Rachael Sage & The Sequins

Artist Information

Biography

Self-taught musician, poet and producer Rachael Sage radiates what MOJO Magazine calls “warm, intelligent…NY indie charm”. An innovative, improvisational keyboardist, she performs over 150 dates a year with her band The Sequins throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Sage has shared stages with Sarah McLachlan, Colin Hay, Marshall Crenshaw, Marc Cohn, The Animals and Ani DiFranco. She has brought two shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to rave reviews, and has received numerous songwriting awards including The John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Grand Prize) and several Independent Music Awards and OUTMusic Awards.

Sage has earned a loyal following for her infectious melodies, poetic lyrics, and often-outrageous, colorful stage banter. Leaving aside set lists in favor of a more spontaneous approach, every show is unique, leading The Washington Post to declare, "Rachael Sage has an inimitable personal style, a balance of flamboyance and femininity... a performance as distinctive as it was entertaining."

Her shows at New York’s Joe’s Pub have been recommended as a “Top Pick” by both the New York Daily News and Time Out, and in 2010 The Wall Street Journal chose to profile her in support of her album DELANCEY STREET.

Her 10th and newest album "Haunted By You" is a song cycle about passion, which merges the emotionally raw lyrics of Adele with the classic pop sensibilities of Carole King. The 13 penned compositions on the album feature an array of special guests including Dar Williams, Counting Crows member David Immergluck, and actor/director Joshua Leonard, and showcase Sage's poignant writing, as well as her impressive keyboard, guitar and production skills.

For an updated Sequins tour schedule and Rachael Sage's complete discography, visit www.sageandsequins.com.

===================================
To view videos (including the music videos for "Big Star", "Too Many Women", "Vertigo" and "Wildflower"), please visit:

http://youtube.com/rachaelsage

or higher-resolution versions at:
http://www.rachaelsage.com/visuals/videos

Instrumentation

Rachael Sage - Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals and Keyboards
Quinn - Drums & Percussion
Dave Eggar - Cello
Charlie Palmer - Percussion
Russ Johnson - Trumpet

Discography

Assorted Tchatchkes
Morbid Romantic '96
Smashing the Serene '98
Painting of a Painting '01
Illusion's Carnival '02
Public Record '03
Ballads & Burlesque '04
The Blistering Sun '06
Chandelier '08
Delancey Street '10
Haunted By You (May 2012)

Awards:

2011 Winner, OUTMusic Award (Outstanding Producer)
2009 Winner, OUTMusic Awards (Outstanding Songwriter and Outstanding Producer)
2009 Grand Prize Winner, Great American Song Contest
2009 Winner, Billboard Songwriting Competition
2008 Finalist, Independent Music Awards
2008 Finalist, Kerrville Folk Festival "New Folk" Competition
2008 Named "One Of The 100 Most Influential Indie Artists Of The Past 15 Years" by Performing Songwriter magazine
2007 Finalist, Starbucks Music Makers Competition
2007 Winner, West Coast Songwriters Song Contest (R&B Category)
2006 Independent Music Award (Band/Venue Poster)
2006 First Prize, Great American Song Contest (Contemporary Acoustic/Folk)
2006 Second Place, Unisong International Songwriting Contest (Pop Ballad)
2006 Finalist, John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Electronic and Jazz)
2006 Finalist, Peacedriven Songwriting Award (Rock/Folk)
2005 Independent Music Award
2005 Outmusic Award (Outstanding Songwriter)
2005 International Acoustic Music Award
2005 Finalist, VH-1 Song Of The Year for "Surprise" (Gospel category)
2004 First Prize, CSN Producers Project
2003 Finalist, Newport Folk Fest New Artist Search
2002 Billboard Songwriting Contest (R&B)
2001 Grand Prize, John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Rock)
2001 First Prize, Great American Songwriting Contest (Acoustic)
1999 NY Lilith Fair Talent Search Winner/Performer

