Helen Chaya

Press Quotes

Berkeley-based singer/songwriter Helen Chaya won't be selling out any time soon, but she might get some offers. Her first release, Over the Underpass, on the "very independent" FolkDiva label, has the intimacy of folk, but the poetic lyrics give Chaya's music its edge. "I feel like a drunk lost in a parking lot/searching for her car," she sings, with a characteristically ironic despair that, surprisingly, morphs into hope right before your ears. One of Chaya's biggest inspirations is Ani Difranco, not only because of DiFranco's music but also because of her perseverence with an independent label (Righteous Babe) and her political activism. Chaya herself once spent a month in jail after she jumped a fence at a military base to chase a plane taking off. "I strongly believe in the ability of music to empower and stir people emotionally and always strive to achieve this with my songs," she says. You can find out more about Helen Chaya at www.folkdiva.com or by writing to POB 3900, Berkeley, CA 94703.

Vol. XXVI, No. 13 June 24 - July 7, 2002

Photo By: Rika Shisler

Helen Chaya: Sparkling folk-rock tunes with edgy and melodic hooks.

Helen Chaya
Crooked Bar
West Hollywood

Contact: FolkDiva Records, 510-595-4696

Web: www.folkdiva.com/helenchaya

The Players: Helen Chaya, vocals, guitar.

Material: Some folk artists are really poets who feel compelled to go through the motions of putting their words to less-than-enthralling music. Not Helen Chaya. Her weary, but hopeful, lyrics are poig-nant and edgy with melodic twists and turns in the arrangements that take her songs beyond poetry and into the realm of inspiring folk-rock. In fact, Chaya’s spirited musical motifs scream for a backup band to add even more life to her vivid tales of bittersweet nothings and semi-broken hearts.

Musicianship: Chaya’s guitar playing is solid and confident, especially when she’s digging in to a particularly emotional moment. Her vocals utilize both delicate whispers and sneering rasps.

Performance: Traveling to a small acoustic room, four hundred miles away from home, can be a lonely place, especially late on a Sunday night, but Chaya brought as much fire to her performance as she could under the conditions. Her presentation was loose (she didn’t mind stopping a song to clear her throat and starting over, at least in this setting), and after the occasional explanation of how a song originated, she was content to close her eyes and genuinely lose herself in the music.

Summary: Helen Chaya’s material sparkles. Her one-woman acoustic act clearly exudes a maturity, intensity and authenticity that recalls Richie Havens more than Jewel. In short, Chaya’s folk-rock actually deserves to include the word “rock” in its title.

––Mike Moore

The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Grooves section
June 28 - July 4, 2000

"...Helen Chaya's album boasts exactly the kind of edge and grit-in instrumental sound, singing style, and lyrics-needed to counter the sentimentality that sometimes infects the folk genre. Strumming and picking with aplomb (sometimes joined on guitar by producer Lisa Zeiler) and singing with a burnished rasp, Chaya expands on the solo acoustic mode when drummer Paulo Bauldi and bassist Jean Dusablon help her rock out... she evokes the complexities and ambiguities of love with startlingly original poetic slaps upside the psyche."

-Derk Richardson of the SF Bay Guardian

"Helen Chaya has a unique voice and striking arrangements.
Her music is full of vitality in a post-Ferron and Indigo Girls way."

-Larry Kelp, East Bay Express

"Helen's songs make me gasp with their lyrical brilliance about
spiritual struggles, relationships and the places where both collide.
Her voice goes from a growl to a keen to all the sweet places in between,
expressing the deep emotions of the heart."

-Green of FolkDiva

"Depth and insight permeate the poetry of Helen's lyrics.
Her voice is unique and clear, interacting with fine guitar playing
to create a mesmerizing and moving effect. I love Helen's songs."

-Eve Decker of Rebecca Riots

"Earthy, gritty, sublime songwriting.
I urge you to check out Helen's urban folk."
-guitarist Mimi Fox

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