Lindsay Fuller has won an enthusiastic following for her songs, which spin dark but artfully composed stories from the tragic side of life, as well as her strong, emotionally forceful vocal style.
Fuller was born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1980; her father was a former professional football player and her mother was an artist and a dressmaker. At the age of eight, she began learning to play the guitar, and when she was 12, she became interested in songwriting after hearing the music of
Bob Dylan and
the Indigo Girls while at summer camp.
Fuller's experiences growing up in the deep South and her interest in Southern literature would strongly influence her lyrical style, and the death of a close friend when
Fuller was 23 would inspire the fascination with mortality that informs her work. After spending some time in Oregon,
Fuller decided to relocate to the Pacific Northwest, settling in Seattle, Washington in 2003. She began her career as a musician in earnest in Seattle, and assembled a band known as Lindsay Fuller & the Cheap Dates, anchored by guitarist
Jeff Fielder and bassist Rebecca Young;
Mark Pickerel (formerly of the
Screaming Trees) and
Johnny Sangster also frequently sat in with the group. In 2009, Lindsay Fuller & the Cheap Dates released their self-titled debut album, and a second album, The Last Light I See, followed in 2010. While writing material for her third album,
Fuller sent one of her songs to
Amy Ray of
the Indigo Girls; the same day
Ray received the demo disc, a friend who had seen
Fuller perform suggested
Ray do the same.
Ray was impressed with
Fuller's work, and she opened several dates for the
Indigo Girls in 2011.
Fuller also attracted the attention of
Dave Matthews, who booked her to perform on several multi-artist package shows with him, and signed her to his label, ATO Records. Producer
Paul Bryan teamed
Fuller with a handful of studio musicians (
Chris Bruce on electric guitar,
Jebin Bruni on keyboards,
Jay Bellerose on drums, and
Bryan on bass) to record her first ATO release,
You, Anniversary; recorded in just three days, the album was released in the spring of 2012. ~ Mark Deming