Notable Festivals/Conference Appearances, 2005-2012:
* SXSW 2012 (official showcase artist)
* SXSW 2011 (showcase host & performer)
* 2010 CMJ Music Marathon (official showcase performer)
* Edinburgh Festival Fringe (August 2010)
* SXSW 2010 (showcase host & performer)
* Edinburgh Festival Fringe (debuted "Sequins & Shpiel" show), August 2009
* 2009 CMJ Music Marathon (official showcase performer)
* SXSW 2009 (Panelist, showcase host & performer)
* 2008 CMJ Music Marathon (official showcase performer)
* SXSW 2008 (showcase host & performer)
* 2007 CMJ Music Marathon (official showcase host and performer)
* 2007 Hyperactive Music Festival & Conference (official showcasing artist & panelist)
* SXSW 2007 (showcase host and performer)
* CMJ Music Marathon, 2006 (official showcasing artist & panelist)
* Apple Store SOHO CMJ Week In-Store Performance, 2006
* NEMO, 2006 (official showcasing artist)
* Wildflower Records SXSW Showcase, 2006
* Spring NAMM, 2006 (John Lennon Songwriting Contest Showcase)
* M.E.A.N.Y.Fest, 2006 (official showcasing artist)
* MIDEM Independent Music Showcase 2005 (sponsored by Sonicbids)
* Wildflower Festival, 2005 (with Judy Collins & Joan Osborne)
* South Park Music Festival, 2005 (official showcasing artist)

Airplay:
Rachael has charted on CMJ charts including Top 200 and Most Added. She has received extensive college and AAA airplay across the United States and the UK, where Bob Harris has featured tracks on BBC2. She is also played on XM Satellite and Sirius Radio. Rachael is streamed and has sound/video clips on many internet sites including LOGO Online, RadioIO and Creative Radio. Full radio recap at http://rachaelsage.com/press-kit/radio

Links

• Facebook
• Twitter
• MySpace
• SoundCloud

Audio

• Abby Would You Wait
  Listen  
• Invisible Light (unmastered)
  Listen  
• Hope's Outpost
  Listen  
• Big Star (New Clean Edit)
  Listen  
• Vertigo
  Listen  
• Angel In My View Radio Edit
  Listen  
• Wildflower
  Listen  
• Featherwoman
  Listen  
• Bravedancing
  Listen  
• 93 Maidens
  Listen  

Lyrics

• Alright OK
• Wildflower
• Featherwoman
• Sacrifice
• Bravedancing
• 93 Maidens
• Angel In My View
• Vertigo
• Wishbone
• Corinne
• My Word
• Invincible
• Site-Seeing
• Hunger In John
• Moonlight & Fireflies
• Chandelier

Video

Selected Performance Clips 2009

Photo Gallery

Press

• New Roots And Old On Delancey Street [+ Show ]
  

  By JIM FUSILLI Rachael Sage has been living on the Lower East Side for about a month, moving over...By JIM FUSILLI
  
  Rachael Sage has been living on the Lower East Side for about a month, moving over from Broadway and Eighth, but as the title of the singer-songwriter's new album suggests, for her it's a location already rich with meaning.
  
  On "Delancey Street" (Mpress Records), Ms. Sage's ninth album, she revisits memories of the neighborhood to explore the need for the comfort and sense of identity that community can provide.
  
  "When I was little, I used to come down to Delancey Street with my mom to shop," said Ms. Sage, who was raised in Port Chester, N.Y., and Stamford, Conn. "There was this sense that it was an experience. You were shopping from people who shared a culture. We'd go to the Second Avenue Deli, Katz's or Sammy's. I feel that's when I started to become who I am. It gave me a sense of my roots."
  
