SAN DIEGO, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Populuxe Records) - When Paul Williams had his bicycle accident in 1995, his brain surgeon and care workers told him and his wife-to-be, Cindy Lee Berryhill there was little chance they would stay a couple for long. Doctors had warned them that when one member of a marriage or long term committed relationship suffers a traumatic brain injury, stress is likely to cause the relationship to break within a matter of years. Now, twelve years later, a six-year old child later, several Williams penned books later, and a new Cindy Lee Berryhill CD later, they seem to have beaten the odds.
Paul Williams was the founder of Crawdaddy!, the worlds first rock music magazine. This year Williams sold Crawdaddy! to the owner of Wolfgang's Vault who has since made it an on-line music-zine (www.crawdaddy.com). Williams has also written over 18 books, some of them acclaimed critiques of the music of Bob Dylan, some are books of thoughts, as in the case of the underground best seller Das Energi, a book of "new age" philosophy he wrote while living on a commune at age 22.
Williams met Berryhill, a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, in 1992 and the two moved to Encinitas together in 1994. The title track of Berryhill's sixth album, Beloved Stranger which was released Sept. 18th 2007 speaks openly from her experience of living with a husband recovering from and living with traumatic brain injury. "The song came from my experience with Paul but I couched it in a story about a soldier coming home from war with a brain injury."
More than 60,000 wounded soldiers have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injury, more than in any other war in American history, mostly due to the proliferation of improvised exploding devices.
Berryhill says, "I can't know what it's like to have a loved one coming back from war injured, and my fingers are crossed as my nephew is stationed in Baghdad with the Army right now, but I do know what it's like to be with a loved one after a traumatic brain injury and all the daily challenges in the long term of sustaining a relationship with that loved one."
"We definitely have our problems to work out: getting disability in place, child care, and so on . But Paul still has a lot to offer, I mean he is the 'Forrest Gump' of rock.. How many folks do you know that marched and cocked rifles on the Door s' 'Unknown Soldier' or got a phone call in his college dorm from Bob Dylan or smoked pot for the first time with Brian Wilson in a tent in Brian's living room while listening to the acetates of the Beach Boys lost Smile album, or sold his New York City loft to the great beat writer William Burroughs. He also sang with John and Yoko on 'Give Peace A Chance' at their Bed-In For Peace. I mean Paul really is the great 'Almost Famous' of rock and roll and still such a fine writer.
Berryhill continues, "Things just go a little more slowly now; somehow between the cracks of helping Paul and raising our son I was able to make this album and have a few friends like Dave Alvin, John Doe, Lenny Kaye, and Peter Case sit in and help out. It became a place for me to get out my frustrations and feelings about the war about living with Paul about trying to make it as a family living with traumatic brain injury. And I hope we can be a little bit of an inspiration to those that are just starting the journey."
