Johnette Napolitano

Although she is best known as the lead singer and bassist for Los Angeles alternative rock trio Concrete Blonde, Johnette Napolitano has enjoyed an extensive multi-decade career as a producer, film composer, and solo artist. Concrete Blonde rose to success at the tail end of the 1980s, landing a hit with "Joey" from their gold-certified 1990 album Bloodletting. Following the group's breakup in 1994, Napolitano launched additional band projects before turning to solo music in the 2000s. Her output in the 21st century has been diverse and eclectic, ranging from the D.I.Y. experiments of her Sketchbook series to proper solo albums like 2007's Scarred and 2022's Exquisite Corpses. She has also collaborated with members of Talking Heads and in 2024 worked with British DJ Alley Cat.Napolitano was born in Hollywood on September 22, 1957, and cut her teeth working in local recording studios, including the legendary Gold Star Studios. Active on the fringes of the Los Angeles punk and new wave scenes, she formed a duo with guitarist Jim Mankey. A 1982 EP credited to Dream 6 eventually helped them net a deal with I.R.S. Records, and after adding drummer Harry Rushakoff to the mix, they renamed themselves Concrete Blonde. Led by Napolitano's powerful vocals, the band's moody sound became a staple of late-'80s college radio, and they landed a proper hit with 1990's "Joey" and its parent album, Bloodletting. During their original run, Concrete Blonde recorded five albums before disbanding in 1994.In 1996, Napolitano collaborated with Talking Heads members Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison on their album No Talking, Just Head, then toured with them as the Heads' lead singer. She also made an album with Holly Beth Vincent under the moniker Vowel Movement before briefly reuniting Concrete Blonde to make a collaborative 1997 album with L.A. band Los Illegals.In the new millennium, Napolitano experimented widely in her home studio, recording experimental songs that she self-released as a series of D.I.Y. anthologies, along with books of lyrics, photos, and sketches. In total, she has released three of these "rough mix" collections with 2002's Sketchbook, followed by a second volume in 2005 and a third in 2009. She also made a proper studio solo album in 2007's Scarred while occasionally working on film and television soundtracks. Concurrent to this, she and Mankey spearheaded a Concrete Blonde reunion that resulted in two more albums, 2002's Group Therapy and 2004's Mojave.Napolitano eventually settled in Joshua Tree, where she runs her own recording studio. Another solo release, The Naked Album, appeared in 2015, with a third, Exquisite Corpses, following in 2022. Two years later, she teamed up with British producer and DJ Alley Cat on the latter's album The Widow Project.
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