  Ms. Sage's ancestors emigrated from central Europe three or four generations ago, her father's family settling in New York, her mother's in Atlanta. Some of Ms. Sage's work is linked to her Jewish heritage. A former drama major at Stanford, she perks up her stage show by speaking in Yiddish or acting like characters Fran Drescher might perform. She's writing a play called "Stop Me If I'm Kvetching" for the New York International Fringe Festival in mid-August. Last December, she performed her show "Tchatchkes & Latkes!" at Joe's Pub. Tuesday, she will celebrate the release of "Delancey Street" with a performance at the same Manhattan club.
  
  Ms. Sage is assertive when delivering her folk-rock and pop songs, and her peer group, at least on disc, is more Shawn Colvin and Sarah McLaughlin than Tori Amos and Regina Spektor. Rarely does she over-emote, and the confessional nature of her songs is sheathed in suggestion, though several times on "Delancey Street" she alludes to a sense of alienation and the need to protect a tender heart. "I choose wisely the people who will help me grow," she offers in "There Is Passion." In "How I Got By," she sings, "You left me stranded on the platform, faded as an antique rose."
  
  "For artists, there can be a sense of isolation, and it's a struggle," she said. "It's intense and you're alone unless you reach out for the connectiveness. Just because you live in a hipster place that has an historic connotation doesn't mean you'll thrive. It's important to have a broad sense of identity."
  
  Ms. Sage said she long suppressed her need to join a supportive community. Playing music as a solo act at Stanford in the early 1990s, she felt like an outsider—though one gig resulted in an invitation to a barbecue at John Lee Hooker's house. Then she spent a summer at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
  
  "In Ireland, I saw people busking on the street and making a living in clubs and bars," she said. They invited her to join them. "Before, I was always alone. Now I was part of a community. I went back to Stanford, but I had one foot out the door."
  
  She moved to Manhattan, living on Astor Place and playing the downtown clubs while studying acting at the Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab. For a while, she thought she could live in both worlds. Then folk star Ani DiFranco invited her to open for her on tour.
  
  "At the time, I was singing for, at most, 100 people," she said. "Now it was 2,000 to 6,000. It was petrifying. It was a great way to learn the ups and downs of the music business."
  
  Much like Ms. DiFranco, Ms. Sage developed a do-it-yourself ethos early on. She received a four-track cassette recorder for her bat mitzvah. "It took about a month for me to figure it out. I'd play with it until my parents would have to chase me to bed." Today, she runs Mpress Records—her business card reads "Artist/President"—and can arrange her compositions, produce her albums, design the cover art, get the discs into the hands of the right industry people and keep her fan base informed.
  
  She keeps herself informed by carrying a moleskin notebook with a long list of the things she wants to do when she's on the Lower East Side.
  
  "I recently waited for an hour at Russ & Daughters," she said, mentioning the smoked-fish emporium on Houston Street. "It was fantastic."

• New York City Press Coverage [+ Show ]
  

  "Pop-vaudevillian songstress Rachael Sage sings loudly and carries a big schtick in a night of Hanuk..."Pop-vaudevillian songstress Rachael Sage sings loudly and carries a big schtick in a night of Hanukkah high jinks" -Time Out NY
  
  “Comedienne and songstress Rachael Sage brings her signature shtick to a special holiday-themed performance...sultry piano songs” -New York Magazine
  
  "Lilith Fair indie rocker by way of a Catskills Vaudevillian...badass, eclectic" -Downtown Express
  
  “Comedian Rachael Sage merges torchy piano songs and irreverent rants about her family’s menorah collection.” -New York Daily News
  
  “...channeling her inner Fanny Brice and Jewish Norah Jones, Ms. Sage will perform songs off her 11-album discography in between discussing her unusual life as a former ballerina and her family’s extensive menorah collection” –NY Times
  

• Quotes [+ Show ]
  

  “She writes a fantastic hook…She very much reminded me of Dylan in the way she approaches her work.”...“She writes a fantastic hook…She very much reminded me of Dylan in the way she approaches her work.” Phil Ramone, Producer
  
  “Genuine talent... Sage has a knack for writing melodies that will break your heart without making you feel manipulated in the process... Where there’s poignancy there’s also subtlety, unforced passion and knowing observation” RollingStone.com
  
