Nell Bryden

Nell Bryden in 2008.

Nell Bryden (born March 8, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, to parents themselves a singer (Jane Bryden) and artist (Lewis Bryden). A classically trained musician (she studied the cello for ten years), Bryden dreamed of becoming an opera singer before hearing Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin for the first time. After some time spent in Australia honing her craft, Bryden attended Wellesley College where she graduated in English Literature with honours. It was during this time that she began performing her songs live.^[1]

Bryden was living in Greenwich Village in New York during 9/11, an event that had a "profound" effect on her. The following year she recorded an album in Nashville,[1] and toured the US to support the album. Disillusioned with the music business, she travelled to New Orleans to write a new album, inspired by the jazz, roots and blues influences of the Crescent city. Bryden began recording with producer John Hill, but after the project ran out of money they returned to New York with a half-finished album. Two weeks later Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, displacing many of the musicians on the record and destroying much of the town.

Bryden began touring the UK and Ireland by self-booking her tours, playing up to 250 shows a year abroad, opening for artists such as the Counting Crows and KT Tunstall. After coming across a Milton Avery painting during an attic clear out (a gift from her father when she was still a baby), Bryden auctioned the piece and received a substantial amount for it. She then used the money to re-record her album, but this time around bringing on board Grammy-winning record producer David Kershenbaum.^[1]

The resulting album What Does it Take came out on 12 October 2009 on Cooking Vinyl in the UK and Ireland, and has enjoyed considerable critical success.^[2]

In 2008, following a chance meeting with a US Army colonel at SXSW in Austin Texas, Bryden flew to Iraq to play for the Armed Forces. Her second tour there in 2009 was documented by Susan Cohn Rockefeller for her film Striking A Chord.^[3] The film is about the healing power of live music for combat-related stress, which can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Nell Bryden Biography
2. ^ Nell Bryden press archive
3. ^ Striking A Chord (2010), an award-winning documentary about the healing power of music.

External links

• Nell Bryden official Website

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Name	Bryden, Nell
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Date of birth	March 8, 1979
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