Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers began one spring day in 2003, with college graduation looming. A student of the theater at Fordham University, Ann Courtney confronted the uncertainty of a life on the stage by rejecting the premise. Instead she cast herself as the front-woman of her very own rock band, enlisting her dearest friends and lovers to play the supporting roles. Armed with acoustic instruments and petulant hearts, they undertook to express Ann’s soul-stricken musings and planted the early seeds of a fully stacked and rapacious rock and roll band.
The daughter of American diplomats, Miss Courtney spent her formative years in far- flung regions of the globe. As a pubescent in Pakistan in the 90’s, she first encountered the gender injustices that thematically informed much of the band's music. It was there, beaming thro
ugh a friend’s satellite television set, that she discovered PJ Harvey on MTV Asia.
On arriving in New York, it would not be long before Ann Courtney discovered the full compliment of vagaries and triumphs that city has to offer. She fell in love with a guitar-playing cast-mate who broke her heart and left her crying like Loretta Lynn’s “Honky-Tonk Girl.” She quickly shed her illusions and enlisted the lothario as her lead-guitar player.
Enter Late Bloomer David Giambusso. Raised on the rocky shores of Cape Cod, his electric guitar summoned echoes of Joey Santiago and Jonny Greenwood and gave counterpoint to Ann’s vocals.
College roommate Lizzie Carena took on keys and supporting vocals. A bona fide late bloomer, Lizzie’s awkward adolescence gave way to a particularly graceful and charismatic young adulthood, inspiring the band’s name. Her musings on the piano and spot-on vocal harmonies composed the strong pop nostalgia central to the group’s sound.
Bassist and fellow Fordham classmate Benjamin Byleen hailed from the hinterlands of Wisconsin and brought with him a classically trained ear and a philosopher’s mind, both of which he employed in massaging Ann Courtney’s arrangements.
Together the four enlisted drummer Michael Lupo, a veteran of the NYC indie noise band, Kinetic. The heavy artillery of the Late Bloomers, his addition to the group in 2005 vaulted the band from acoustic quartet to hard-hitting electric juggernaut.
Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers had two independent releases, "To Your Health!" (2004) and "the pollyanna EP" (2006). They released their first full-length album on the Cougar label in April 2009. Recorded at The Fort with engineer Jim Bentley, "Crocodile" is a female melodrama of yearning, shame, masking, and defiance. Aching and ecstatic in equal turn, the record mapped new terrain in the group’s musical discovery.
In September 2009, Courtney dismantled Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers and birthed a new project, Mother Feather. Teaming former Late Bloomers Carena and Lupo with Rich Girls front-man Matthew Basile on bass and Thisway guitarist Christopher Foley on lead guitar, Mother Feather is the evolution of ACLB's sound into a more pop-based, theatrical dance-rock outfit.
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