Born Carolyn Bradford in Houston, Texas, she dropped out of Houston’s Langham Creek High School to pursue her musical ambitions. In 1999, she moved to Austin, Texas. Wonderland’s instrumental abilities include guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, trumpet, and piano. Although primarily a blues artist, Wonderland likes to incorporate elements of country, swing, zydeco, surf, gospel, soul, and cumbia into her musical mix. She usually performs with Cole El-Saleh on keyboards and Robert Michael Hooper on drums. In February 2008, Wonderland released the CD Miss Understood. She has been involved in a number of recordings, including several that were self-produced on independent labels. She was the lead singer fronting the band Imperial Monkeys. She released Bloodless Revolution in 2008, and is the primary singer on the Jerry Lightfoot’s Band of Wonder Texistentialismwith Lightfoot and Vince Welnick (Grateful Dead, Tubes). Wonderland was a founding member of the Loose Affiliation of Saints and Sinners (with Papa Mali, Eldridge Goins, Guy Forsyth, and others), with several of her songs being featured on their Sessions from the Hotel San Jose Rm. 50. She was also the lead guitarist in the all-girl southern-rock band Sis Deville, and is a founding member of the Austin Volunteer Orchestra. Wonderland appeared on Austin City Limits in 2008, and has had her music used on NBC’s Homicide and Fox’s Time of Your Life. She was a headlining artist at the annual Rochester International Jazz Festival summer 2009 at the Eastman Theatre and New York. In 2003, Wonderland opened the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, after performing there for the previous ten years, singing the National Anthem with The Imperial Monkeys. Wonderland also performs with the Imperial Golden Crown Harmonizers, raising money for local Austin charities, food banks, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and on behalf of the legalisation of marijuana. |
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