Biography
By the way, Katherine released her 3rd CD "Landed" on September 25, 2009. Scott Merritt and Lynn Miles produced it. Now here's K's bio...
“She turns pebbles of everyday life into dreamy mountains of song”.
The Toronto Star
"I'm in love...with the music of Katherine Wheatley. A verse into her first song, I was hooked...I was totally unprepared for the absolute beauty of her voice and lyrics". FOLKSPOKE, Barrie, ON
"Katherine Wheatley gave an absolutely transcendent concert. She is able to take minor observations in life and find their soul. On stage...she exudes sheer kindness and love."
The Chronicle Journal, Thunder Bay
Arresting vocals, great guitar playing and vibrant lyrics mark her work. Every song evokes her uncanny depth of observation. With offhand wit and an infectious passion for performing, Katherine Wheatley has been captivating audiences everywhere she performs.
According to the Ottawa Citizen "This is a performer to keep you on the edge of your seat.”
Before she was a working musician, Katherine worked for the Canadian Geological Survey, gathering not just rock samples, but material for her songs. Then - music was her hobby. Now - as she travels between shows on North America’s highways where the rock cuts show the best of the earth’s history, geology has become her hobby. The landscape, as well as the characters she encounters on her travels, continue to inspire her songs.
Katherine's music has been used for television documentaries, series and films. She has been a featured vocalist on Stuart McLean's Vinyl Cafe, as well as a musical guest on TVO's Studio Two, CBC's Vicki Gabareau Show and CTV's Canada AM. In addition to touring across Canada, the U.S. and Europe as a singer/songwriter, Katherine is a member of the band "Betty and The Bobs" and plays guitar in Wendell Ferguson's "Smoking Section". She was one of 33 artists, including The Barenaked Ladies, Bruce Cockburn, and Sarah McLachlan, selected for FACTOR'S (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records) 20th Anniversary compilation CD. Her first CD, Straight Line, spent 17 weeks on Sam's Top 10 Independent Chart with nine of those weeks at number 2. Her second CD, Habits and Heroes, featured a stellar cast of musicians (The Band’s Richard Bell, Blue Rodeo’s Basil Donovan, Blackie and the Rodeo King’s Colin Linden) and received glowing accolades from critics and fans alike.
“As a listener, it's hard not to sit back, close your eyes and watch the movie play. And man, can this serene red head ever play guitar”. SEE Magazine, Edmonton
Katherine’s passion for songwriting began with a 13 dollar guitar ordered from the Sears Catalogue. She sang back-ups and played coffeehouses while doing geology but put the hammer down when she was 30. She studied jazz composition and arranging at Humber College, winning the Duke Ellington Award for arranging, the Gordon Delamont Award for Composition and the CMPA award for songwriting. She is in high demand for her innovative songwriting workshops that cover many aspects of songwriting: lyric writing, chord progression theory, melody writing and sustaining creativity. She also created YOUTHSONGS, a songwriting and recording program for schools. She presents the program at schools in Canada and the US and is valued for her genuine caring and special intuition for connecting with all age groups.
"Youthsongs was the best school-wide program I've seen in my career as an educator."
- Nelson Keane, Principal, Paisley Rd. P.S., Guelph, ON
For more about workshops, please visit http://www.katherinewheatley.com/news.htm
For full details about the YOUTHSONGS program, please go to http://www.sonicbids.com/katherinewheatleyYOUTHSONGS
For information about Katherine's double bill show with Wendell Ferguson, please see
http://www.sonicbids.com/WendellandWheat
Wheatley FACTS
KATHERINE WHEATLEY - QUICK FACTS
• Born and raised (#4 of 6 kids) in Parry Sound, part of Ontario’s cottage country. She now lives in Guelph, Ontario.
• She got her first guitar at 14 from the Sears Catalogue.
• Early influences: Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, James Taylor, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach.
• First performance: “Rhinestone Cowboy” with her high school stage band, in 1976.
• In her twenties, she studied geology at Queens and environmental science at the University of Calgary, and worked several summers in northern Saskatchewan for the Canadian Geological Survey.
• Wheatley’s songwriting began in earnest, ironically without her guitar, while traveling for 3 months by herself in Africa.
• For five years, she was the Ambassador for the capital campaign to raise 6 million dollars for the new hospital in her home town, Parry Sound.
• She received her diploma in music from Humber College, winning awards for songwriting, composition and arranging.
• Her first CD, Straight Line, earned considerable airplay - CBC and commercial radio.
• The decision to leave geology behind was confirmed by the release of her second CD, Habits and Heroes four years later.
• She spends considerable time working with inner city kids and on native reserves, helping young people write and record their own songs through her program, Youthsongs. She has produced 13 school cds in the last 3 years.
