Hello and welcome to Soda Jerker on Songwriting, Episode 276.

I'm Simon, accompanied by Brian and with us today is an American singer-songwriter and musician

who began a colourful career three decades ago as a classically trained violinist

before emerging as a singular solo artist in the mid-2000s.

Besides her own prodigious creative output, she's worked with the legs of Rufus Wainwright,

Cheryl Crow, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Dave Garn, Michelle Endergea Cello, Beck, Gorillas and Elton John.

Her 10th studio album, Lemons, Limes and Orchids, is Box Fresh as we record this,

and we were lucky enough to chat with her recently

about how the record came to be and of course how she does what she does. It's our great pleasure

to welcome the excellent Joan Wasser, aka Jonas Policewoman, to the show. Joan was born in

Biddeford, Maine in 1970, adopted at three weeks old and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut by a Latin and French

teacher mum and research chemist dad. She briefly took piano lessons around the age of six,

but quickly lost interest, not least because the teacher wouldn't let her light my fire

by the doors. She then took up violin in the third grade, and this time it's safe to say

she stuck at it. Our guest cites the experience of performing

Marla's second symphony when she was 14 as the moment she knew her future lay in music. She went on

to study violin with Yuri Muzerkovich at Boston University and played in its symphony orchestra.

Outside of her classical exploits, Joan was obsessed with punk as a teen but also discovered

Jimmy Hendrix,

Crosby Still's Nash and Young, and Joni Mitchell, as well as various new wave and two-tone artists.

In 1991, she hooked up with Boston-based indie band The Dam Builders, with which she developed

her electric violin technique across several albums. She met singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley in 1994 and the two began

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