The backup singers project

Random stuff emerges as I pare down my desk piles to make room for the new year. Here's video featuring L.A. singers Julie Christensen and Perla Batalla, who gave Leonard Cohen's performances and records some female pizazz in the 1980s and '90s. Now artists on their own, Christensen and Batalla (her parents owned Discoteca Batalla in Venice) hold honored status in the global Cohen fan cult. They traveled all over the world with Cohen, a whirlwind that local singer Ashleigh Haney is on right now backing Rihanna. Haney put her solo career on hold to hit the road with Rihanna mania last year and has turned up on stage at the Grammys, on David Letterman and in concert footage from Sofia to (just last month) Singapore. (I first caught them on TV in London a year ago last fall.) Haney blogged the experience for awhile; her music is at MySpace. Here are airport videos of Haney killing time with the crew at Perth and catching a ride at Newark. In the Letterman appearance below, Dave likes what he hears.