"Blossom features pretty, harmony-laden songs born out of harsh circumstances, delicate but smooth-flowing tunes culled from tough times. The heart of a survivor lurks beneath them...Blossom In The Dust brims with a hopeful spirit which celebrates faith..

14 MP3 Songs
EASY LISTENING: Soft Rock, COUNTRY: Country Folk



Details:
Throughout her childhood years, Kristen Short was an avid writer and published poet with a strong love of music, but it was 1991 when her journey into songwriting began. Her sister, Marlene Weindorf-Ek, wrote an acoustic guitar arrangement to Kristen's poem, "Through It All," which the sisters sang in two-part harmony. They made a home recording and performed the song live for a large family gathering. The response to her first co-written song was an inspiration to Kristen, and she sensed her poetry found its home in lyrics. "My sister was my creative spark," Short reflects. "Discovering the ability to sing my poetry became a moving, fulfilling and deeply personal outlet of expression for me." In the years that followed Kristen Short delved wholeheartedly into songwriting, live performances and studio production of her original music. She released her debut CD in January 1998, "Blossom In The Dust." Kristen had intended the primary recordings of the songs of Blossom to be a demo to help secure performance engagements and for songwriting, singing and production critiques. However, responses to both live performances of the songs of Blossom and the original recordings were extremely heartening, and Kristen was encouraged by listening audiences to make the collection available for purchase. Blossom is cited by listeners as a relaxing, mellow adult contemporary/easy listening CD with heartfelt lyrics, memorable melodies and stirring harmonies. Kristen comments, "The songs of Blossom were a personal odyssey for me. I wrote them to try to make sense of the difficulties in life I was going through. The prevailing message in the songs of Blossom is that hope, love, courage and faith will overcome difficulties. They have for me." Kristen traveled to Nashville in March 1998 and met with several music producers, publishers, and up-and-coming artists, which was an informative and ultimately reassuring trip that Kristen feels was very fruitful to her musical progression. While sitting on a park bench in the plush indoor gardens of the Nashville Opryland Hotel, Kristen penned "The Woman You Need," a wistful song of longing with emotion-filled vocals on her second CD, Dove In A Hurricane, released in 2000 on her own label, Sea Siren Records. Dove evidences Kristen's seasoned vocals and maturing songwriting ability and has been touted by listeners as a sampler of great-to-listen-to music. Described by Short as a songwriter's CD versus a genre CD, Kristen's original songs on Dove shift from country-crossover to adult contemporary to pop/rock. Listening audiences have likened the style of Kristen's vocals and songwriting to artists like Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Karen Carpenter and Stevie Nicks. In a radio interview in 1998, Kristen thanked her radio hosts for their famous singer/songwriter comparisons, but added with her characteristically unpretentious smile, "I think I just sound like Kristen Short..." CDs are distributed through CD Baby, through Kristen's web site, and also featured at stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania (see Kristen's Recordings link on her web site for details). Kristen Short's third original music CD, "The Loan," is scheduled for release December 2006. The CD was recorded in Maine, Pennsylvania and Nashville, was mixed and produced by Kristen Short and Alan Bean at www.bakedbeansrecording.com, and was mastered by Grammy-Award winning Adam Ayan of Gateway Mastering & DVD of Portland, Maine. "The Loan" is an adult contemporary/country music collection which features seven original songs by Kristen and includes three songs written by Maine songwriter Jeff Moxcey, and three songs written by Pittsburgh singer/songwriter Jay Hitt (including two duets with Jay). Performing with Kristen as a dynamic acoustic trio are Vessel Recordings Artist Heather Pierson (www.heatherpierson.com), and percussionist/potter Rusty Wiltjer (www.wiltjerpottery.com). The energetic versatility of the trio sweeps audiences into richly arranged and heartfelt original ballads, and pumps up the tempo with toe-tapping original country/blues tunes. Kristen Short and her stellar accompanying musicians please a variety of musical palates with well crafted music and adeptly delivered performances.