• Katherine is a founding member of Betty and the Bobs, an informal group of some of the best musicians in the Toronto area. She frequently works as a duo with award-winning guitarist Wendell Ferguson.
• She plays over 100 concerts a year in Canada and the U.S. - mostly acoustic venues and folk festivals.
• She’s sold over 8000 copies of Straight Line and Habits and Heroes. Landed was released Sep. 25.2009.
• Her favourite quotes: “Music is God’s greatest gift to his sorrowing creatures.” — J.S. Bach. And from a CBC Radio interview with an old fiddler in Nova Scotia: “If you got music, you got friends.”
Re. New CD Landed:
KATHERINE WHEATLEY - NEW LIFE, NEW CD, NEW HEART, NEW SPIRIT
By Richard Flohil
Ask any songwriter for advice, and the answer is always the same: “Write what you know.” It’s counsel that Katherine Wheatley has frequently given — and it’s advice that she’s followed on her emotionally powerful new CD, Landed.
Here is what Katherine knows: Doubt, betrayal and loss. Courage, strength and discovery. This is what else she knows: how to make songs universal and how to write tunes you remember, lyrics that are believable, and stories that touch the heart and mind.
Christmas comes ‘round each December
Robins return every spring
Wild aster blooms each September
But some people don’t come back again
The songs on Landed are about growing up, loyalty, relationship, loss, revenge and — most of all — resilience. And when she sings about making it work, you feel like dancing.
Monday, the boys have basketball
Tuesday, they wait for you to call
Wednesday, I get them to the rink by five
Thursday, car pool, my turn to drive
Friday comes and Saturday goes.
Sunday, heaven knows….
It’s taken 10 years for Katherine to release her third album. She started the project four years ago, and then — with big changes in her life — she put the album on hold until new songs emerged. She asked two others songwriters, Lynn Miles and Scott Merritt, to produce the record. They demanded that Katherine meet this standard for every line of every song: “Will people believe it?” A line that seemed maudlin? An awkward phrase? A verse that needed clarity? Scott and Lynn insisted Wheatley get the eraser and sharpener out. They insisted she be truthful.
The result: Landed is a collection of 11 songs that are not only Wheatley’s very best work, but give a perfect indication of the grace, power and emotional impact of her live performance.
This is a strong woman, a survivor, and a person who has indeed — despite the bumpy journey — landed. As the title song puts it:
I landed, I made it through
I landed without help from you
When I landed, it felt so sweet.... ...’Cause I landed on my own two feet.
Booking: Robin MacIntyre booking@katherinewheatley.com Ph. 705-649-2880
Publicity: Richard Flohil - rflohil@sympatico.ca Ph. 416-351-1323
To contact Katherine: katherine@katherinewheatley.com
Instrumentation
Katherine Wheatley Solo:
Acoustic Guitar
Vocal
Duo show with Wendell Ferguson:
2 acoustic guitars, 2 vocals
Discography
Katherine Wheatley - Landed (The HOOT Music Co.) 2009
Katherine Wheatley - Habits and Heroes (The HOOT Music Co., Festival Distribution) 1999
Katherine Wheatley - Straight Line (Entropy Records, Page Distribution) 1995
Betty and The Bobs - self titled CD 2007
Katherine Wheatley – self titled cassette 1992
Lenka Slaba, Susan Crowe and Katherine Wheatley - Zive v Telci a Brne 2001 (“Live from Telc and Brno 2001” released in the Czech Republic July 2003)
All For A Song – CBC Recordings (Compilation of featuring Katherine’s song “Gentle Rain”) 2003
Let It Snow (Compilation of featuring Katherine’s song “99 Feet of Snow”) 2003
Tears Of A Thousand Years (Compilation featuring “My Last Breath”) 2001
Stuck on a Cold Steel Pole - Duke Street/MCA (Compilation featuring “Rita”) 1995
Selected Performances
Summerfolk, Owen Sound, ON
Winnipeg Folk Festival, MB
Northern Lights, Sudbury, ON
The Nickelodeon, Calgary, AB
Black Sheep Inn, Wakefield, PQ
Acoustic Waves, Ottawa, ON
Hradac Kralov, Czech Republic
The Ark, Ann Arbor, Michegan
Spring Hill music Festival, NS
Folk Under the Clock, Peterborough, ON
Prazdniny v Telci, Czech Republic
West End Cultural Centre, Winnipeg, MB
Black Fly Jam Folk Club, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Rogue Folk Club, Vancouver, BC
The Church, Halifax, NS
The Millenial Club, Charlottetown, PEI
The Regina Folk Guild, Regina SK
Links
| http://www.katherinewheatley.com/ |