Deborah Ruth "Deb" Talan (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for being part of the folk-pop duo the Weepies.

Early life and career

Born in western

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

, Talan grew up in the small town of

Pelham, Massachusetts Pelham is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,280 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is shared with Amherst. Pelham is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. History ...

and attended Amherst Regional High School (ARHS). She later attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where she was a member of the Chattertocks, Brown's oldest all-female a cappella group, before moving to

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, where she was a member of Hummingfish, a

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

band, for six years. Talan's recurring lyrical motifs include celestial objects, birds, nature, and various historical figures (e.g.,

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

in "Painting By Chagall,"

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...

in "Thinking Amelia," and

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

in "Vincent").

Jonathan Lethem Jonathan Allen Lethem (; born February 19, 1964) is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His Debut novel, first novel, ''Gun, with Occasional Music'', a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, ...

’s novel ''

Motherless Brooklyn ''Motherless Brooklyn'' is a 2019 American neo-noir crime film written, produced, and directed by Edward Norton, based on the 1999 novel of the same name by Jonathan Lethem. Set in 1957 New York City, the film stars Norton as a private invest ...

'' inspired Talan to write "Tell Your Story Walking". This song appears on the 2002 album ''Songs Inspired by Literature'' ''(Chapter One)'', a benefit of the organization Artists for Literacy. "Tell Your Story Walking" was the winner of Artists for Literacy’s 2002 songwriting contest. In addition to the Weepies' albums, (

Steve Tannen Steven J. "Steve" Tannen (born 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known for being in the folk-pop duo The Weepies. Early life and career Tannen was born in New York City, but grew up in Australia and Canada in addition to New ...

is the other half of the duo), Talan and Tannen collaborated with singer/actress

Mandy Moore Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore (born April 10, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She rose to fame with her 1999 debut single "Candy (Mandy Moore song), Candy", which peaked at number 41 on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot ...

on her 2007 album ''

Wild Hope ''Wild Hope'' is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Mandy Moore, her first in four years since '' Coverage''. It was released in digitally in Australia on June 18, 2007, and on June 19, 2007, by The Firm Music, a division of E ...

''. Together, they wrote and recorded five songs with Mandy — the single "

Extraordinary Extraordinary may refer to: Music * "Extraordinary" (Clean Bandit song), 2014 * "Extraordinary" (Liz Phair song), 2004 * "Extraordinary" (Mandy Moore song), 2007 * "Extraordinary", a song by Idina Menzel from '' Idina'', 2016 * "Extraordinary", ...

," the title track "Wild Hope," "All Good Things," "Few Days Down" and "Looking Forward to Looking Back." " Forgiven" played over the closing credits of the 2001 film '' Lovely & Amazing''.

Discography

References

External links

Deb Talan Official site
*http://www.artistsforliteracy.org
Deb Talan collection
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

's live music archive
Deb Talan
on

Last.fm Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Utilizing a music recommender system known as "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm creates a detailed profile of each user's musical preferences by recording the details of the tracks they ...

Lovely & Amazing
soundtrack 1968 births American women singer-songwriters American folk singers Brown University alumni Living people Singer-songwriters from California Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts American folk-pop singers 21st-century American women Amherst Regional High School (Massachusetts) alumni {{US-singer-songwriter-stub