About Unstoppable: The debut album by New York singer-songwriter Valerie Ghent was created almost entirely her home midi studio. She recorded most of the eleven songs herself, and bartered engineering for studio time to record vocals and guitar/cello/bass/accordion/sax overdubs. Additional musicians on Unstoppable include Tony “Babyshoes” Bridges (bass), Knox Chandler (guitar), Kit Hain, Deborah Berg, Sherryl Marshall and Elise Morris (background vocals) and Val's mother, Nathalie Gudkov Ghent, speaking in Russian! Yuri Zak, the accordionist, was discovered playing in the NYC subways & brought straight to the studio. Once tracking was finished, the CD was mixed with renowned engineers Michael Brauer, Michael Barbiero, Tsuyoshi Inoue, Alex Haas, Harvey Goldberg and Carl Beatty and mastered by Greg Calbi. Val says, "It took several years to finish Unstoppable because at that time I was recording the Ashford & Simpson w/ Maya Angelou album, "Been Found", during the days – and coming home to work on Unstoppable at night! It was on this CD that I taught myself Photoshop, Quark and the basics of graphic design to create the CD artwork." Musicians on Unstoppable: valerie ghent - vocals, keyboards, producer tony bridges - bass knox chandler - guitar, cello nigel hitchcock - saxophone benjamin orick - drums yuri zak - accordion natalia ghent - russian voice kit hain, napua davoy, deborah berg, sherryl marshall, elise morris, valerie ghent - backing vocals Press: Valerie has been featured in Billboard, The New York Times, The New York Daily News, Keyboard Magazine, New York Press, American Songwriter, The Villager, The Aquarian and many others. She has sung live on Oprah, Channel 2's "The Early Show", Rosie O'Donnell, Pat Sajak and been interviewed by NPR. Some reviews are below. For full press please visit http://valghent.com REVIEW: Music Direct/New Music Series: Valerie Ghent As soon as you hear her music, you’ll know Valerie Ghent is a product of her environment. Born and raised in Greenwich Village, Ghent’s thoroughly downtown sensibility colors every track of ‘Unstoppable’ – the debut release from a keyboard virtuoso and studio wizard who’s worked with some of the biggest names in the business – from R&B legends Ashford & Simpson to avant-garde composer Laurie Anderson. For her first solo project, Ghent decided to take complete control of the reins – founding her own record label and assembling much of the album in her home studio. She also wrote, arranged, performed and recorded these 11 songs herself, with longtime friend, Jimmy Biondolillo, co-producing. “We didn’t really have the finances to record basic tracks in a ‘real’ studio,” she says. “So Jimmy pushed me to record as much as possible right here, where there was no pressure. Later on I traded many hours of engineering time to gain access to outside studios, where I could record my vocals and add the guitar, bass and drum overdubs.” Those touches – plys the evocative accompaniment of a Russian accordionist on one track – are proof that Ghent has learned an important musical truism: that technology is most effective when it’s paired with skilled performers and genuine human emotion. “Jimmy encouraged my to do much of this album myself and – most importantly – have fun doing it,” she says. And that’s what ultimately comes through on this CD: a spirit of self-reliance and exuberant creative freedom. After years as a highly sought-after, behind-the-scenes player, Ghent has finally stepped forward to follow her own ‘unstoppable’ instincts. Music Direct - Volume 7 Music Direct was a wonderful music subscription series, one quite ahead of its time. Each month Music Direct compliled a CD of ‘must listen’ to releases, both of new and emerging artists as well as established artists. Volume 7 featured “New Releases” Clive Gregson, Rich Wyman, Jason Falkner, Valerie Ghent, David Massengill, Steve Schuch, William Topley, The Power of Peace; “Hit Makers” Simply Red, Hughie Lewis & the News; and “The Return Of” David Sanborne and Natalie Cole. REVIEW: t@p music plug: “A One Woman Show” “…a smart woman in a crafty business.” Valerie Ghent Unstoppable reviewed by em hedge Valerie is amazingly accomplished, not only as a performer, but as a composer, producer and computer programmer. Though you might not recognize her name, her bio reveals deep entrenchment within the established music world: her first band opened for Depeche Mode‘s first show in the States; she studied the Synclavier Direct-to-Disk system for four years under British record producer Mike Thorne (who also worked with the likes of Soft Cell, ’til Tuesday, and Bronski Beat); since the late 80′s she’s worked with Grayson Hugh, Deborah Harry, The Communards, Laurie Anderson, John Cale, Siouxie and the Banshees, Defunkt and most recently Ashford & Simpson – just to name a few. What all this means is that Valerie Ghent is no newcomer to the music business, and that is the way her music should be approached and listened to…Valerie’s work is so different from the demented wailing of today’s Top 40 that it almost leans toward easy-listening; it isn’t until you know of this woman’s experience (and expertise) that her whole style comes together as a cumulative picture of years of behind-the-scenes work. It’s her first solo statement of all that she’s learned from being a smart woman in a crafty business. I think the opening paragraph of her bio sums it up the best: “The story behind Valerie Ghent’s debut album, Unstoppable, is a capsule chronicle of the New York underground music scene. It’s the story of a talented woman in a historic time, of musicians recording, regrouping and reflecting the multitude of influences and stylistic changes that come naturally as a legendary music scene evolves.”