folk pop

10 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Folk Pop, POP: Folky Pop



Details:
Multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Kate Laurel Smith's smooth, rich voice has reaped comparisons to the likes of Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant, Jewel and Norah Jones, but she has created an infectious brand of folk-pop all her own. Smooth but edgy, nostalgic but fresh, the Denver-based 26 year-old writer's musical style embodies dichotomy with class. The perfect blend of eclectic and catchy, Kate's songs are refreshingly lyrical, hopeful and poignant.

Having cut her teeth on bluegrass and Appalachian Mountain folk music and polished her rough edges with a classical music performance degree, Kate brings a diverse musical background to the plate. She has musical experience most recently grounded in Classical French horn, but looks to a widely varied list of musical influences in every genre from Roots Rock and Roll to Jazz. Ben Folds, Over the Rhine, Natalie Merchant, Damien Rice, Elliott Smith and John Mayer are just a few of the folks who have frequented her ever-busy CD player in recent years.

Kate's variety of musical experiences began when she was a small child. Although she was born in Middlebury, Vermont, her parents shortly thereafter hit the road for a four year sight-seeing excursion around the continental U.S. in several mid-60's Volkswagen buses. Kate's parents nurtured in her a love for live acoustic music; both played acoustic guitar and lap dulcimer. When they stopped traveling to settle down in the mountains of Colorado, the record player was up and running, spinning Doc Watson, the Red Clay Ramblers, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris to name a few. Later, with the addition of a new stepfather, Kate discovered her love for rock and roll with Led Zeppelin, Little Feat, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, the Who, Tom Petty and the Eagles. Live concerts and bluegrass festivals topped the list of vacation destinations, and there was always something playing in the car cassette player.

When she was old enough, Kate begged to take piano lessons. Several teachers and an inconsistent five years of study later, Kate slipped away from the classical discipline to play by ear. She continued her intellectual pursuit of music with the French horn, eventually majoring in music performance at Huntington University in Indiana. Four hard years of successful study left her feeling unfulfilled, however, and she didn't discover why until she started writing songs during her senior year of college. At the time, she was also singing backup vocals and playing keys for a coffee shop folk-rock trio that called themselves Alabaster. It was this involvement that re-sparked her passion for the folk music that had built her musical past and ignited a new zeal for the art of songcraft. Modeling much of her early song structure and piano style after the artists she admired most at the time, Ben Folds, Over the Rhine and Natalie Merchant, Kate started writing and kept writing. After graduation, Kate picked up guitar and stayed in Ft. Wayne to play for a year. She decided to split from the group in January of 2004, and moved home to pursue a solo career.

August of 2004 saw the release of Kate's self-produced debut album, Sometimes, a homegrown diamond in the rough made up of musical snapshots from her first two years of writing. After a season of penning verses, practicing and home-recording in her mountain-town apartment, Kate packed up her life and moved to Denver in search of venues, fans, fellow musicians and the promise of the broader musical horizons of the city. Over a hundred solo shows and less than two years later, Kate has been a finalist in the Tucson Folk Festival Songwriting Competition, a winner and alternate in two categories of the Walnut Valley Festival NewSong Contest in Winfield, KS and a showcase artist selected for the Midpoint Music Festival in Cincinnati, OH. Currently hard at work in the studio with a handful of top-notch session players and audio engineer Paul Andrews, Kate has plans to release her sophomore album in 2007.

Press quotes (complete articles online at www.sonicbids.com/katelaurelsmith):

"A Natural Born singer-songwriter...Kate has a voice like Emmylou Harris and a story-telling knack like the great Joan Baez."

- The Vail Trail,Vail, CO

"Kate Laurel Smith's biggest fans are people just like her. They are teenagers and twentysomethings who are trying to carve their own paths while trying to ignore a world of voices telling them to do more, do faster and do it all by age 30..."My music is for people who want to dig deeper," she said. "It's for people who want to relate to the music and feel a lot through it.""

- Autumn Phillips, Arts and Entertainment Writer, The Steamboat Pilot and Today, 4 Points

"Her debut album is a self-written, self-produced jewel."

- The Tomahawk, Mountain City, TN

âKate has developed a unique sound that must be heard to be appreciated. Think Joan Baez fronting the 10,000 Maniacs hanging out with James Blunt in the studio and you get an idea of her soaring, smooth resonance.â

- Colorado Music Buzz, Littleton, CO