Up and coming: Piney Gir

Published on Sunday 5 September 2010 19:44

Who is Piney Gir?

The country music alias of singer/songwriter Angela Penhaligon, a Kansas girl who relocated to London in the late 1990s to study at Central St Martins College (of Common People fame), made an electronica album then realised that "you can take the girl out of Kansas, but you can't take the Kansas out of the girl" and started performing country versions of her songs with her band The Piney Gir Country Roadshow, attracting comparisons to Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn.

So if you're looking at her, you're looking at country?

Not strictly speaking. Piney has been known to mine a cutesy retro pop seam and dips in to other genres too. She has recently confessed a shady history playing Achy Breaky Heart in her school marching band.

That was then; what about now?

Her new album Jesus Wept is titled in reference to her religious upbringing and includes the delicious, malicious likes of I'm Better Off Without A Piece Of A Shell Of A Man.

Any other competent business?

"Gir" is short for "girl", in case you were wondering.

What other folks say:

"Bourbon in one hand, and Stetson in the other" – Shindig Magazine

What Piney says:

"'A tear in my beer' ain't the half of it."

Where can I hear more?

www.myspace/pineygir

• Jesus Wept is out now on Damaged Goods