Kim Beggs

Artist Information

Biography

KIM BEGGS BIOGRAPHY AND REVIEWS FOR BLUE BONES
www.kimbegs.com
Videos:
http://www.kimbeggs.com/index.php?filename=videos/index.php&frame=1
OR
http://youtu.be/ameQgj-1pfM
http://youtu.be/1c20CIWKbPg
http://youtu.be/JC4LI4imPU8

BLUE BONES - the newest CD from Yukon singer/songwriter KIM BEGGS and her debut on BLACK HEN MUSIC - delivers on the promise of her first two critically acclaimed albums ‘Wanderer’s Paean’ and ‘Streetcar Heart’

“A voice as cool and as refreshing as the Yukon River, delivers songwriting of the highest order” says MAVERICK MAGAZINE (UK) in a five star review of her latest album, BLUE BONES, while NOW MAGAZINE (CA) says “Kim Beggs is the real deal” (NNNN).

KIM BEGGS is a NOMINEE for:
2011 WESTERN CANADIAN MUSIC AWARD: Roots Solo Album of the Year (BLUE BONES)
2011 WESTERN CANADIAN MUSIC AWARD: Multi-Media Award (Longest Dream, BLUE BONES)
-this music video that was directed, animated and (co-) edited by Beggs. Sound track for video is from the album Blue Bones.
2011 INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION Finalist for (Longest Dream, BLUE BONES)
2007 WESTERN CANADIAN MUSIC AWARD: Roots Solo Album (Wanderer’s Paean)
2007 CANADIAN FOLK MUSIC AWARD: Emerging Artist (Wanderer’s Paean)

Sincere and vulnerable, clear eyed and tough, while occasionally “SCUFFING UP THE DIRT”, the familiar themes of love, loss, and hard fought freedom that BEGGS so convincingly explores, have reached a new level this time out. On BLUE BONES, the effortless grace and breezy delivery that has become her vocal trademark are supported by some of North America’s most respected roots musicians to make this the best sounding album of an already impressive career.

It’s often been said that all Canadian artists are influenced by geography, and even though the soul informing KIM BEGGS’ music might sound Appalachian, it’s easy to hear how the expansiveness of the Yukon allows her creative imagination to roam. The west was settled long ago and Kim’s frontier heart needed somewhere to inhabit, merge with and make her own.

Kim Beggs is an original talent who makes music that transcends style and fashion. Without so much as a backward glance at what others consider ‘hip’, she instead makes music that is true. Bold, brilliant, dark and sincere, with an instantly recognizable “STURDY, TRUSTING, GIRL-WOMAN VOICE” that blends sweetness and grit, has made BLUE BONES one of the most memorable roots releases of 2010. (Canada, US and Europe).

So, with all the attention garnered for her first two releases, there’s a lot riding on the release of BLUE BONES. Thankfully, in working with STEVE DAWSON, Kim Beggs has found a collaborator capable of helping her bring her vision to its fullest fruition.

Dawson’s masterful string playing graces every song in the album, and it’s a thrill to hear his national steel, electric slide and weissenborn back up Begg’s increasingly heartfelt guitar playing. With sympathetic support from John Raham (drums), Keith Lowe (bass) and Chris Gestrin (keyboards) the sound of BLUE BONES is as deep, rich and organic as the place the music comes from. By adding vocal harmonies from LAURIE LEWIS, GURF MORLIX, NATALIE EDELSON, BEN ROGALSKY and JEANNE TOLMIE, Beggs and Dawson achieve a high lonesome sound with a distinctively Canadian feel, making BLUE BONES sound like a lost Hazel Dickens album with a bright northern heart. On track after track, the players warm to the themes posed by Beggs’ music to give added resonance and depth to her already powerful vocals and lyrics that explore the intersections of darkness and light.

BLUE BONES features nine original tracks as well as four well-chosen cover songs. Beggs offers a stunning version of the old traditional, ‘ I’m Thinking of My Blue Eyes’ that will melt the most cynical of hearts as well as interpretations of classics from Bob Dylan, Patty Griffin, and Jack Clement that are sung in such a way that they sound as if she wrote them herself.

Instrumentation

Kim Beggs - Lead Vocals and Guitar
David Sinclair - Lead Guitar and Harmony Vocals
Jesse Zubot - Fiddle and Mandolin
Natalie Edelson - Harmony Vocals

Discography

Four full length CDs recorded and released.

