- Sherrié Austin
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Sherrié Austin 
Sherrié Austin onboard the USS Enterprise in 2004Background information Birth name Sherrie Veronica Krenn Born 28 August 1970 Origin Sydney, Australia Genres Country Occupations Singer, actress Instruments Vocals, guitar Years active 1992–present Labels Arista Nashville
WE Records/Madacy
Broken Bow
Circus Girl, LLCAssociated acts Colorhaus Website www.sherrieaustinmusic.com Sherrie Veronica Krenn (born 28 August 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian actress and singer, known professionally as Sherrié Austin. Active as a singer since her teenage years, Sherrié initially recorded as one half of the duo Colorhaus, which also featured Phil Radford. After leaving Colorhaus, she recorded one album in her native Australia before moving to the United States in pursuit of a singing career. There, she recorded four studio albums, and charted several singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. Her highest-charting single was the #18 "Streets of Heaven" in 2003. She has sold over 430,000 albums and 288,000 singles in her career, according to Nielsen SoundScan[1]. Her fifth album was released November 15th, 2011.
Contents
Career
Early Career
Austin got her start in music opening for Johnny Cash in Australia at the age of 14. She later moved to the United States where she took up acting. She is most known in America for playing the role of Pippa McKenna on The Facts of Life in the late 1980s. In 1991 she appeared as "Lady Penelope" on episode #20 of the first season of the TV comedy series Fresh Prince of Bel Air starring Will Smith.[2] In the 1990s, she started a singing career, teaming up with Phil Radford in 1992 to form a duo called Colorhaus, which released one album, Water to the Soul.[3]Nashville Move
Afterward, Austin moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a career in country music. Her first solo contract was with Arista Nashville, with the album Words being released in 1997. It produced singles in "Lucky in Love", "One Solitary Tear", "Put Your Heart into It", and "Innocent Man". "Lucky in Love" and "Put Your Heart into It" both reached Top 40 on the country charts with a peak of #34 each.Her second and final album for Arista was 1999's Love in the Real World, led off by the #29 "Never Been Kissed", which was followed by "Little Bird." After RCA acquired Arista Records, Austin's publishing company, Reynsong Publishing, formed Wrensong Entertainment and signed to Madacy Entertainment for her next album, Followin' a Feelin', which produced another single in its lead-off single, a cover of Dolly Parton's "Jolene".
Later, she switched to the independent Broken Bow Records label. Her fourth album of country music, titled Streets of Heaven, produced her biggest country hit in its title track. Following this single was "Son of a Preacher Man", a cover of the Dusty Springfield song, which was never included on an album.
Broadway Years
Sherrié moved to New York City in 2005 and appeared in the New York Musical Theater Festival's production of of Bonnie & Clyde. The New York Times commented that she was "a sultry young country music singer who plays the notorious criminal Bonnie Parker and does for this musical what Reba McEntire did for the 1999 revival of Annie Get Your Gun. That twang in her voice provides some much-needed authenticity in excellent pop-country numbers like "Ain't Goin' Back." And it's easy to tell by her hip-swiveling poses that this is a woman who knows how to hold a stage."[4]The following year, Sherrié performed in Ring Of Fire- The Johnny Cash Musical Show[5] at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. She also performed in the production of Warrior, a musical about the American-Indian athlete Jim Thorpe, where CurtainUp.com described her as "outstanding."[6] She returned to Nashville in 2006.
Return To Nashville
Sherrié co-wrote Danielle Peck's 2007 single "Bad for Me", the title track to Blake Shelton's 2008 album Startin' Fires, George Strait's "Where Have I Been All My Life" off his 2009 album Twang,[7] and Tim McGraw's duet, with wife Faith Hill, "Shotgun Rider" off his Let It Go album in 2007.[8] Austin left Broken Bow in 2008.[9]Sherrié was named one of 2011's "25 Most Beautiful People" by Nashville Lifestyles Magazine.[10]
In the summer of 2011, The Sundance Channel (United States) announced that Sherrié and her friend Shane Stevens would be on the second season of Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys, which will be filmed in Nashville and features women their gay best friends.[11] The season is due to start in November.
Latest Release
Austin's latest release, Circus Girl, her first in eight years, is described as a series of stories interpreted by a strong woman, about women, and for women, and Sherrié feels it’s something her female fans have been clamoring for, for quite some time.[12]“The last few years I had been complaining about that fact that there weren’t any females speaking to women above the age of 30, so I started thinking about how I was writing my songs and came up with the idea for “Friday Night Girls” …I wanted to write a three minute song with every Sex and the City episode that had ever existed, so I did. I quickly noticed that the women in my audiences loved it and so I switched my songwriting focus for a while to concentrate on that audience, who are my peers, to speak to them,” says Austin.[13]
Circus Girl was released independently on November 15th, 2011.
