management, 23852 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 920, Malibu, CA 90265.
Vonda Shepard has risen to national fame as the resident lounge singer on the television series Ally McBeal. The new album, untitled so far, will have “Vintage Vonda” tracks with some deep, funky grooves, but the woman who wrote and sang “Baby, Don’t You Break My Heart Slow” is never about to leave every eye in the house dry.
Her mother, Hadria, walked out on her husband, leaving him to raise all four girls on his own. I remember Harry giving me the thumbs up, and just so proud.
FT: That’s quite a start to a recording career!
VMC: Yeah it was quite incredible. Pfeiffer had become involved with television producer David E. Kelley, whom she would eventually marry.
What are you gonna do?”
I remember just saying: “Well, put it in a record, give me a shot.” I’d heard the track and just knew it needed a bluesy Stevie Ray Vaughan vibe. You can certainly hear the fusion of these two styles, in listening to Vonda’s albums.
A few years back, Shepard had one of the most unexpected and exhilarating experiences of her career; her belated debut as a musical stage actress.
There's the desire to get married and have kids someday, but questioning that at the same time. A lot of time hanging around in the trailer waiting to be called, sometimes all day, so we would just chill playing Townes songs and the like.
FT: And out of Vonda’s band arose Jackshit?
VMC: We all really enjoyed playing together so much we developed this alternate band with a factious background and alter-egos.
That series, of course, was Ally McBeal. However, the enormity of the opportunity she was being given at first eluded Shepard. We’ve been playing for quite a while, and developed a bit of a cult following. Jackson lending his world class studio was monumental in Vonda being able to finish the album, It’s Good, Eve, which eventually led directly to Vonda’s friend, David E.
Kelley, offering her the job on a new show he was writing, called Ally McBeal. “I’ve heard that Paul Simon fills four legal pads with lyrics for one song alone,” she says. She and sisters Rosetta, Luana, and Brianna moved from New York to Southern California when Shepard was still quite young.