Maggie Connell

Maggie Connell was a main ingredient of the 1970s prematurely hyped rock resurgence in Los Angeles. She was a part and important member of the band the Heaters. Many people at the time felt that the Heaters, one of the city's few fledgling groups, would really amount to something. The release of their 1980 album, Energy Transfer, proved to be their second and last after a 1977 self-titled lackluster debut album. Connell was the one who teamed up with Mercy Bermudez, lending her full-bodied rhythmic drive on the keyboard to accent Bermudez' R&B-inflected vocals and saxophone riffs. Missy Connell and Victor Bisetti, bass and drums respectively, proved to be an exciting and vibrant powerhouse to increase the energy level which was a signature to the Heaters' broad sound. In 2001, Maggie Connell had made her way to the East Coast, residing in New York City. She was pursuing a sound which could be described as an unusual mixture of styles. The sound has the flavor of boogie-woogie spiced with a heavy dose of '70s rock. There are elements of the artier side of punk in the formula as well, but it seems the overall Beatlesque quality of the production of her 2001 solo debut, The Luxury of Sadness, has gathered the great attention Connell has been striving for. For her debut album, Connell chose to play all of the instruments, keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums, as well as all vocals to get the sound she wanted. The result was something which Connell feels captures what, as an artist, she has always been striving to attain. Maggie Connell has been reborn by this new and unique sound which lends an emotional depth to her compositions for a different generation of listeners. As with all true talented artists, she has moved on with the times displaying character and maturity in her compositions. Maggie Connell is not merely a fad musician, or a one-hit wonder, she is a force of vibrant continuity.