Eddie Owen Presents Cypress South Album Release Celebration w/ Special Guests, The Harringtons

Live at Red Clay Theatre in downtown Duluth
Live Oak Records presents "Treasures" the first release of singer/songwriter/pianist Sue G. Wilkinson with her new duo Cypress South featuring 7 string bassist and looping maestro Michael Cady. The CD was co-produced by Atlanta's sonic wizard Martin Kearns & Germany's David Becker two-time Grammy nominated guitarist, composer and producer. Glen Matullo producer/engineer of Pink, John Mayer, Shawn Mullins, Collective Soul and the Indigo Girls also lent his hand engineering. "ALWAYS ONE" a piano/vocal ballad with bassist David LaBruyere (long time collaborator of John Mayer) was voted one of the TOP 20 FINALISTS in the Unisong International Songwriting Contest Performance category along with "ALL FALL DOWN" winner of AAA/Americana HONORABLE MENTION.

Cypress South blends classic Atlanta singer-songwriting (which Red Clay's owner Eddie Owen has nurtured and defined) along with the soul of early rhythm and blues. Lush ambient undertones of electronic keyboards binds the music together to form a unique sound coined "VOX TRIPNOTICA". Sue Wilkinson's keyboards and transcendent vocals co-mingle with Michael Cady's one of a kind 7- string bass. He helped perfect the bass's custom design with the late world renowned luthier Greg Curbow. Michael liked the low notes possible with the Curbow bass, but also like the abilities of the higher strings his former bass afforded him, so he had Greg make him another bass. This bass is his current main instrument. It is a 7-string bass with 33 frets. This gives Michael the ability to play notes lower than a standard 4-string bass, and as high as a standard electric guitar! Michael is able to use this bass to play and record bass lines live, and then to play chords, solos, and melodies over the looped parts; which is integral to the unique experience that is Cypress South's deeply layered sound. So Mike is also the captain and master of our third not quite human band member, a computer generated powerful looping station. Our "band mate" helps us create all the music that we are hearing in our head real time! Mike says, "this is the fun part of the show.. trying to figure out what the heck is going on up here!"

CS's show can sometimes include something special for the eye.Their use of visual abstract imagery has one main directive that Sue and Mike set out to accomplish. Sue says, "We were looking to produce a show that was somewhat like jumping down a rabbit hole and coming up on the other side. So the music along with the abstract visuals capture this feeling of being inside the music."


Sue is a wild child of the south Georgia swamps. As a young girl born with a liberal, artistic sensibility she grew up in the middle of the puritanical south transported around her little town by her Daddy's pickup, one hand holding on to her Carson McCullers novel, the other leg hanging out a window. It is out of this continuing mental dichotomy that Wilkinson weaves her musical tales of recovery, tortured love lost, hope, and a positive metamorphosis out of life's pain. One of Sue's first memories is of singing and tap dancing to the original version of "Jim Dandy" on the front porch of her south Georgia home. "I had on my best tutu, tapping and singing away, hoping someone would notice me. But seeing that I lived on a little dirt street in a tiny town, I was lucky to see an occasional neighbor." Discovery came when she was six years old, in the way of the downtown Baptist Church, her first public solo performance. "I felt so strange at the end of my song, when I looked over at the organist and saw she was in tears. It was much later that I realized that my singing moved people up or down emotionally. I was just a little confused why the nice lady was crying!" Wilkinson says, "My life has been a mix of many seemingly opposite things. I'm from the deep, deep south so you can hear the blues and maybe a little country in the music, but I was trained classically and listened to classical music as well as to alot of the English pop music from the 80's and 90's so you can hear that, too. I was weaned in my little town's conservative Baptist church, but I also was very much a free thinker which most artists are, so alot of my ideas are an amalgamation of both these things. All have had to merge at this point in my life or I would be nuts! You can't be a liberal artist in the bowels of the south without being a little kooky! So my music reflects these diverse and sometimes opposing forces."

Sue has a long history of live performance including tours of Japan, England and Scotland as well as Denmark, home to her Danish label, AP Records. Wilkinson has shared stages with and/or opened up for, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pearl Jam, Art Garfunkel, Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Hem, The Indigo Girls, Jane Siberry, Acoustic Alchemy, Michelle Shocked as well as others. Her awards include an International Telly Award for a documentary original instrumental score Sue co-composed with former Steve Morris bassist Jerry Peek, and Nominee Best Rock Band in Georgia at the Coca Cola Music Awards. Many of Sue's tunes have also been licensed for TV/Film placement. Sue is the voice and co-composer behind a musical collaboration with film scorer, bassist, and recording artist, PATRICK O'HEARN. A Grammy award winner, his electronic-based instrumental music is considered to be the foundation behind the ambient musical movement, not to mention the modern synthesized orchestral sound heard in today's film scores. Patrick has played with Frank Zappa as well as jazz legend Dexter Gordon, and at present John Hiatt. www.cypress-south.com

"Sue Wilkinson has a gorgeous voice, no doubt, like some shimmering symphony of nature Atlanta's Creative Loafing

" She hits rapid-fire intros, takes improvised solos, plays like mad, and it's a pleasure, an inspiration, and a "how does she do that?" to listen to. GoGirls.com

" Piercing yet mellow, languid yet pulse pounding, and undoubtedly some of the most gorgeous cerebral music I've ever heard." MuzikMan.com

" from her acoustic piano and soul-stimulating vocals, Wilkinson not only dissects every dirty emotion, but she wallows around in them until the fear of that emotion is erased. CitySearch.com 

"Hugely enjoyable pounding, stomping, riffing, from the soulful Wilkinson, ripping it up all the way from Atlanta, Georgia." London's Time Out 

ABOUT THE HARRINGTONS...

Stunning, impressive, groove-driven, genetic harmony,” describes the music of this family trio which includes award-winning singer-songwriter Cindy Lou Harrington with daughters Brittany and Taylor. Their debut album, “Life is a Song,” was released by Southern Tracks Records in April, 2010 and their original music has received awards from the Songwriter's Guild and the Georgia Music Industry Association. Opening act credits include performances with Kathy Mattea, Sawyer Brown, and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. For more: www.cindy-lou.com