Biography: “Her lyrics challenge listeners the way that Michael Moore challenges viewers.”
Ann Forcier, The Recorder, Greenfield, MA
She saw Led Zeppelin on their first US tour and loves Joan Baez, but don’t expect some wide-eyed hippie in tie-dye cooing about love and daisies. Sure, if you went to the first Woodstock and you want peace-loving music, you’ve come to the right place, but your kids will also love her refreshingly direct folk-rock with a touch of blues, vintage R&B and yep, even techno, with anthems that’ll make you dance around your living room or call your congress person, some at the same time.
Like so many others, she took piano as a kid and taught herself the guitar as a young adult, but she made a detour to become a pharmacist. Not just one of those white-coated clerks at a chain store, but at her own store. At the young age of 55, she climbed up on stage, sans the lab coat, and sang for an audience that was so enthusiastic that soon after she sold the pharmacy and made music a focus. Linq does nothing halfway, diving into the music world with a single in 2003 and then her first album Journey in 2004. Another full-length album, Fast Moving Dream, came out in 2006, and a 2-song enhanced CD with video, Change the Picture, George!, was released in 2007. Full-length albums Life Goes On and Rx and the Side Effects were both released in 2009.
Linq performs around New England and at selected gigs outside the region including showcases at the 2009 Indiegrrl Conference in Nashville and at the 2010 International Indiegrrl Conference and Festival in Knoxville. She also played at BB King’s Blues Club in Nashville in August 2009. Her first video, “George Orwell Where Are You?” has remained near the top of the list of Neil Young’s Living With War Today Top Protest Videos since it debuted in 2007. She’s been the featured artist on several sites including Indiegrrl, Gay Guitarists Worldwide, GoGirls and more.
Awards include an Honorable Mention for “Tired” from the International Narrative Song Competition, in the top 50 in the American Idol Underground (“Victim of the War”), and Fast Moving Dream was in the top 40 on the Outvoice charts for an entire year. "Change the Picture" from Change the Picture, George! and also available on Life Goes On, was nominated for the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards (world’s largest with 560,000 song submissions) in the Political Song category. Linq was also one of the five nominees for OUTMusician of the Year (music + activism) in the 2009 OUTMusic Awards, and she was named Musical Artist of 2009 in the 2009 Pride in the Arts Awards. David Byrne of The Windy City Times (Chicago, IL) named title track “Life Goes On” the 2009 Song of the Year. She’s currently one of the five nominees in the 2010 OUTMusic Awards for OUTMusician of the Year (music + activism). Winners will be announced in December.
Rx and the Side Effects broke into the Roots Music Report Top 50 Folk the first week out and remained there for five weeks, peaking at #23 the week of September 25, 2009. The album also peaked at #4 in the Massachusetts Section (all genres) the same week. Curve Magazine calls “No Person on the Line” the “best healthcare rage song ever.”
Linq believes that music is the most effective tool we have to bring people together, to celebrate each other and to break down barriers. And if it takes a former pharmacist to do that, all the better. It’s a medicine we can all use.
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Press
Release:
November 1, 2010
LET'S STOP BULLYING NOW
In 2006 a black gay musician was attacked and savagely beaten in New York City by four young men between the ages of sixteen and twenty. Witnesses heard them yelling both homophobic and racial slurs.
Singer-songwriter Linq (pronounced Link) responded to this incident with the creation of the song, "Change the Picture," which brought nominations in the Political Song category of the 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards (largest in the world with 560,000 entries received) and in the OUTMusician of the Year (music + activism) category of the 2009 OUTMusic Awards. She was named Musician of the Year in the 2009 Pride in the Arts Music Awards.
Last year an 11-year-old Springfield, MA, boy hanged himself in his room after being bullied in school. Early this year a 15-year old girl from Massachusetts followed suit and killed herself after being bullied at school and in cyberspace. Linq is from Massachusetts and wrote "Oh Bully" to address these tragic deaths. The song has earned her a nomination in the 2010 OUTMusic Awards for OUTMusician of the Year (music + activism). Winners will be announced at the 20th anniversary celebration of the OUTMusic Awards Show on December 1, 2010, in New York City. The event is presented by the LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (LARA).
In the wake of the recent nationwide series of suicides as the result of bullying, Linq has launched a personal campaign to raise awareness of the issue by using many avenues: local community outreach and involvement, production of an "Oh Bully" video, live performance, distribution of anti-bullying bumper stickers, on-air interviews, and international radio airplay using these songs to spread her message.
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