Music: I’m loving Diane Birch right now!

“Birch was born in Michigan, but at a very young age she moved to Zimbabwe with her South African-born parents. Her dad was a conservative pastor who moved his family from continent to continent. So the young Birch migrated with her folks from Zimbabwe to South Africa to Australia, following her father’s mission. Throughout her journeys, Birch longed to be back in America, and finally got her wish when her family relocated to Portland, Oregon, when she was 10.” www.myspace.com/dianebirch

As for the album title, “The idea of Bible Belt has a layered kind of meaning for me,” explains Diane. “Because my dad was a preacher, the very religious upbringing I had made a huge impact on my life, in a very restraining and constricting way. I’m constantly talking about heaven, angels, and forgiveness. I’m hugely inspired by church hymns -- their chord structures, their colours. It was a form of constraint for me as a child but now I see that it has fuelled my creative fire.” www.myspace.com/dianebirch

**Gone are the days when you had to dress-up like a reject because you wanted the world to know -you ‘Love da Lord’. Gone are the day when you had to say ‘Praise da Lord’ after every sentence to prove to certain [religious] people that –even though you may be dressed like a cat, and enjoy nights out with your mates –and love Art, and go to concerts, and listen to rap music –and really love life …-that you still ‘Love da lord’. Blah, Blah, Blah ……and that’s why I’m loving this preacher’s daughter from Michigan called Diane Birch. Oh ….and she also ‘Loves da Lord’. And thankfully we Christians can now be ourselves; wear designer apparel to church [just google André Leon Talley] and can be uber fabulous –check out Kimora Lee Simmons on her hit reality television show, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane.....

I also love Diane's style. She sorts of dresses like the love child [of the late great] Karen Carpenter and Pete Doherty……a bit like Lou Dillon [daughter of Jane Birkin]; –and she sounds like a ‘middle American angel’…Check out her beautiful; soulful, piano-y, hymn-like lovely music at: http://www.dianebirch.com/