Patti Scialfa

Until she started releasing her own albums, New Jersey singer/songwriter Patti Scialfa was best known as a backing vocalist for her husband Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band. Scialfa began her musical career after she graduated from NYU. She took to busking in Sheridan Square in the center of Greenwich Village. She began playing on the Big Appple's club scene in the early '80s and sang backup for rock acts on tour and in the studio, including David Johansen, the Rolling Stones, and Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes. Before joining the E Street Band for 1984's Born in the U.S.A. tour, she signed a recording contract with Columbia Records as a solo artist based on the strength of her demos. However, because of a tumultuous touring schedule based on the runaway success of Born in the U.S.A., her marriage to Springsteen in 1988, and the family they began immediately after, her debut album, Rumble Doll, did not appear until 1993. Domestic life, songwriting, and the 1999 reunion of the E Street Band all conspired to delay her solo career. 23rd Street Lullaby, her excellent sophomore effort, was issued in June 2004. Her 2007 effort Play It as It Lays was heavily influenced by blues, soul, and gospel.