Pretty Good 2012 released as The Blue Warblers (a duo with Natalie Edelson) CBC Galaxie Channel Airplay 2012


Blue Bones 2010 was released with Black Hen Records in Canada; Burnside Distribution in the USA; Continental Records Services in Europe.
iTunes Spotlight Feature
Essential Track for the Globe and Mail
#1 Galaxie Channel Folk Roots June 2011
week 2 = #2 on Earshot Radio - Folks Roots and Blues
week 1 = #10 on Earshot Radio - Folks Roots and Blues

Wanderer's Paean (CD)
in 2007
#22 Canadian Album Galaxie Channel Folk Roots
#8 Canadian Album for Int'l Airplay (FOLKDJ)
#20 Canadian Artist for Int'l Airplay (FOLKDJ)
#11, 17, & #20 Canadian SOngs for Int'l Airplay (FOLKDJ)
Wanderer's Paean (CD) Oct 2006
#6 for Galaxie Channel Folk Roots Cdn
Top 10 for Canadian Artist, Album and Song on
International playlists in Jan/Feb 2007
Euroamericana Charting


Streetcar Heart (CD) Dec 2004
National radio airplay particularily CBC Radio One
CBC SUnday Edition
CBC Roots Round Up
Music Yukon Sampler 2007 (compilation CD)
Music Yukon Sampler 2005 (compilation CD)
Music Yukon Sampler 2004 (compilation CD)
Yukon Women in Music (YWIM) 2004 compilation CD
"beautiful" (EP) summer 2003
Demo 2002

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Last.fm

Audio

• Honey and Crumbs - Blue Bones
  Listen  
• Maiden Heart - Blue Bones
  Listen  
• Can't Drive Slow Yodel - Blue Bones
  Listen  
• Walking Down to the Station - Wanderer's Paean
  Listen  
• Up From the River - Wanderer's Paean
  Listen  
• Lips Stained Red with Wine - Wanderer's Paean
  Listen  
• Longest Dream
  Listen  
• Firewater Bones
  Listen  
• Beautiful
  Listen  
• Lay It All Down
  Listen  
• Summertime Lonesome Blues
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Streetcar Heart
• Gidyup Cowboy
• I Carry My Guitar
• Lips Stained Red with Wine
• Summertime Lonesome Blues
• Mama's Dress
• Can't Drive Slow Yodel
• Honey and Crumbs
• Longest Dream
• Firewater Bones
• Maiden Heart

Video

Photo Gallery

Press

• “A voice as cool and as refreshing as the Yukon river delivers songwriting of the highest order” *****
  

  see url

• Blue Bones has rarely left my CD player since I first heard the album [+ Show ]
  

  “Featuring a mix of her distinctive original songs as well as a few well-chosen covers, Blue Bones h...“Featuring a mix of her distinctive original songs as well as a few well-chosen covers, Blue Bones has rarely left my CD player since I first heard the album in the spring.”

• ...her marvelously anecdotal songwriting (nine originals are here) authentically captures and comments on various elements of the rustic, laid-back charm of the Canadian north [+ Show ]
  

  ...her marvelously anecdotal songwriting (nine originals are here) authentically captures and commen......her marvelously anecdotal songwriting (nine originals are here) authentically captures and comments on various elements of the rustic, laid-back charm of the Canadian north

• Girl-woman voice is perfect for this song [+ Show ]
  

  “Kim Beggs’ girl-woman voice is perfect for this song [‘Maiden Heart’] about a kind of innocence tha...“Kim Beggs’ girl-woman voice is perfect for this song [‘Maiden Heart’] about a kind of innocence than never dies”

• Any fan of Buffy St Marie, Joni Mitchell, or even Neil Young, will not be disappointed [+ Show ]
  

  "Any fan of Buffy St Marie, Joni Mitchell, or even Neil Young, will not be disappointed by Blue Bone..."Any fan of Buffy St Marie, Joni Mitchell, or even Neil Young, will not be disappointed by Blue Bones, I highly recommend checking out all of Kim Beggs' music."

• If Kim Beggs was making music when Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were getting their starts, this Yukon-based singer would be huge [+ Show ]
  

  “If Kim Beggs was making music when Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were getting their starts, this Yuk...“If Kim Beggs was making music when Joni Mitchell and Neil Young were getting their starts, this Yukon-based singer would be huge. Hopefully that will change with her third record, which is loaded with touching country folk tunes. Lyrics about loss, the north and searching for oil are backed by smooth slide guitars, delicate acoustics and rich harmonies.”

