Biography
"Anyone who'd write a song called "The Only Dyke at the Open Mic" deserves a medal. And when she follows it up with "I'd Go Straight for Ridley Bent" and "Co-op Girlz" (about trying to get a date at a health food store), she should be eligible for the Order of Canada. A woman who breaks the stereotypes and makes us all think as welll as laugh. I am, not so secretly, in love with this woman!"
- Richard Flohil
“....gut-splittingly funny” – Stuart Derdeyn, The Vancouver Province
"A vibrant talent. A welcome island of wit and charm in a sea of whining, introspective cack!”
- Tim Readman, Penguin Eggs Magazine
A straight-shooter, but definitely not straight, Kate Reid has burst onto the Canadian music scene with a knack for candid storytelling and songs filled with hilarity and clever social commentary.
Imagine if Ellen DeGeneres and Margaret Cho wrote lyrics for Ani DiFranco and you’ll get the picture, for Kate combines the bombastic girl-with-guitar sound of early Ani with comical musings about life, love, and the lesbian community that recall DeGeneres’ finest self-effacing stream-of-consciousness ramblings. Whether she’s singing about shaving her legs to avoid being shot for wildlife in her red-neck small town or eagerly blurting out her phone number to the sexy co-op cashier who is actually requesting her membership number, her material is as original and hysterically funny as can be.
Reid is much more than a musical comedienne, however. Raised in a dysfunctional home, she also writes songs that touch on themes of survival and healing, but she does so in a fashion gloriously free of women’s music clichés, approaching her subjects with the same disarming directness with which she treats her humourous material – and adding in a solid dose of Cho-style commentary on oppression and empowerment.
Taken together with her comical stage banter, Reid puts on a show that leaves audience members shedding tears of recognition one minute and rolling in the aisles with laughter the next.
Best of all, you don’t have to be queer or even female to get it, for Kate’s songs tap into universal human experiences. Be it garden variety insecurity or the insane things we sometimes do for love and acceptance, Kate courageously unpacks the baggage most of us are too embarrassed to admit we have and leaves us laughing and rejoicing in our collective vulnerability, relieved that we are not the only ones who feel this way.
Kate’s debut full-length CD, Comin’ Alive, showcases the songs that have already made her a favourite on the Vancouver women’s music scene, earned her praise in the pages of the American lesbian glossy Curve, and garnered her a performance slot at the world-renowned Michigan Women’s Music Festival. Highlights include “Small Town,” a queer country chart chomper about life in Midway, BC, which contains the memorable lines “It’s called the ‘hot-L’ ‘cuz the ‘e’ burned out of ‘hotel’/ I wanted to re-name it the ‘hot lesbian,’ but I didn’t think it would go over real well.” There’s also “Co-op Girlz,” an epic tale of unrequited love at a health food store in Nelson, and “I’d Go Straight for Ridley Bent,” a homo hymn to a local alt.country artist who Reid says “makes me want to tack a gun-rack up in the back of my Subaru.”
Says Kate, “I love seeing the audience respond to my lyrics, especially with laughter because it’s so important to have a sense of humour about it all. Laughter is a connection to the human spirit.”
Kate speaks more directly to the human spirit on songs like “Crone Woman” and “Heal Myself.” The former is about aspiring to share the wisdom and self-assurance of a spiritual elder; the latter is a bold piece about the struggle to heal oneself in the face of adversity. Even when tackling serious subjects though, Kate’s unsinkable sense of humour shines through. On “What I Want,” a piece about a relationship gone awry, she can’t help but reference the U-hauls parked in the driveway at the beginning of the romance.
Kate will be releasing her sophomore album, "I'm Just Warming Up" this June and will be touring to support it throughout the fall. Among the new tunes in the repertoire: “No More Missing Daughters”, a powerful reaction to the missing women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside; “The Only Dyke at the Open Mic,” the story of an outing to an open mic night that goes hilariously awry; “Ex-Junkie Boyfriend,” in which a chance encounter at an intersection sets off an uproarious trip down memory lane; "Emergency Dyke Project" Kate's take on life as an out-lesbian in the music biz that takes a sassy shot at Katy Perry of "I Kissed A Girl" fame, "Truckdriver" a pensive ballad about not fitting in and then growing up and finding herself in music; and "Dirty Girl" a cheeky lust-song.
Kate’s songs cut across countless boundaries bringing her diverse audiences to a place of common ground. The sold out crowds that are already standard fare in Kate’s hometown of Vancouver laugh and cheer mid-song in response to particularly choice lyrics and shout out to her between songs. Says Kate, “People often tell me that my songs move them to tears and laughter and that’s when I know this is exactly what I am supposed to be doing.”
Instrumentation
Kate Reid - vocals, guitar, harmonica
Discography
2009 - I'm Just Warming Up
2006 - Comin' Alive
2005 - Kate Reid (six-song sampler EP)
Links
| http://www.katereid.net |
| Kate Reid's MySpace page |
| Kate Reid's website |