Artist description Cindy Lee Haddock, by herself or with friends. Songs may be acoustic or full, 4-piece rock numbers, although on many early ones, Cindy is playing most or all the instruments herself.

Music Style Art-rock with a harder punkish edge.

Musical Influences Robert Plant, Barbra Streisand, John Denver, Supertramp, Genesis, The Carpenters, Broadway, big band jazz, classical.

Similar Artists Very original, but said to sound like a cross between The Pretenders and Rush.

Artist History Cindy Lee Childress was born to a musical family. Her mother's mother and family played in local grange halls, and taught her mother piano. She copied her father in learning the clarinet and using it to help her get a college education. Her dad's aerospace engineering career took her family all over the US when she was younger, but allowed her to spend most of it in the Seattle area. This was to seriously impact her writing style, and she began writing and playing with friends in Girl Scouts, Guitar Club and in her first garage bands at this time. She returned to her hometown of Houston to attend Rice, joined the MOB, and performed with that irreverent group live and on their cuts of Rhino Records' "Best of 'Louie, Louie'" and "Best of 'La Bamba'," and was seen in the short article in Playboy Magazine that covered the band's antics. She also would be seen playing, singing or dancing at a number of parties, bands and plays, and realized that she could actually make money doing something she loved. Moving to Austin in the mid-eighties, she was followed by and married Ed Haddock. After a short dabble in acting, her coach suggested she join a rock group. As a result, she joined up with guitarist Lynn Keeling, and co-wrote a number of harder-rocking tunes. This pairing didn't last, but fleshing out and arranging simple riffs and adding her own lyrics and melodies to the finished product were valuable lessons, and Cindy used these to start pitching demos to the industry. She played acoustically at a number of local venues and the odd festival, and began putting simple demos together at home. A few of these actually got picked up by industry reps, but her big break came with a parody song she and Ed slapped together as a joke for the Austin Song Contest--and it won the Rap/Funk/Reggae and Humorous/Novelty divisions that year. With the 5 hours of studio time she'd won, Cindy produced 3 decent demos, two of which ended up on her first album. She continued to win bits of studio time, got a little radio airplay, got some more demos picked up and began attracting some good studio musicians. She was then able to go into an inexpensive 8-track studio and self-produced the tracks that became her first album. Armed with some good material, she was able to get live bands going, even if most of these broke up after a mere gig or two. She finally found a more stable group of older musicians, jumped into the studio and digitally remastered her analog tapes--this became "Last Day of Winter." With an actual album to pitch, she was able to get more gigs, get the group into shape and do her first real writing with a band. Going into the studio again, they created "Warm Fuzzies," and started getting real exposure. Showcases in Best of Texas and Nukes By No Nukes, and local television exposure followed. The band finally started getting some regional radio play and gigs when the other band members felt the need to start families, and Cindy was left solo, again. Cindy can still be seen playing acoustically in local clubs, and is currently finishing up her new album, due out the end of 2001, though she may enter a few more contests before then. She is still searching for bandmates, though--she still prefers playing in a band, even if her public would rather she just play folk.

Group Members "Last Day of Winter"--Cindy Lee Haddock. Lance Woodburn, Todd Vredenburgh, Russell Berry."Warm Fuzzies"--Cindy Lee Haddock, Bill Baudoux, Denny Payne, Kevin Cramer.

Instruments Cindy sings, plays acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass, keyboards, clarinet, drums, percussion, programs drum machines and synthesizers, and doodles with sax, harmonica and cornet.

Albums Open Window--"Last Day of Winter", "Warm Fuzzies."

Location Austin, TX - USA

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