Johana (Schier) Hall bio...

Johanna Schier was born in Greenville, South Carolina, daughter of a drama critic and an English teacher/feature writer. They settled in Levittown, Pennsylvania, where father Ernest Schier commuted to work at the Philadelphia Bulletin.

He often took Johanna with him to see the shows he was reviewing, then let her wander the quiet newspaper office while he typed his piece. This immersion in journalism helped set her on a course which led her to be a proofreader at the Bucks County Courier-Times and at Woman's Day magazine, a columnist for the Village Voice, and a freelance writer whose articles appeared in publications including Crawdaddy and Rock Magazine.

Her songwriting career began in 1970 with the magic wand of Janis Joplin-- in the form of a request that Johanna write a song for her with guitar genius John Hall. Johanna's Village Voice review of Janis' "Kozmic Blues" album led to a friendship between the two women.

John and Johanna were living in New York's East Village and Janis often visited their third floor walkup. The Halls turned out "Half Moon" for the "Pearl" album. It was also the B side of "Me and Bobby McGee". So they moved up to the country, painted the mailbox purple and learned how to write songs.

In 1972, they founded the band Orleans and wrote three albums for them while touring on bills with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Little Feat and Bruce Springsteen, among others.

The Hall/Hall Siren Songs catalog of nearly one hundred songs is active all around the world and spans genres of rock, pop, country, folk. They have been recorded by Janis Joplin, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, The Doobie Brothers, Steve Wariner, Linda Ronstadt, Ricky Skaggs, Chet Atkins, the Tymes, Millie Jackson, Joe Dassin and Orleans. Five have been certified gold: "Still The One", "Dance with Me", "Power", "Half Moon" and "You Can Dream of Me". Johanna Hall's song catalogue has received BMI awards for ten million airplays worldwide. "Still The One" has pervaded the language to even surface as graffitti in Portugal.

In 1988 a collaboration with Nashville soul singer, Jonell Mosser began. This partnership bore fruit in 1998 with the release of Jonell's CD "So Like Joy". Hall/Mosser/Hall songs have also been recorded by Orleans, John Hall, Moira O'Connell, and others in such far-flung lands as Sweden and Japan. The songwriting team wrote two new songs for the musical "Dance With Me": "How Green Was My Mood Ring" and "Enough".

In Fall 2000, Johanna was the Artist-In-Residence at SUNY-Ulster, teaching a course in songwriting and producing concerts. She continues to teach the three-credit course she developed then, "The Art and Craft of Lyric Writing."

Johanna sings alto with Ars Choralis, a Woodstock-based vocal enemble and serves as president of their board. She produced their CD's "Welcome Yule: American Christmas Cameos", "Messengers Of Peace", and "8 Cellos and a Guitar". She has written libretto for three operas with composer Barbara Pickhardt. Continuing her work in journalism, Johanna writes about music and culture for the Woodstock Times, in Woodstock, NY.

The Halls divorced in 2000 and John is now a Congressman representing New York's 19th congressional district, and has retired from music.