Her feet dangling from her daddy's overalls, Cindy Woolf was introduced to music by George Woolf and an old C.F. Martin Guitar from the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. Long before she discovered a penchant for love songs, train songs and travel songs, Cindy's earliest memories were of her daddy hauling her around in his overalls while he picked that Martin. She started piano at four, learned hymns from Granny on her front porch swing, then crossed genres again with her punk/pop band, 3 Apples High, in high school. "I just jumped around and sang," she said. A tape was borne, but so was an idea: "I fell in love with performing on stage."
From punk Pixies covers to canned and uncanny vocals, Cindy Woolf - "all sugar and molasses" - has since asserted herself as one of the most creative and thoughtful singer/songwriters working today. Difficult to define, Cindy's music has been called Americana, country, folk, pop and - her favorite - "hillbilly love-pop."
"Cindy Woolf doesn't sound like anyone else, a high compliment in a business full of clones and offshoots," said Dirty Linen magazine.
"Here comes Cindy Woolf, all sugar and molasses, putting her shapely Arkansas accent to work behind songs that Gillian Welch would gladly get stuck in a coal mine for," Richard Gintowt of The Pitch said. "It's humble folk music, but, as in the work of Laura Veirs or Josh Ritter, it earns its bread through the insights and clever turns in the lyrics."
Cindy graduated from open mic night in college to a specially tailored mic of her own to best distribute her unique voice and her two albums: 2005's Simple and Few and 2008's Before Daylight. Ranging from cute to majestic, Cindy's voice ...
"Besides her obvious talent for songwriting, it's her voice that really stands out, often sounding like the musical equivalent of a familiar touch long missed or the voice on the other end of the line that you've been waiting to hear from all night," Dean Ramos of the Illinois Entertainer said.
Mostly acoustic on Simple and Few, Cindy, with a little help from her friends, plugged in while promoting her highly-acclaimed debut album on tour and discovered a new sound. Still armed to the teeth with a big voice and an understated guitar, Cindy's sophomore album turned Simple and Few's dreamy and ethereal sound into Before Daylight's diverse and electric.
The record opens with her new sound ..ry": Funny, playful, backed by a banjo and her thoughtful guitar, Cindy speak-sings an anthem about a constantly buzzing boyfriend on an altogether-too-regular Sunday afternoon. "Gumdrops in your Candyland, castles in your box of sand, building blocks you stack so high, build yourself a stable life." The chorus rings, "You're always in a hurry, won't you wait for me?"
The third song, "Come Home," defines Cindy's work. It starts off with her pulsating guitar, then slowly drips into her lyrics: "The honeybees stopped coming 'round, because there aint nothing sweet since you left town, and those mockingbirds are making fun of me, 'cause I'll have no happy song to sing 'til you come home to me." Her voice - lonely, longing - booms into the chorus, "Come home to me."
To hear Cindy sing a love song leaves little faith left in love at all: How could anyone break this songbird's heart? But not everything is heartbreaking in Cindy's music, her strummy creations like "Sidewalk Stars," "Portland East to Portland West" and "Drive All Night," prove she is more than just a one-trick Woolf.
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