  "rich vocals, sparkling piano and yearning poetry" Time Out New York
  
  “Smart, piano-driven songs that forge a resonant mixture of pop, folk and jazz, with a vocal delivery that conveys stark and yearning emotion.” CMJ
  
  "Rachael Sage has molded and shaped a sound beyond a mere current-day singer/songwriter, into a true soothsayer and storyteller...Four-Stars for 'Delancey Street.'" All Music Guide
  
  "a fresh intimacy... at the core of Delancey Street is a heartfelt quality that goes beyond intellectual exercise." iTunes Review
  
  "eloquent... genuine and compelling..." BLURT Magazine
  
  “Sexy, self possessed and impressive. This piano-playing artist’s songs are both personal and socio-political... Sage has earned a place as a performer to be taken seriously, a force to be reckoned with.” Performing Songwriter
  
  "Her music is getting better with every release" The Deli Magazine
  
  “New York based singer, songwriter and pianist Rachel Sage edges ever more strongly away from the folk tag and toward piano pop. Her songs are a-whirl with light and emotions tinged with reality’s frosty bite. Even when Sage’s mellifluous voice reveals deeper and darker hues, (it) has vibrancy and beauty.” Boston Herald
  
  "Inspired by ... Elvis Costello, and backed by brilliant East Village friends of Rufus, Antony and such, Sage hits somewhere between the bed-sit and the cellarful of noise and it does you good." MOJO (UK)
  
  "a muscular and hugely talented ... pop songwriter" Uncut (UK)
  
  "Sage (is) an artist who has always danced around the edges of brilliance and has now moved fully into its light." Wildy's World
  
  "intimate, enigmatic pop songs driven by piano and an expressive soprano voice...pretty songs about sometimes un-pretty things, little confessions and recollections delivered in atmospheric tones." Asbury Park Press
  
  "hauntingly beautiful." Intelligencer/Phillyburbs
  
  “Rachael Sage, the self taught pianist (who) specializes in moody folk pop” Los Angeles Times
  
  “Sage (is) the Jewish Norah Jones” Washington Jewish Week
  
  “Dexterous and haunting work, scored with dark emotional hues, rich chromatic chordings and surprising, adventurous changes. Musically sophisticated and accomplished work... standing tall next to any and all contemporary competition” Philadelphia Daily News
  
  Rachel Sage is a veritable one-woman unstoppable force... and she puts her heart and mind into all facets of her work from recording to touring” Amplifier
  
  “lovely and literate... folk-pop-rock, socially aware and eclectic” The Village Voice
  
  “...a striking voice that brings emotion and truth back to the indie scene.” Venus
  
  “Chance-taking, envelope pushing... A true renaissance woman, New York-based singer- songwriter-poet Rachael Sage (is) a piano-driven joy.” Entertainment Today/Los Angeles
  
  “Sage is a true Renaissance gal, with humor and sensual vocals... You always know you’ll get something good” Curve Magazine
  
  “Go buy Rachel’s album. She’s not sitting at home whining because she wants to be a musician. She is a real musician touring because she wants to, without help of the corporate umbrella.”
  Ani DiFranco
  
  “...music that is undeniably earnest -- and commercially accessible.” Billboard

Setlist

Rachael usually does a set anywhere from 1/2 hour to 2 hours depending on the venue; she has been known to perform up to 3 hours in certain European cities. A typical set list consists of originals and spoken-word improvisation.

Current Live Repertoire Includes:

Among All of God's Creatures
Angel In My View
Bravedancing
Delancey Street
Everything Was Red
Fame
Featherwoman
Hey Na
Hope's Outpost
Lonely Streets
Meet Me In Vegas
My Word
Pictures They Took
Rich Girl
Sistersong
Site-Seeing
Slow Down
There Is Passion
Trouble
Unbeauty
Vertigo
What If
Wildflower

Basic Requirements

Calendar