Singer/songwriter Cathy Belleville’s debut album Three-Quarter Girl is a collection of songs by and for those who do things a bit differently–like starting songwriting in your sixties. The songs, performed by Belleville and Dave Nachmanoff, span a range of emotions: winsome, sad, defiant, reflective, fearful, sassy, and playful. Far from “pop”, these are a mature woman’s songs with thoughtful reflections, haunting stories, and evocative imagery. Recorded in isolation during lockdown, the performers channeled their desire for connection into brilliant performances, arranged and produced by Dave Nachmanoff. The album will be out on July 1, 2022.
“Written in one of those hot-night can’t-sleep busy-brain episodes, this song explores the feelings of being an odd-ball, of not being ‘enough,'” writes Belleville.
The song is a gentle waltz, evoking the heat and frustration of a lonely summer night. In our interview, Cathy describes her journey as a singer-songwriter releasing her very first album at the age of 64.
Who are some of your musical influences?
I grew up on Broadway musicals and the 60’s music of the local Los Angeles scene: Folk music, Mariachi bands, Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, early rock, and teen pop. In 1971, we moved to very small town in rural Northern California, where through long school bus rides, rodeos, and barn dances I fell in love with traditional country music. My college years were spent exploring 70’s Rock, Punk, and New Wave music, and attending a lot of Grateful Dead concerts. After retiring, I started to explore the worlds of Bluegrass, Americana, and alternative Folk music.
Explain the title of your album.
“Three-Quarter Girl” was actually one of the last songs written for the album which, until then, didn’t have a clear title. I tend to write a lot of songs in ¾ time which, despite being a lovely and lilting rhythm, is definitely not the “norm” for most popular music. I’m one of those people who doesn’t fit the “normal” mode–I was an art major in college, a Silicon Valley executive, I don’t wear makeup, and I have an unexplainable passion for Sumo wrestling. And now, at 64, I’m certainly not the norm for an emerging musician. So the title captures both that sense of the music and my sense of being something less than normal. Or maybe I should say “other” than normal.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
I’m generally a lyric-driven writer, and I try to match the music to the emotion and rhythm of the words. Some songs it’s just hard to figure out how the heck they happened. I have a murder ballad on the album called “54U”, and it’s horribly spooky, and to this day I’m not really sure where it came from. The first line just came squirting into my head “Mama went round creepin’ by his bed/ even though she knew that he was dead” and I thought… yikes? Where do we go from here? So then you “backstrapolate” a story from there.
What have you missed about touring?
Since my entire album was written and recorded during COVID shutdown, touring wasn’t exactly in the picture. The strangest thing about this experience is that my producer/collaborator Dave Nachmanoff and I haven’t ever actually played any of these songs together in person! The entire album was recorded in isolation, each of us passing back tracks, and having long discussions on the phone. We’re still being pretty COVID-safe here, so I haven’t exactly had the opportunity to even play the songs live yet, much less tour!
How are you using your platform to support marginalized people?
I write a lot of songs about and for people who don’t fit in…for a variety of reasons. So I hope that my music can help provide some validation for those of us who, for whatever reason, just don’t feel like they are part of the mainstream. As an older white woman, I’ve experienced both privilege and discrimination, and I try to draw on those experiences to reassure others and to improve myself.
Have you ever been given something remarkable by a fan?
My entire journey to recording an album was fan-driven! A guy who heard my music on a weekly zoom-based open mic invited me to a forum where I met Dave Nachmanoff, who became my producer and musical partner on the record. Before this, I would never have even thought about recording an album, but it was an on-line fan base that practically insisted that I record my songs.