Brooke Ramel - Biography

About Brooke:

—on film—

Several major motion pictures have featured Brooke's music, including “White Oleander”, “Stealing Harvard”, and "Tart". Her music has also been featured in the independent films “Far on Foot” and “Wednesday's Child”, and her song "Now" was used in a trailer for the DVD of MGM's film, "Kiss the Bride". And Brooke recorded two songs for Disney's “Air Bud Spikes Back”.

Brooke's song "Let It Out" will be heard in the upcoming motion picture "Bonneville", starring Jessica Lang, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, and Christine Baranski.

—on television—

Brooke’s music has been featured on numerous television shows, including WB’s “Dawson’s Creek” (as the spotlight artist), “Charmed”, “Gilmore Girls” and “Glory Days” (as a featured artist), Fox's “Party of Five”, and NBC’s “Ed”, “All About Us”, "Three Wishes", and "Meet My Folks", Showtime's “The Chris Isaak Show”, HBO's "Six Feet Under", and Comedy Central's "Drawn Together". Also, two of Brooke's songs -- “The Answer” and “Anything” -- were selected for a customizable “Dawson’s Creek” soundtrack that's available on www.dawsonscreek.com.

In December of 2000 Brooke made a guest appearance on WB Network’s “7^th Heaven”, performing her original composition “Make Tomorrow Up”.

Brooke's song "A Long Way" was featured on ABC Family's new series "Beautiful People" in August 2005.

In May 2006, Brooke taped an appearance for the ninth episode of "Branson Jubilee", airing on PBS in the summer and fall. Her performance included "When I Saw You See Me", "Let It Out", and "Landslide". The episode also featured The Dillards and guest star Bill Medley.

—with other bands—

In addition to performing solo and headlining with her own band, Brooke has opened for acts such as Shawn Colvin, David Wilcox, Sophie B. Hawkins, Christopher Cross, A Flock of Seagulls, Starship, Sally Taylor, Taylor Dayne, Warren Zevon, Jude, Grant Lee Phillips, Willie Porter, Jill Sobule, Jonatha Brooke, David Gates, Marc Cohn, Deana Carter, and The Nelsons.

In 2006, Brooke sang background vocals for Ziggy Marley's latest CD, "Love Is My Religion".

—with her albums—

Brooke's recent studio album, "By Request", is a guitar/vocal CD of her most requested songs.

Brooke first four studio albums -- all featuring original material -- received much critical acclaim. Her CD “Be” received a Just Plain Folks Music Award nomination for best pop album of 2002, and two of its songs -- “Someday” and “Only” -- were nominated for best pop song of 2002. Her "LIVE" CD was released in 2003 and features some favorite originals, plus covers and two songs in French.

Brooke has been featured on KROQ, KIIS and 95.9 The Mix in Los Angeles, and on unsigned artists’ specialty radio programs across the country. And 95.5 KLOS, one of the premier rock radio stations in Southern California, has twice featured Brooke's music on its “Local Licks” program.

In total, Brooke has sold approximately 40,000 albums at shows, through her web site, and through retailers such as Amazon.com and CDBaby. These sales are a result of her loyal fans and live performances in Southern California and beyond.

—with her touring—

Brooke is a tireless performer, averaging 200 plus dates a year for the past four years. She currently has over 4000+ fans on her monthly mailing list!

Brooke's home base is Southern California, and she has performed at numerous venues throughout the area. She has also performed in London, England, and at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, and in spring 2001 Brooke traveled to the Midwest to perform in local venues and at local schools. In fall of the same year she returned to the Midwest for another successful tour of the area. Brooke's fall visit was covered in the Johnson County Sun newspaper -- click here to read the article and find out more about Brooke's school visits.

Bio:

Brooke was born in Raytown, Missouri. By her seventh birthday, she started playing the guitar and by the time she was 8 years old, she was playing “gigs” at local churches, fairs, pizza parlors, and the state prison. By age 9 she had made her first television appearance on a local talent show and had done a one-hour live radio show.

