Sings Like Hell: Stone Cupid With Julie Christensen, Natalie D-Napoleon

Julie Christensen, courtesy photo

Julie Christensen, courtesy photo

Friday night’s Sings Like Hell! Series at Lobero Theatre features Stone Cupid with Julie Christensen, with opener Natalie D-Napoleon.

Songwriter Christensen co-fronted Los Angeles punk-roots pioneers Divine Horsemen, and sang with Leonard Cohen for several years, among other notable artists.

After five independent solo albums, she formed the Nashville band Stone Cupid and is releasing the debut album from her new band, “The Cardinal,” on Jan. 22.

Christensen’s original songs are as varied as her evolution and career. Over the years she has sung with Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Steve Wynn, Lou Reed and Van Dyke Parks. On “The Cardinal” Christensen penned her own songs and gathered great co-writers. She garnered strong songs from her friends, including Chuck Prophet, Amelia White, Kevin Gordon, Dan Navarro, David Olney and Leonard Cohen.

“This current lineup fell together almost fatefully, and the songs seemed to play themselves,” says Christensen. “It was so natural, so simpatico, like some concurrent extra-spiritual thing.”

Opening the show will be Natalie D-Napoleon. Now a Santa Barbara resident, D-Napoleon was raised on Croatian folk songs and American standards like “Blue Bayou” upon a farm clinging to a working class town near Perth, the singer-songwriter (family legend has it that she’s related to THE Bonaparte) makes her mark on the roots music scene with original lyrics, impassioned delivery and her lamenting reflection on the human condition.

The show takes place Friday, Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. at Lobero Theatre, 33 E. Canon Perdido St. For more information or to purchase tickets click here.

 

—Leslie Dinaberg

Originally published in Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine on December 1, 2015.