Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Dallas high school student Winslow Bright to release pop debut in January 2009

By Pegasus News wire

DALLAS — Winslow Bright's name screams pop star, and she now has a catchy, mesmerizing album to prove it. On Friday, January 23rd, Bright, a seventeen-year old Highland Park High School senior, will officially release Lovable and perform live at The Granada Theater alongside Radiant* and Salim Nourallah.

Many teenagers may dream of running off to Hollywood to pursue a career in entertainment, but at the age of fifteen, Winslow Bright did just that. After years of hopeful convincing, the tenacious teenager persuaded her parents to allow her to leave her friends, family, and hard-earned spot on the Highland Park High School freshman cheerleading squad to brighten the lights of Hollywood. However, success proved more elusive in Los Angeles than in her home of Dallas. Since the age of two, the young Bright had been booked steadily as a child model and commercial actress in the Dallas area.

In contrast, Winslow filled her L.A. days with several-yet-too-few television and movie role auditions, acting classes, and vocal lessons. Eventually, her L.A. vocal coach, Bob Garrett, encouraged Winslow to try song writing. Winslow returned to Texas after eight long, lonely, disappointing months. One of her few young "Hollywood" friends offered Bright the sound advice, "Go back to high school. Go to football games, your high school prom, and graduation. Those are things you can't get back."

As Bright, the middle child of five siblings, managed to "get back" to her role as a "normal" teenager in the fall of 2006, she made contact with songwriters in Los Angeles and Dallas. Her L.A. connections led to live performances at venues such as West Hollywood's Genghis Cohen and The Door Dallas, in addition to songwriting collaborations picked up by publishers for television and movie use (Heavy Hitters, ASCAP). In addition to her role as a musician, Winslow has appeared in over 13 commercials and has modeled extensively. As a high school student, she is a varsity cheerleader, founder of the Oprah Winfrey Project O Ambassadors and programming producer of HPTV Entertainment.

Winslow's meeting with Dallas indie producer/singer-songwriter Salim Nourallah led to a two-year-long project and ultimately her independent debut album, Lovable. Nourallah called in several of the best Dallas musicians to perform on the eleven song CD of which Bright co-wrote seven. Musicians include: Jon Lefler (Dashboard Confessional), Chris Holt (The Slack), Don Cento, Rip Rowan, Billy Harvey, Daniel Hopkins (Radiant*), and Carter Albrecht (Edie Brickell and The New Bohemians).

Lovable blends old school, mid-century sounds with teen themes of unrequited love timelessly unresolved in the new millennium. "Could You Be My Baby?" beckons memories of Roy Orbison, with its melodramatic vocals and lyrics.

Bright confesses she wasn't familiar with Orbison until she proposed the song to Nourallah, but when he played Orbison's music, the melody quickly took shape. "Shampoo," sprinkled with whimsical, winking 1960's references, offers a playful dismissal of a relationship, while "Let's Slip Away" provides instant flirtatious dreaminess with the straightforward line, "I could be the one you love, if you want me to." The title track, "Lovable," penned by Nourallah and his brother, Faris, hints at irony with words like "I'm not as lovable as you would like me to be/That's the truth, sorry." The title slyly reveals there is more to this record than simply "pop" music. The album was produced and recorded entirely at Nourallah's Pleasantry Lane Studios in Dallas, where he also produced The 'Ol '97's most recent album.

To hear some of Winslow Bright's songs online go to her MySpace page. Her album will also be available to purchase online soon.

Source: Winslow Bright

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