POLLY JEAN HARVEY (PJ HARVEY)
Polly Jean Harvey (born 9 October 1969), known as PJ Harvey, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, writer, poet, and composer. In 1991, she formed an eponymous trio and subsequently began her professional career. The trio released two studio albums, Dry (1992) and Rid of Me (1993) before disbanding, after which Harvey continued as a solo artist. Since 1995, she has released a further nine studio albums. Among the accolades she has received are the 2001 and 2011 Mercury Prize for Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000) and Let England Shake (2011), respectively — the only artist to have been awarded the prize twice — eight Brit Award nominations, six Grammy Award nominations, and two further Mercury Prize nominations. Rolling Stone listed Rid of Me, To Bring You My Love, and Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. (More from Wikipedia)
As reported on Wikipedia: “On August 16, 2008, Queens of the Stone Age performed a concert in celebration of Natasha Shneider’s life at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. They were joined on stage by Alain Johannes, Tenacious D’s Jack Black and Kyle Gass, Matt Cameron, Brody Dalle, Jesse Hughes, Chris Goss, and PJ Harvey, playing a variety of QOTSA and non-QOTSA songs. Proceeds from the concert went to defray the costs associated with Natasha’s illness.”
(April 2015/2)
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After I ordered one of Penelope Houston’s albums, The Pale Green Girl, I was struck by how strong the music was, how of a piece it was with the Avengers material. Even though the guitars are muted, calling her solo albums “folk music”, as many rock critics do, does her a disservice if you ask me; she is more PJ Harvey than Judy Collins. I wrote her a note and told her so, I think when I ordered The American in Me. She thanked me in a short note and then wrote: “I guess you can take the girl out of the punk band, but you can’t take the punk band out of the girl.” She signed it “P”, and put a star at the top. That handwritten note from Penelope Houston made with a Sharpie is one of the items that I miss most from what we lost in Hurricane Katrina.
(March 2017)
