Julie Christensen

Julie Christensen (born January 21, 1956) is an American singer and songwriter.

Noted for its versatility, Christensen's music has been praised by critics.

As a solo artist, Christensen has released nine albums as of 2023.

Christensen, a founding member of the Divine Horsemen, toured extensively with Leonard Cohen.

She has performed or recorded with artists including Todd Rundgren, Iggy Pop, Public Image Limited, Van Dyke Parks, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, and k.d. lang.

Christensen was born in Iowa City and grew up in Newton, Iowa.

Her father was a pharmacist and her mother, a nurse, played the organ at local Protestant churches.

Julie grew up in that generation between Boomer and Gen-X (some call it “Generation Jones.”) She and her mom would sit at the piano and play and sing through the Judy Collins songbook, which of course had a lot of Leonard Cohen songs in it.

She would listen to Iowa Public Radio, WLS in Chicago, WHO in Des Moines, and an FM station out of Little Rock.

The oldest of four children, Christensen has three brothers, who were also musicians.

Two of her brothers played together in a band,

In 1978 she began singing with a show band, and after a year on the road, she moved to Austin, Texas.

In Austin she performed frequently with jazz artists, including bassist and producer Roscoe Beck of the group Passenger, who would later introduce Christensen to Leonard Cohen.

In 1981 Christensen moved to Los Angeles.

While still performing from time to time with jazz groups, she began to sing with the underground bands of the early Los Angeles punk scene.

In 1982, while sitting in with Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, she met Chris D.., a producer and the founder of the seminal LA band, the Flesh Eaters.

Impressed by her voice, he booked her as a backup vocalist for a Top Jimmy session he was producing.

By 1984, Christensen and Chris D.. had founded the Divine Horsemen; in 1985 they were married.

The Divine Horsemen's music combined elements of punk, rock, blues roots and country.

A reviewer for roots-music magazine No Depression said it "foreshadowed the alt-country genre."

With a lineup that included members of X, The Blasters, The Gun Club, as well as Texacala Jones and Kid Congo, the band released their largely acoustic debut album, Time Stands Still, in late 1984.

The Divine Horsemen toured frequently and released three studio albums and two EPs between 1984 and 1987.

Although they built a substantial following, their success was hampered by alcoholism and addiction within the band.

Christensen struggled with a daily heroin habit; when she got clean in 1987, she left the band and ended her marriage.

More than three decades after the original Divine Horsemen dissolved, the band reformed.

A new double LP album called "Hot Rise of an Ice Cream Phoenix" was released in 2021, followed by another double album called “Bitter End of a Sweet Night in October of 2023.

Both were released by Larry Hardy on In The Red Records.

Three months after she left the Divine Horsemen, she was approached by Roscoe Beck about working as a backup vocalist on an upcoming Leonard Cohen tour.

Christensen excelled during her audition with Cohen's band—with her mother on piano, she had sung Leonard Cohen songs since she was a child.

Next, she met with Cohen.

He pointed out over lunch that the tour would be grueling, and Christensen responded with stories regarding the years she'd spent on tour with the Divine Horsemen, playing at venues such as CBGB and the Cathay de Grande.

Cohen was reportedly charmed.

Jonesin', that was inducted into the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.

As a reviewer said in 2016, "Right up there with George Jones and Tammy Wynette, with Julie Christensen harmonizing circles around a despondent Chris D.. The twin vocals wander, finish one another's sentences, fight, fuck, laugh, cry and then join together in a gorgeously mismatched duo. Christensen's clear Emmylou-cry looms large."

Julie was inducted herself in 2018.

A lyric soprano, Christensen began singing while she was a child.

She performed at churches, and when she was 11 she appeared on the first of two television talent contests.

In high school she learned French, and after she graduated she enrolled at the University of Iowa.

She planned to learn Chinese, and majored in Asian studies.

During her first year at the University of Iowa, Christensen joined Longshot, a country-rock band; to tour with them, she dropped out of college.