On The Download: Billie Myers' 'Tea & Sympathy'

On The Download: Billie Myers, 'Tea & Sympathy' Fruit Loop RecordsAccess Hollywood

By Jeremy Blacklow

BURBANK, Calif. -- There are few true singer - songwriters around today with the combination of complexity & honesty offered up by Billie Myers. While the music industry is changing drastically, Billie has not; and her third album, "Tea & Sympathy," is her most personal to date. She offers a welcome change from the monotony common from commercial lyricists.

Of course, that's not to say that her music isn't necessarily commercial - she's best known for her huge 1997 worldwide radio hit "Kiss The Rain" and for touring in 1998's Lilith Fair - but few folks are prepared to handle the emotional truth unveiled in the course of her lyrics (which read like poetry).

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I had the chance recently to have lunch with Billie in LA and talk with her about her journey in making her latest album - which arrives a long nine years after the second. We talked about everything from musicians we both loved to crazy nights out in New York City. I didn't bring the reporter's tape recorder... we just got to get to know each other.

Billie is a dynamic and powerful spirit. She lights up the room and turns heads when she walks in. She has strong opinions and she is exciting and engaging in conversation.

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So what happened in that long gap between albums? Well, her second album, 2000's "Vertigo," tanked (although the single "Am I Here Yet? (Return To Sender)," a personal favorite of mine, which was a Billboard No. 1 club track), and after having been dropped by her label (Universal, to which she had been personally signed by long-time president Doug Morris), this outgoing soul slipped into a serious depression.

In the aftermath of Napster, labels were trimming their rosters. Many artists were leaving labels. Those with long histories were more easily able to find success on independent of self-created labels. But neophytes were left in limbo, and Billie was tragically left in the industry's dust.

This lead to an intervention by friends who encouraged her to get back in the saddle. The result was the release of a single, "Just Sex," in 2008, and the subsequent recording of "Tea & Sympathy" (which was released in August 2009) on her personally financed own new label, Fruit Loop Records. The album deals with an intensely personal break-up. The haunting lead single, "I Hope You're Happy Now" recalls a phrase that everyone who has every experience the heartache of a break-up has felt (and perhaps muttered out loud).

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And track after track, the album delivers. Stand-out tracks include lead single, "Lady Jane," which deals with the familiar topic of lost Hollywood dreams, and "Wonderful" which addresses the topic of misguided optimistic romance.

One listen to Billie, and you recognize that what makes her most unique is her difficult-to-describe voice. It is, quite simply, otherworldly. She sings with the pain & experience of greats ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Joan Armatrading, to another Billie - Billie Holliday. Her jazzy voice cries out with emotion and a slight warble - one that demands, "Listen to what I have to say!"

Billie will be performing at The Hotel Caf in Los Angeles on October 4, at 9 PM. I'll be there, and I encourage you to come check her out as well. I guarantee you it will be a very special night of music.

Check Billie out online at www.BillieMyers.com/.

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