Edie Brickell & New Bohemians grew out of the club scene of Denton, TX. First noticed for their dynamic live shows, they signed with Geffen Records and had a Top 10 hit with their debut single "What I AM", from the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (went 2x platinum in the United States). The band has reformed and will be hitting the road in 2018 with their amazing mix of rock, folk, blues, and jazz.
The world at large might have assumed that Edie Brickell & New Bohemians had called it quits after the grueling non-stop touring and promoting that followed the surprise, multi-platinum success of the group’s 1989 debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, and its high-pressure 1990 follow-up, Ghost of a Dog. Brickell herself did choose to step away from the intense spotlight, a place in which she never completely felt comfortable, but she never forsook her music or the companionship of the guys with whom she started. The relationship turned long-distance and long-term as Brickell left Texas for New York and each of them followed individual musical and personal directions. When they would casually reunite, however, it was clear the chemistry that fueled their earliest encounters hadn’t diminished.
“Every time I went to Dallas,” Brickell recalls, “we would get together and jam. Hours would pass by, whole days. It was so much fun to see what was in everybody’s subconscious, it was as if were putting a puzzle together at the same time. After working with other musicians here and there, I’ve learned that the New Bohemians can really jam. They don’t say, ‘Oh what was that, let’s go back,’ they don’t interrupt the flow. If you just keep playing, verses and choruses happen naturally. As a singer and songwriter you can feel a song evolving and these are guys who understand that and they hang in there with you. If you stop and start and stop and start, you are basically crafting a song rather than feeling it. That’s what makes our relationship really unique; everybody understands the art of letting things flow.”
Two and half decades have passed since the seemingly overnight success, and now Edie Brickell & New Bohemians are pleased to return to where they began, with no lingering misgivings about the past. As Brickell, who has also released two albums under her own name, puts it, “I don’t believe in glory days. I don’t measure my life by a hit. Thinking that something should have been better or could have been better – well, I think things are just as they ought to be now. I still have stuff inside that I want to express and I feel lucky to have an outlet and friends to do it with.”
As a solo artist, Brickell released Picture Perfect Morning (1994) and Volcano (2003). The video for Picture Perfect Morning's "Good Times" was included as part of the multimedia samples featured on Microsoft's Windows 95 Companion CD-ROM. In 2011, Brickell wrote the title track, "The Meaning of Life," for Tamar Halpern's film, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life.
In April 2013 the album Love Has Come for You, a collaboration with Steve Martin, was released. They appeared together on talk shows, such as The View and Late Show with David Letterman, to promote and perform songs from the album. The album was nominated for a Grammy for Best Americana Album and the title track won a Grammy for Best American Roots Song. Subsequently, she toured with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers throughout North America.
In 2016, the musical Bright Star, to which she contributed music, lyrics, and story opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre. The album from the musical was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Musical Theater Album.
