US singer-songwriter Joan As Police Woman – aka Joan Wasser – has collaborated with some of music’s most illustrious names across a career that has taken in eight solo studio albums. Wasser has worked with Elton John, John Cale, Scissor Sisters, Rufus Wainwright, Dave Gahan, Sheryl Crow and more but, as Wasser revealed to this writer a few years ago, it was an evening spent performing with Lou Reed that she received advice that she would take into all her work going forward. Here she is to tell the tale:
“I was the musical director for this group show that was doing the songs of Neil Young and Lou Reed was on that show,” Wasser began. “We were doing two nights at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, so two shows. The song that I was doing was On The Beach, one of my favourite Neil Young songs, and in the middle of it there’s an extended solo that I was playing violin, there’s an extended violin solo and it just let me testify with that weird instrument. After the first show, Lou came up to me and said, “yeah, you really let loose on that solo. I wonder what would happen if you really let go.”