Brooke has been making her living as a professional artist performing in coffeehouses, book stores and numerous outdoor locations, as well as venues such as The Coach House, The Galaxy Theatre, The Crazy Horse and Universal City Walk in Southern California and the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas.

In 1996, Brooke recorded “Movie Star” with her producer, Johnny Pierce, and put together her first band, playing at LA clubs such as The Troubadour, Ghengis Cohen, and others.

During 1998 radio celebrity Rodney Bingenheimer (KROQ) debuted her song “Mainstream” and chose it for his "Top 5 Picks of the Week.” At the same time, the television series “Party of Five” featured her song "Down”.

By the end of 1998, Brooke had returned to Nashville to record her second CD, “Tulips Bleed”. Songs from “Tulips Bleed” have been featured on the television shows “Ed”, “Charmed" and “Dawson's Creek”, and in the film “Stealing Harvard”, starring Jason Lee and Tom Green.

Brooke's third album, “Make Tomorrow Up”, was released in the summer of 2000, along with her first music video. Brooke appeared on the television show “7^th Heaven”, singing the title track, and a song from “Make Tomorrow Up” were featured on Showtime's “The Chris Isaak Show”.

During the summer of 2001, Brooke and her band performed for the first time at the LA County Fair.

At the beginning of 2002 Brooke released her fourth CD of original music, “Be”. Her song “Someday” could be heard in the motion picture “White Oleander”, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Renee Zellweger and Robin Wright Penn, and “Walk Through the Flowers” was featured on NBC's “Meet My Folks”. At the end of the year Brooke recorded two songs for Disney's latest “Air Bud” movie, which was released in 2003. And two of Brooke's songs -- “Anything” and “The Answer” -- were selected for inclusion in a customizable “Dawson's Creek” soundtrack that's available on www.dawsonscreek.com.

During 2002 she also performed at the Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach and with her band at summer concerts throughout Southern California. At the end of the year, she recorded a Live CD at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano.

In 2003 Brooke released her "LIVE" CD. She continued her tireless performing schedule -- playing at approximately 250 gigs each year. Highlights of 2003 were: Opening for two of her personal favorite artists/influences -- Marc Cohn and David Gates (lead singer of Bread). She also enjoyed several outdoor summer concerts with her band in cities across southern California. She again played at the Wine and Balloon Festival in Temecula as well as the Festival of Arts/Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. At the end of the year she headlined a holiday show at The Coach House with her band -- the final celebration of a very busy year.

Near the end of 2003 she met a new creative partner -- Mike Busbee (known as "busbee"). They started writing new songs together, and in 2004 busbee produced Brooke's latest studio effort, "Turn It Around". The album was released in September 2004. She again did several outdoor summer concerts with her band (La Canada, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo). She also opened for Vonda Shepard at The Coach House and for the first time played at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach, CA. On television, her music was featured in the Comedy Central series "Drawn Together".

2005 brought more wonderful performances and studio endeavors. She opened for artists including David Wilcox, Shawn Colvin, Duncan Sheik, and Deana Carter. In the studio, she recorded an acoustic, unplugged CD entitled "By Request". This is a guitar/vocal CD of Brooke's most requested songs at shows. It includes 2 original songs as well as her most requested cover tunes, including three in French. During the summer months, Brooke returned to the Sawdust Festival and the LA County Fair, and in November and December she returned to the Sawdust Festival's Winter Fantasy.

Brooke's shows in 2006 have included opening for more well known artists, such as Howard Jones, Raul Malo, and John Corbett, and performing with her band at outdoor summer concerts in Southern California. She sang background vocals on Ziggy Marley's new CD, "Love Is My Religion", is being featured on PBS's new show "Branson Jubilee", and reached the final round in NBC's music competition, "Star Tomorrow". And Brooke's original song "Someday" could be heard on commercials for "Gilmore Girls", and "Let It Out" can be heard in the motion picture "Bonneville".

Brooke resides in the outskirts of Los Angeles with her two cats -- Buffy and JoJo.