• Kim Beggs is the real deal [+ Show ]
  

  Kim Beggs Blue Bones (Black Hen) BY SARAH GREENE Kim Beggs is the real deal. With an instantly rec...Kim Beggs
  Blue Bones (Black Hen) BY SARAH GREENE
  Kim Beggs is the real deal. With an instantly recognizable voice that blends sweetness and grit, the Yukon-based singer/songwriter (and sometimes carpenter) tells stories of love, blues, bones and the North on her third album and first for the Black Hen label.
  
  Beggs’s writing has never been better. She makes subtle adjustments to familiar folk forms, as on the excellent opener, Honey And Crumbs, with its shifting refrain and surprise high notes. Bring Out Your Bones and Firewater Bones delve deep into blues and death, while Can’t Drive Slow Yodel reveals her more buoyant side. Backed throughout by an impressive cast of Canadian and American musicians, Beggs shines in harmony with Gurf Morlix on pretty, slow-rocking love song Maiden Heart.
  
  With original writing this good, covers by Bob Dylan, Patty Griffin and Jack Clement seem unnecessary, though Beggs’s interpretations keep the album seamless.
  
  Top track: Maiden Heart

• Kim Beggs is Blue right down to her bones [+ Show ]
  

  “The sweetly meandering melody, combined with countrified guitar and the gritty harmonies of America...“The sweetly meandering melody, combined with countrified guitar and the gritty harmonies of American musician and producer Gurf Morlix, is the very definition of rootsy charm. …Kim Beggs is Blue right down to her bones.”

• the heart and soul of a young woman who is discovering the world is not as romantic as novels portray it [+ Show ]
  

  “Kim Beggs has the soft gentle voice of a dreamy-eyed teenage girl, the heart and soul of a young wo...“Kim Beggs has the soft gentle voice of a dreamy-eyed teenage girl, the heart and soul of a young woman who is discovering the world is not as romantic as novels portray it, and the experience of a world-weary adult who understands the pains and crushing disappointments of life’s dramas all too well.”

• Micheal Enright on CBC Radio One Sunday Edition
  

  "The (Kim's) lyrics, just by themselves are high poetry. "

• Streetcar Heart CD Toronto Star [+ Show ]
  

  Yukon resident Beggs is masterful writer of engaging personal narratives that evoke place and time i...Yukon resident Beggs is masterful writer of engaging personal narratives that evoke place and time in the manner of the finest folk tradiotnalists. Blessed with a fascinating, sweet voice, Beggs conjures up a rugged Northwest peopled by battlers whose quirky resilience makes these story songs a compelling listen. Standouts are "Old Pal," "I Carry My Guitar," "Her Big Yellow Backhoe," " the title track, and a live version of Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane"
  --GQ

• wistful, iconoclastic lyrics and ragged, sweet whisper of a voice [+ Show ]
  

  “Kim Beggs is another wonderful singer/songwriter from the Yukon’s emerging music scene. Streetcar H...“Kim Beggs is another wonderful singer/songwriter from the Yukon’s emerging music scene. Streetcar Heart (Caribou Records), features Beggs’ wistful, iconoclastic lyrics and ragged, sweet whisper of a voice backed by a crack northern studio crew.
  Such songs as Carry My Guitar capture Beggs’ blue-collar background and love of the local jam-session scene where the sun never sets.
  Bus Driver conjures up the darker side of the calendar year and hints at a California/Neil Young fixation that seems so real it hurts, but reaches fruition on her album-capping reading of Young’s Like a Hurricane.
  Much of Streetcar Heart has an old-time, woodsmoke country feel, folk art that cuts to the core...
  
  Neil Young, Iris Dement, Gillian Welch, the McGarrigles…add Kim Beggs to that exhalted list of unpretentious charmers. Streetcar Heart’s hook-laden, homey songs get stuck in your heart, and that’s a good thing.”
  
  Joseph Blake
  Times Colonist, Victoria, BC
  Sunday March 13/05
  

• "streetcar Heart" is masterful collection of self penned tunes" [+ Show ]
  

  "streetcar Heart" is masterful collection of self penned tunes" "Each (song) is graced with Beggs..."streetcar Heart" is masterful collection of self penned tunes"
  
  "Each (song) is graced with Beggs' voice which is sweet, vulnerable and hypnotic."

• NNNN + Bullet [+ Show ]
  

  NNNN + Bullet for reccomended Disc Kim Beggs grew up in small-town Quebec and Ontario before endi...NNNN + Bullet for reccomended Disc
  
  Kim Beggs grew up in small-town Quebec and Ontario before ending up in Whitehorse, and her second disc is full of intimate numbers about love, rivers, trains and family – tunes only a folkie living in a town of 22, 000 could write.
  
