Cindy Alter · Thabonage - Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)

Even though Cindy Alter was born to a musical family in Johannesburg, South Africa, she claims that "music chose her". She picked up a guitar at age 10, wrote her first song at 15 then joined a heavy-rock, cover-band, playing everything from Zeppelin to Grand Funk.

She spent a few years touring South Africa, opening for various big-name acts, until 1977 when she auditioned for an all-girl band and was suddenly catapulted into the world of pop-stardom, constant touring and recording, playing huge arena 's and concert halls in Europe and Africa, as she spearheaded the band "Clout", selling over ten million albums worldwide, earning gold records, Sarie Awards (South Africa's Grammy equivalent), and charting at #1 across Europe and Africa, # 2 in U.K., and entering the U.S. Billboard top 100 with their hit single (a cover of the Righteous Brothers song), "Substitute"

"Clout" toured Europe for four years, sharing stages with the top recording artists of the time, The Police, Thin Lizzy, Supertramp, Dire Straights, Blondie, Gloria Gaynor and the Village People, to name a few. Cindy had been writing songs for a few years, and two of these were recorded by Clout, but her efforts to contribute more were met with indifference, which marked the beginning of the band’s long struggle to redeem royalties from their management & record company. The pressures finally took their toll and after four monumental years, "Clout" disbanded.

Cindy performed acoustically and with her band making waves in songwriter circles in Los Angeles, and in Nashville. Her appearance at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara in the "Sings Like Hell" series was a powerful introduction to an audience who support the likes of John Hiatt, Peter Case, Richard Thomson, Nickel Creek, & Gillian Welch, and Santa Barbara newspaper,"The Independent", called her "red-hot"!

Cindy has also appeared alongside such diverse artists as Kenny Loggins, Olivia Newton-John, Clint Black, Glen Phillips, Dave Mason, Sophie B. Hawkins, Flock of Seagulls & Dishwalla, and has co-written with other songwriters, including Trevor Rabin.