continued from 96 Hours, SF Chronicle February 7th, 2007...
"I don't like to feel hit over the head by messages," Pasqual says in advance of Blame Sally's hometown CD release shows at the Brava Theater this weekend. "I find a lot of that kind of writing really obvious and really boring. A lot of my material is political or social but it is also very personal. It's about me, but it's about something larger."

Pasqual wrote "If You Tell a Lie" on the day George W. Bush first took the oath of office. She'd been invited to perform at a "Night of the Burning Bush" event at the Bazaar Cafe, and she had planned to sing Bob Dylan's "Masters of War."

"I was sitting at the piano to practice and I couldn't focus," she says. "I turned on the TV, which is something I rarely do, and there was the inauguration. It was pouring rain here, pretty bleak, and I was so depressed. I went back to my piano and wrote that song in about half an hour. I performed it that night."

After the invasion of Iraq, Pasqual penned an additional anti-war verse, and prior to the 2004 election the band shot a music video that bolted into the Top 10 on the "Living With War" video page of Neil Young's Web site.

"If You Tell a Lie" was the first song Blame Sally recorded for "Severland" and it has garnered enthusiastic ovations everywhere they've performed it, including red-state Utah. But it represents only one facet of the music made by classically trained pianist Pasqual, percussionist Pam Delgado, guitarist Renee Harcourt and bassist/guitarist Jeri Jones. Collectively they create multihued sonic and emotional tapestries -- sharing writing duties, swapping lead vocals and variously recalling the artful romanticism of Jane Siberry, the rich folk harmonies of the Indigo Girls and the percolating soulfulness of Berkeley's fondly remembered Joy of Cooking.

Early on, the group settled on a stress-free career strategy. "We decided we weren't going to sweat it," Pasqual says. "We were going to have fun and do the music we want and work as a collective, doing only gigs that we really love or that pay really well, preferably both. We've stuck to that and opportunities have appeared -- and we take them when we're ready to." Derk Richardson