  There's no shortage of hook-laden tunes that are perfect to play around a cottage campfire or during a late night alone at home, but it's the record's intimacy that makes this a great piece of Americana... er, Canadiana?
  
  Beggs avoids muddying these delicate tracks, forgoing drums and complex instrumentation. Instead, she keeps things simple with just a guitar, one harmony and the occasional pedal steel or banjo.
  
  Kim Beggs plays Mitzi's Sister Monday (August 6).

• one of the few roots records that has honestly, and so beautifully, captured Canada’s rustic back roads [+ Show ]
  

  Kim Beggs’ latest album, Wanderer’s Paean, is a reflection of the solace and success the Toronto-bor...Kim Beggs’ latest album, Wanderer’s Paean, is a reflection of the solace and success the Toronto-born roots musician has found in her present Yukon home. Undoubtedly, it’s odd to hear about an artist picking up and moving away from Canada’s musical epicentre but Beggs has done it for the sake of sincerity. Wanderer’s Paean contrasts the lost, lonely feelings associated with Canada’s unending stretches of land with those tight communal bonds that form between small-town dwellers. “Walking Down To The Station” opens the record, introducing listeners to Beggs’s innocent, honey drizzled vocals while capturing the wandering traveller’s carefree spirit. The same sauntering acoustics can be found elsewhere but “Lay It All Down” and “Ain’t Gonna Work” put a bit of spice in their step, making for a couple of enjoyable hand-clapping tunes. If anything, Wanderer’s Paean is one of the few roots records that has honestly, and so beautifully, captured Canada’s rustic back roads. (Caribou)

• It's not surprising that Wanderer's Paean has been nominated for several awards in Canada. Everything about the album, from the songs, singing and production, to the album graphics is tastefully rendered. [+ Show ]
  

  Dirty Linen, The Magazine of Folk and World Music Baltimore, MD. The Whitehorse, Yukon music sce...Dirty Linen, The Magazine of Folk and World Music
  Baltimore, MD.
  
  The Whitehorse, Yukon music scene has produced a surprising number of quality artists in recent years, and quite a few of them have been lucky enough to have been produced by Bob Hamilton and to have had their albums released by the Caribou label. Unfortunately, Caribou is currently phasing out its operations, but the labels productions will remain available for the foreseeable future. Wanderer's Paean is Kim Beggs' second CD for the label, and ostensibly one of the labels last releases. It's another one that bears the stamp of Hamilton’s impeccable taste. There's a stark quality to the sound that's partly reminiscent of old-time country, and Beggs' endearing voice brings out the best in her songs. Musicians providing support include Hamilton himself, and singer/songwriters and label-mates Anne Louise Genest and Kim Barlow on vocals and banjo, respectively. It's not surprising that Wanderer's Paean has been nominated for several awards in Canada. Everything about the album, from the songs, singing and production, to the album graphics is tastefully rendered.
  
  

Setlist

Originals:
Honey and Crumbs
Mama's Dress
Maiden Heart
Can't drive Slow Yodel
Terrible Valentine
Summer Lonesome Blues
Firewater Bones
Longest Dream
I'm Thinking Tonight of my Blue Eyes

Set
1. Old Pal
2. Beautiful
3. Streecar Heart
4. Carry My Guitar
5. Busdriver
6. Gidyup Cowboy
7. Petals
8. Quicksand Man
9. Her Big Yellow Backhoe
10. Banks of the Yukon

Set 2 (Originals)

10. Keep Comin' Round
11. My Woes
12. Birds and No Bees
13. Bucko
14. Pieces of Sun
15. Pioneer and Doctor
16. Lowdown
17. Shipyards Song
18. J'ai Besoin des Nuages
19. Heartache Shoes
20. Feel a Little Glum
21. Lay it All Down
22. Wandere's Paean
23. Up From The River
24. Walkin' Down to the Station
25. I Don't get Around Much Anymore


Oldtyme cover songs:
1. Dark Hollow
2. The Bluebirds are Singing for Me
3. Bury Me Beneath Willow
4. I Ain't Gonna Work
5. All the Good Times
6. Close By (Bill Monroe)
7. Brand New Shoes
8. Banks of the Ohio
9. Don't that Road Look Rough and Rocky

Cover Songs:
1. After the Goldrush
2. Jackson
3. Pony on a Boat
4. Taylorfield
5. My Girl
6. Tomorrow is a Longtime
7. Today I started Loving You Again
8. Like a Hurricane
9. Anchorage
10. Lost it
11. Tecumseh Valley
and more....

Basic Requirements

Calendar