Edie Brickell

Singer, Songwriter

Edie Arlisa Brickell is an American singer, songwriter widely known for 1988’s Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart. She is married to Paul Simon.

In 1985 Brickell was invited to sing one night with friends from her high school in a local folk rock group, New Bohemians. Later, she joined the band as lead singer. After the band was signed to a recording contract, the label changed the group’s name to Edie Brickell & New Bohemians. Their 1988 debut album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, became a critical and commercial success, including the single, What I Am. The band’s follow-up album, Ghost of a Dog (1990), was a deliberate effort to highlight the band’s eclectic personality and move away from the pop sensibility of their first record.

Brickell had a role as a folk singer in the 1989 film Born on the Fourth of July. Her version of Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall is featured on the film’s soundtrack. She also sang a cover version of Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side in the 1990 film Flashback.

As a solo artist, Brickell released Picture Perfect Morning (1994) and Volcano (2003). The video for Picture Perfect Morning’s Good Times was included as part of the multimedia samples featured on Microsoft’s Windows 95 Companion CD-ROM. In 1992 she worked with producer Bob Wiseman in New York and Toronto on a collection of songs, utilizing a wind ensemble, unusual keyboards, and Ron Sexsmith. The songs were rejected by the record company and remained unreleased. In 2006 with all of the original members of New Bohemians, she made another album titled Stranger Things.

In 2010 Brickell became a founding member of the new band The Gaddabouts, consisting of Steve Gadd on drums, Edie Brickell as lead vocalist and guitar, Andy Fairweather Low on electric and acoustic guitars and background vocals, Pino Palladino on bass and guitar, and featuring Dan Block, Ronnie Cuber, Joey DeFrancesco, Gil Goldstein, and Marcus Rojas. In 2011 Brickell wrote the title track, The Meaning of Life for Tamar Halpern’s film, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life. Love Has Come For You was released on April 23, 2013. The album is a collaboration with Steve Martin. Both appeared on talk shows, such as The View and Late Show with David Letterman, to promote and perform the title song in April 2013. Starting in May 2013, she toured with Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers throughout the United States and North America. In 2016 the musical Bright Star (to which she contributed music, lyrics, and story) opened on Broadway at the Cort Theater.