Joan Wasser and Morrissey?

[goinghome]

On the trail of support acts for Morrissey during the solo years - http://allyouneedismorrissey.com/topic/4467049/5/ -, it seems that in February 2000 musicians from the band of Jeff Buckley, not long deceased, ended up opening for him in New York, fronted by a female singer who went on to become known as Joan as Policewoman. Is this common knowledge, can anyone confirm it? Here's what I found:

- Black Beetle - 25 Feb 2000

Morrissey played the Roseland Ballroom in New York on 25 February 2000 during the Oye Esteban tour of North America, and a band called Black Beetle opened for him. If I'm correct, this, once retrieved and scrubbed up, is also quite a find because from the late '90s after Jeff Buckley died, his musicians reformed with his girlfriend, Joan Wasser, as Black Beetle for a short while until later in 2000. If anyone knows for sure that it's one and the same, please let us know. This group did record an album but it was never released. Joan Wasser cut her song-writing teeth with Black Beetle and afterwards forged a successful solo career under the moniker Joan as Police woman.

...You were in a band called Black Beetle, formed with the remaining members of your ex-boyfriend Jeff Buckley’s band in 1997, after his accidental drowning? What made you leave the band and go off on your own? Black Beetle is where I learned to write songs. I was writing them with this guy and also separately. I tend to be really attracted to strong personalities. I’m one myself. It can create this incredible chemistry or it can be really difficult. In this situation it turned out to be difficult. We made a record and then the band broke up. I think, in general, it can be hard for a band to have two different people who are the songwriters.

Are you tired of talking about your relationship with Jeff Buckley and the aftermath? It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it. It’s that it’s not my place to be talking about certain people, especially because I’m no longer in contact with them anymore. I have to be very sensitive to them. Because even though we had a really tough time getting along at a certain point, I have tons of love, and hope the best for everyone...

That's from an interview with blackbookmag earlier this year - http://www.blackbookmag.com/music/joan-wasser-on-her-new-album-jeff-buckley-and-feminism-1.37587

Youtube summarises her career which, after the stint in Black Beetle, included:

...Along with working as a violinist for hire with artists as diverse as Sheryl Crow, Hal Willner, Rufus Wainwright, and Antony and the Johnsons, Wasser developed her own songwriting, and formed Joan as Police Woman in 2002. The band released its first single, My Gurl, early in 2003, and self-released the Joan as Police Woman EP in 2004. Joan as Police Woman signed to the British label Reveal, which issued their full-length debut, Real Life, in summer 2006, along with the Eternal Flame, Christobel, and The Ride singles. Real Life was released in the U.S. in summer 2007. To Survive, which featured a cameo by Rufus Wainwright, followed in 2008. For 2011's The Deep Field, Wasser reteamed with Bryce Goggin, co-producer of Real Life, and took a happier, more upbeat approach.

- http://www.youtube.com/artist/Joan_as_Police_Woman#

That first solo single, My Gurl, sounds like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxpIylPU3TE&feature=watch_response


Here's a video of a more recent song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMCQJ11aotg&feature=related
-

(Quite accidentally I picked up a copy of Jeff Buckley's posthumous album, Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, yesterday, which is dedicated to the Sufi Qawwali singer, Nusrat Fateh ali Khan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nusrat_Fateh_Ali_Khan - who seems to have influenced at least track 7, New Year's Prayer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21XRCc03cNs&feature=related

 

[RobLand]

I cannot confirm it, but I have read about it a few different times in a few different places. I have no reason to doubt it. (I'm pretty sure it was even mentioned in her press material.)

Also, I just want to say that I am a huge Joan As Policewoman fan. She's great and I really hope that "lost" Black Beetle album sees the light of day.

 

[goinghome]

I cannot confirm it, but I have read about it a few different times in a few different places. I have no reason to doubt it. (I'm pretty sure it was even mentioned in her press material.)

Also, I just want to say that I am a huge Joan As Policewoman fan. She's great and I really hope that "lost" Black Beetle album sees the light of day.

Thanks, RobLand. I hadn't actually read about it before, and I've seen her live a couple of times in the last few years, so this news reached out and grabbed me. Possibly my favourite song by her, is,

To the right there are links to some interviews with her. If that Black Beetle album ever does crawl out from under the rug, it should create a stir.

 

[sistasheila]

i can recall reading somewhere she is a smiths/morrissey fan/admirer.

 

[RobLand]

I couldn't find what I had read about her and Morrissey, but I did find this:
http://www.morrissey-solo.com/news/2000/916.shtml

 

[goinghome]

Well, that clinches it, doesn't it, Robland? Good find.

The last time I saw Joan as Policewoman in the Button Factory a few years ago, I went with someone from my hometown, Killarney, and both of us were rather surprised to see another person we grew up with in the selfsame town take to the stage as the support act of the night. That was Mike Bartlett who since produced, on a low-key basis, an album of songs for which Damien Dempsey provided some backing singing. It's all inter-connected, isn't it, like the sea with its rivers and tributaries and streams and underground wells and rain brought forth with the aid of grace? (Isn't that right, CrystalGeezer?!)