Jan Bell

Originally from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, England, Jan Bell spent years on the back roads of America, learning songs from the rural south and mountain towns. When she first heard the songs of women such as Mother Maybelle, Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard she felt right at home.

Eventually settling in Brooklyn, she set out playing in her adopted neighborhood with her band the Cheap Dates as part of her Urban Cowgirl Cabaret Tribute Series, turning old maritime loading docks into Live Music Stages. They'd squeeze pedal steel, violin, banjo and upright bass onto a pick up truck stage outside a century old iron workers bar and sing original country blues and songs by their honky tonk heroes. Their three part harmonies would sail above the Brooklyn Queens Expressway, the roof tops, and nyc water towers.

She continues to perform solo and with the Cheap Dates, and tours with old timey country trio The Maybelles. She's opened for Emmylou Harris, Wanda Jackson and even Ray Charles & his Orchestra w/ Mary Fly, and has performed alongside The Be Good Tanyas, Jolie Holland, Myshkin, The Road Dog Divas, Grayson Capps, The Wiyos, M Shanghai Stringband, Devon Sproule, Jesse Harris, Maya Dorn, Laura Freeman, and Mike West/Truck Stop Honeymoon.

Her latest album, Songs for Love Drunk Sinners, was produced by Samantha Parton of Be Good Tanyas. It features guest vocals by Jolie Holland, who covers several of Jan Bell's songs on international tours.