Muscle Memory

Fiery, funny, funky and finely-tuned, The Halley Devestern Band's new album, Muscle Memory, fulfills the promise of earlier works, taking the hellacious energy, intelligence and power of Sugar Free, Live At The Towpath Inn and Superhero Killer to ever more dizzying heights. Songs about everything from sexual frustration to life on the American highway to church camp to cautionary tales of money and mortality to heavenly gratitude to freedom of expression to vengeful triumph make Muscle Memory a virtual Canterbury Tales for the 21st Century. Singer Halley DeVestern tells it with bluesy banshee wails, tongue-in-cheek taunts and wounded whispers, while the band paint lush murals behind her. Personnel: Halley DeVestern - vocals (Big Brother & The Holding Company) Tom Heinig - bass (Lamont Cranston Band, Mill City Band) David Patterson - guitar (Shawn Mullins) Rich Kulsar - drums (Toasters, Zen Tricksters, Mickey Dolenz) Cybele Kaufmann - backing vocals and love goddess extraordinaire Reviews/Band Bio '[Halley's] got the biggest pipes I've heard on a babe in a long time.' - Bonnie Bramlett... 'Forget about the love songs, Halley . Keep patiently singing the way you do now, and major success is inevitable.' - MTV Online... 'Halley Devestern has a big, ballsy voice and knows how to use it. She's got the funk too! harkens to the great Maria McKee and Lone Justice.' - Ear Candy... 'Damn, that girl kicks ass!' - Holly Figueroa, founder of Indiegrrl... 'Instead of railing at the world in a high, thin keen, this lady let's loose with a big, bluesy roar. ... The rootsy attack is arresting.' - Listen.com/rhapsody... There's no question that Halley DeVestern has a powerful voice. She's toured with Big Brother and the Holding Company by their invitation. Halley burst on the scene with the release of her first album, Sugar Free, of which Newsday declared, 'Had Maria McKee lived up to her potential, this is the record she would have made.' Live at the Towpath Inn, a live acoustic set taken from club and radio performances was named one of the top 20 CDs of 2000 by The Audio Realm (NWEZ.

NET). The Celebrity Cafe called Superhero Killer 'an album with female vocals in the same lines of Janis [Joplin]'s rough hewn blues, but with an even more raw and even more edgy quality.' The feminist publication Expository Magazine noted that '[song] titles like 'Strangled in the Park' only hint at the territory DeVestern is willing to tread.' 'Collected Sounds' worries, 'Is everyone in the band okay? Do you need somebody to talk to?...

I can confess to the desperate desire to be first in line for their next live show because I have to experience this music to believe it.' DeVestern has been on the cover of Good Times (The Reincarnation of Janis?), and appeared in Billboard, Seventeen, CosmoGIRL, The New York Times, Newsday and many other prestigious publications. DeVestern's raw, bluesy vocals and unique songwriting have won her and the band opening slots for such blues and rock greats as John Hammond, Jimmy Vaughan, Gov't. Mule, Son Seals, Johnny Winter, Bonnie Bramlett and Antigone Rising.