LOS ANGELES, May 8 -- Perfect Time For A Breakdown is
Sharon Little's debut national release and a signpost of a career very much
on the ascent. The album, set for rush release May 27, was completed only
one week before Sharon hit the road for a string of tour dates in support
of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett on the first leg of their
Raising Sand North American Tour. June will see her join the tour for its
second leg which includes stops in New York and Los Angeles. Sharon was
chosen by the headliners for this supporting role over numerous other
artists. Remarkably, it's only been since January of this year that the
Philadelphia native has made the transformation from waitress to major
concert attraction.
Little has earned critical kudos for her earlier independently released
recordings and club appearances, including a rave from Los Angeles area
critic/HITS Magazine columnist Roy Trakin: "[Little possesses] a sultry
croon capable of soothing, arousing or exploding into a Janis Joplin-esque
howl when you least expect it ... By all rights, Little should be a big
star." Helen Leicht of the influential Philadelphia radio station WXPN
wrote of a recent live performance, "What soul! You always hope to be that
moved by a concert."
The songs on Perfect Time For A Breakdown were written by Sharon and
her collaborator, Scot Sax, who co-produced the album with Mark Howard,
noted for his work with Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Lucinda Williams. The
album's 11 tunes were inspired, in part by numerous, cross-country train
adventures Little and Sax have experienced over the past two years. Those
journeys further strengthened a musical and personal collaboration that
began in 2006 with a meeting at Milkboy Coffee Shop in Philadelphia.
As Sharon explains, "We knew we had each met our creative match within
minutes of sitting down with each other. Scot and I found that we brought
different approaches to songwriting, and discovered that each possessed
what the other one needed. Before we met, we were two separate halves of a
whole, and now, looking back, in each other we met ourselves."
Sharon Little's musical passion and songwriting began as an outlet for
her grief over the loss of a close friend at the age of 16. She sang backup
for many Philadelphia bands and developed her style and burgeoning
reputation while singing blues and jazz standards at local clubs to make
ends meet.
While she was gaining fans and earning compliments wherever she sang
and played, Sharon credits her partnership with Scot for putting her career
on track. "He was the first person experienced in the business who didn't
just talk about what I should be doing -- he actually did something about
it." From co-writing and recording, to taking pictures and traversing the
country with Sharon for low-paying gigs, Scot helped plot a course to where
Sharon needed - - and deserved -- to be.
Two independent records and countless gigs across the U.S. brought
Sharon to the attention of CBS Records who hotly pursued her after a brief
performance at Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles in the summer of 2007. As CBS
Records head Larry Jenkins explained, "It took all of two minutes of
hearing Sharon sing and watching her perform for all of us to look at each
other knowing that we would do everything possible to bring her to the
label. We made it our mission to share her amazing artistry with the
world."
The whirlwind of recent activity has seen Sharon Little, a coffee shop
waitress in January who became a recording artist in February. By April,
she was earning standing ovations at major concert dates. Upcoming: the May
release of Perfect Time For A Breakdown followed, in June, by a string of
major market bookings with Page/Krauss/Burnett in support of the album's
release. Don't, however, mistake Sharon Little for an overnight sensation.
That's an understandable, but erroneous, conclusion to draw; the reality is
that she's been honing her craft as a songwriter and performer for almost a
decade. It's only that her time, clearly, has come and that time, by all
indications, is now.
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