Patti Rothberg

by Richard Skelly & Heather PharesNew York City born and bred singer/songwriter Patti Rothberg got a lot of attention for her 1996 major label debut, Between the 1 and 9 (EMI Records USA). The honesty and truthfulness of the lyrics and music struck critics and fans alike. A multi-instrumentalist, Rothberg played all the bass and guitar parts on Between the 1 and 9 and began playing piano when she was three years old. This developed into composing and songwriting by the time she turned 15. Though Rothberg attended the Parsons School of Design as an illustration major, she continued to play music for fun, busking in lower Manhattan's subways. Eventually, she hooked up with a manager and shopped her demo tape to different labels, signing to EMI. Paradoxically, the personal, intimate performances on Between the 1 and 9- a reference to the to the subway where she got started -- propelled it to a wide audience. The album's mix of blues, folk-rock and alternative rock not only paid homage to Rothberg's early influences like the Allman Brothers and Janis Joplin, it also found favor with adult rock radio programmers. With a successful debut and opening gigs for the likes of Paul Westerberg, the Wallflowers and Garbage, Rothberg's momentum seemed unstoppable until EMI's US branch closed its doors, leaving her without a label. For a number of years she continued to play and write, and when she met producer Freddie Katz, Rothberg was finally ready and able to record her follow-up Candelabra Cadabra. The album arrived in early 2001 and was initially available only at www.cropduster.com, but reached record stores by that spring.