“Suitcase” and other selections off Joy Ryder’s self-titled debut album incorporate underground touchstones from her native New York– Ramones, Talking Heads, no wave, new wave and of course saxophones.
Born Denise Whelan and sometimes billed as Joy Rider, our subject was a firecracker of a vocalist whose range suited many styles, from peculiar party punk anthem and Avis Davis team-up “No More Nukes” (1979) to such electro-pop obscurities as “Insomnia in Zambia” (1983).
Another personal favorite’s her 1982 cover of “Tell Him” (a proto-girl group hit 20 years earlier for The Exciters), due in part to this music video which was filmed for television during Ryder’s stay in Berlin. She would’ve known the classics well, considering her dad Phil Whelan’s band The Five Encores found some success in the ’50s with a version of blues standard “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.”
Ryder died on Valentine’s Day 2015 from liver cancer caused by hepatitis C.
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