XL Cover Story: The Next Next Wave

Wendy Colonna: Singer-songwriter, 27

By Michael Corcoran
Dec. 1, 2005

Laura Cox
The Next Next Wave
Reginald Harris	René Pinnell
Myrna Cabello	Justin Raiford
Attic Ted	Leah Marino
Wendy Colonna	Nathan Green

Pre-production on the album, Colonna's second since moving to Austin in 2000, consisted of getting together with producer Stephen Doster and talking about all the albums they love. "1971 was the year for me," says the singer born in 1977.

But "Right Where I Belong" is no nostalgia trip, opening with the Ani DiFranco-like "Easy," which tackles "the fear-based propaganda we're surrounded with today." It's fitting that Colonna's songs have found a fan in Toni Price, who's covered three of them. Like Price, Colonna's righteous swagger permeates whatever style she does. Both are the children of Bonnie Raitt.

"I've always been a tomboy," says the Lake Charles, La., native, who used to box for two hours a day before taking on yoga. For two years, she was a counselor for a wilderness camp for troubled male teens near Dripping Springs, and her job often consisted of restraining exploding kids twice her size. But the experience opened Colonna's heart.

"I realized that I could never say 'I understand' to those kids," she says, voice cracking. "What they had gone through, all their lives, I couldn't relate to that. All I could do was to try to be there for them." It makes her day when a former kid from the camp e-mails her to say thanks.

Two years is a long time to come home from work with a broken heart, so Colonna next took a job "babysitting men," as she calls her stint as a waitress at the Yellow Rose men's club. The money was good, but the stories were better.

Colonna's current priority is getting her music out there, even if it means hopping in her car and driving to the West Coast with only a guitar and a box full of CDs. "Having a CD that you really believe in makes all the difference," she says. "I got signed to a small Louisiana label when I was 19 and didn't have any real control over my first record. My second one (2002's "Red") was pretty dark. It wasn't a fun time in my life."

But the title of the current record says it all. Wendy Colonna is not just a singer-songwriter, she's a force of nature. Spend 10 minutes with her and you'll walk away impressed by her spunk. This is, after all, a woman who lived in a haunted house in Natchitoches, La., at age 17 and didn't want to move.

The singer is right where she belongs, musically, which means that her life is in step as well.