Thea Gilmore

All Music Guide:

Singer/songwriter Thea Gilmore was born to Irish parents in 1979. Luckily, her upbringing in the astute area of Oxford, England, allowed Gilmore to ignore the new wave reign of the 1980s and motivated her to seek out her parents' Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell albums. Later, she found comfort in the work of Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and the Replacements, naturally absorbing the intelligence behind each artist's work. Gilmore began writing poetry and short stories to amuse herself amidst her conventional surroundings, but she needed something more tangible. She left home at age 16 to go work in a recording studio. Gilmore also founded her own Shameless Records and released her debut album, Burning Dorothy, in 1998. The Lipstick Conspiracies and the As If EP followed two years later, and Gilmore's star power started to buzz.

In the new millennium, Gilmore inked a deal with Compass in the U.S. and finally graced American shores with the 2002 release of Rules for Jokers. Gilmore's third album, 2003's Avalanche, was a much more daring effort for her, and the single "Juliet" earned Gilmore her first Top 40 hit in the U.K. A year later, Gilmore released a collection of cover songs entitled Loft Music. This self-release effort featured Gilmore's renditions of songs by the Buzzcocks, Paul Westerberg, Jimmy Cliff, and the Ramones. Songs from the Gutter (2005) gathered career-spanning cuts not previously available as well as other hidden treasures from Gilmore's catalog of unreleased material. In August 2006, Gilmore issued the emotionally charged Harpo's Ghost, her first set of original material since Avalanche.

Gilmore returned with the ultra-polished Liejacker to mixed reviews in 2008, and became a parent. In typical idiosyncratic fashion, she recorded the seasonal holiday collection Strange Communion, issuing it in 2009 and, in lieu of a new studio offering, released the half-acoustic/half-electric live set Recorded Delivery in 2010. In 2011 Gilmore returned to recording with partner and co-producer Nigel Stonier and co-producer/engineer Mike Cave for her 11th studio offering, Murphy's Heart, recorded both in Liverpool and in Ventura, CA. The cast of 13 musicians for these sessions was her largest to date.

Wikipedia:

Thea Eve Gilmore (born 25 November 1979, Oxford, England) is a British female singer-songwriter. She began her career working in a recording studio, where she was discovered by her now long-time collaborator, producer and sometime co-songwriter Nigel Stonier, whom she married in October 2005.

Career [edit]

Gilmore was born in Oxford to Irish parents and lived in the village of North Aston, Oxfordshire. She became interested in music as a result of her father's record collection, which included work by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and The Beatles. Later, she listened to Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, and The Replacements, among others. She began writing poetry at the age of 15 to cope with the divorce of her parents.

Gilmore released her first album as a teenager, entitled Burning Dorothy, in 1998 and over the course of the next four years, released increasingly well-received albums that earned her a reputation in the UK music press but no chart success. She finally made a breakthrough at 23 with the release of Avalanche in August 2003, which became her first album to break into the Official UK Album Chart, at #62, and spawned two minor hit singles, "Juliet (Keep That in Mind)" and "Mainstream", for which she garnered acclaim for producing a low-budget music video filmed in a local Virgin Megastore. The video received exposure on the BBC's flagship music show Top of the Pops 2.

In 2004, folk singer Joan Baez personally invited Gilmore to open for her during her tour leading up to the US presidential election.

In 2005, Gilmore continued touring commitments, for the first time not releasing a new album (the covers collection Loft Music was widely released during 2004). In October 2005, she and Stonier married in a ceremony near their home in Cheshire.

Gilmore finally returned to recording with the release of Harpo's Ghost in August 2006, after a two-and-a-half-year absence of new material. This was her first album on major label Sanctuary Records after many years of independent releases. The album was once again acclaimed in the music press and UK radio lent their support to the single "Cheap Tricks". Gilmore has been touted by Uncut magazine as "the best British singer-songwriter of the last 10 years...and then some" and has gained steady acclaim for each of her albums.

On 14 November 2006, Gilmore gave birth to her first child with Stonier, a son named Egan, having conducted a UK tour in the autumn whilst heavily pregnant.

Subsequent to the release of Harpo's Ghost she parted company with her manager Sara Austin, left Sanctuary Records and released EP The Threads independently on her March 2007 UK tour with remaining copies sold on her website afterwards.

On 19 May 2008 Fruitcake Records (via Fullfill and distributed by Universal Records) released Liejacker, Gilmore's eighth album featuring contributions from Joan Baez, Dave McCabe, and Erin McKeown. It was preceded on 12 May by the single "Old Soul", a duet with McCabe. In June 2008, Gilmore signed to Rykodisc (Warner) for the United States. Liejacker was released in the U.S. on 23 September 2008.

Thea's first live album, Recorded Delivery, was released on 25 May 2009, on Fullfill/Universal. The recordings are taken from UK shows during 2006 and 2008, with the first half of the album being acoustic, and the second half being electric, with a full band. In July 2009 she released a yearly subscription service / fan club, Angels in the Abattoir. Gilmore rounded out 2009 with the release of an album of Christmas- and winter-themed songs, Strange Communion, featuring eight originals penned by Gilmore and/or Stonier as well as two cover versions – Yoko Ono's "Listen, the Snow is Falling" and Elvis Costello's "The St. Stephen's Day Murders."

Beginning in October 2010, Gilmore and her band were engaged in a UK tour and had good reviews.

In January 2011, Gilmore appeared at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in a tribute concert celebrating the 70th Birthday of Bob Dylan. She performed versions of "I Pity the Poor Immigrant" and "Masters of War." Subsequently, Gilmore entered the studio with producer and husband Stonier and recorded the entire set of tracks found on Dylan's original release of John Wesley Harding. The album – also titled John Wesley Harding – was released 23 May 2011.

2011 saw the release of a collaboration with the late Sandy Denny entitled Don't Stop Singing and, in 2012, the CD single "London" was released from the album (and featured on the BBC coverage of the London 2012 Olympics montage of team GB medal winners). The single was also released as an exclusive Record Store Day 7″ single on 21 April.

In July 2011, Gilmore gave birth to a second son, Asher.