Discography
Studio albums
Title Album details Peak chart positions US Country US US Indie US Heat Water to the Soul
(as Colourhaus)- Release date: 21 April 1992
- Label: Interscope Records
— — — — Words - Release date: 15 July 1997
- Label: Arista Nashville
41 — — 35 Love in the Real World - Release date: 10 August 1999
- Label: Arista Nashville
14 150 — 8 Followin' a Feelin' - Release date: 20 March 2001
- Label: Madacy Entertainment
43 — 38 — Streets of Heaven - Release date: 12 August 2003
- Label: Broken Bow Records
22 144 6 3 Circus Girl - Release date: 15 November 2011
- Label: Circus Girl, LLC
— — — — "—" denotes releases that did not chart 1990s singles
Year Single Peak chart positions Album US Country
[14]US
[14]CAN Country 1992 "Innocent Child" — 50 — Water to the Soul (as Colouhaus) 1997 "Lucky in Love" 34 — 31 Words "One Solitary Tear" 41 — 85 1998 "Put Your Heart into It" 34 104 36 "Tenderly" — — — "Innocent Man" 74 — 87 1999 "Never Been Kissed" 29 89 31 Love in the Real World "Little Bird" 49 — 43 "—" denotes releases that did not chart 2000s singles
Year Single Peak chart
positionsAlbum US Country
[14]US
[14]2001 "Jolene" 55 — Followin' a Feelin' "Time, Love and Money" — — 2002 "In the Meantime" — — 2003 "Streets of Heaven" 18 113 Streets of Heaven 2004 "Drivin' into the Sun" 50 — "Son of a Preacher Man" 46 — single only "—" denotes releases that did not chart Music videos
Year Video Director 1997 "Lucky in Love" Roger Pistole "One Solitary Tear" Steven Goldmann 1998 "Put Your Heart Into It" Gerry Wenner 1999 "Never Been Kissed" Morgan Lawley "Little Bird" 2001 "Jolene" Peter Zavadil "In the Meantime"[15] David McClister 2003 "Streets of Heaven" 2004 "Drivin' Into the Sun" Gerry Wenner 2011 "Naughty or Nice"[16] David Shamban Filmography
- The Facts of Life (1987–1988) (TV)
- Call From Space (1989)
- Open House (1989) (TV – 1 episode)
- Exile (1990 film) (TV)
- Shadows of the Heart (1990)
- An American Summer (1991)
- The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1991) (TV – 1 episode)
References
- ^ http://nielsen.soundscan.com/ Nielsen SoundScan
- ^ Episode Guide, Fresh Prince of Bel Air
- ^ http://www.allmusic.com/artist/p210972/biography
- ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E1D61730F930A1575AC0A9639C8B63
- ^ http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=406669
- ^ http://www.curtainup.com/nymusicfestival2006.html
- ^ http://www.the9513.com/george-straits-upcoming-to-feature-four-songs-co-written-by-son/
- ^ http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/tim-mcgraw/shotgun-rider/20397558/lyrics.jhtml
- ^ Country Labels Keep Rosters Full Despite Album Sales Dip
- ^ http://nashvillelifestyles.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DN&Date=20110928&Category=NL&ArtNo=109200809&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=16
- ^ http://www.sundancechannel.com/sunfiltered/2011/06/sundance-channel-announces-new-season-of-girls-who-like-boys-who-like-boys Sundance Channel Announces New Season of GIRLS WHO LIKE BOYS WHO LIKE BOYS
- ^ SherrieAustinMusic.com
- ^ SherrieAustinMusic.com
- ^ a b c d Whitburn, Joel (2008). Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, Inc. p. 36. ISBN 0-89820-177-2.
- ^ "CMT : Videos : Sherrie Austin : In the Meantime". Country Music Television. http://www.cmt.com/videos/sherrie-austin/388021/in-the-meantime.jhtml. Retrieved October 14, 2011.
- ^ "CMT : Videos : Sherrie Austin : Naughty or Nice". Country Music Television. http://www.cmt.com/videos/sherrie-austin/709544/naughty-or-nice.jhtml. Retrieved November 13, 2011.
Categories:- 1970 births
- Living people
- Australian country singers
- Australian country singer-songwriters
- Australian female singers
- Australian television actors
- Arista Records artists
- Broken Bow Records artists
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