Kathleen Grace
Los Angeles, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | INDIE
Music
Press
“Kathleen Grace has the potential to be one of the best singer/songwriters since Rickee Lee Jones…This may well be one of the most important releases of 2014″ - Critical Jazz
“Like (Nora) Jones, Ms. Grace melds country sensibilities with looser rhythmic elements and slow grooves to create an attractive hybrid. However, while Norah Jones coos, Kathleen Grace presents a more full-throated approach more reminiscent of the Canadian singer Kathleen Edwards—not to suggest Grace is anything but her own artist.” 8 stars for music and vinyl sound. - Analog Planet
“Both country music and jazz fans tend toward exclusionary, elitist attitudes. Perhaps they need Kathleen Grace in their lives. She found a place to fall between the two separate worlds. 5 stars” - Examiner.com
“Voice like jazzy English church bells… In the past, I have sat on my very own patio, listening to Grace on the stereo, begging her not to ever stop. Lately she’s been making jazzy interpretations of country music… Haunting steel-guitar riffs crossed with Grace’s jazz-infused interpretations? Pure buttah. And her five-piece band is tight, tasteful and — this night at least — features the terrific Anthony Wilson.” - LA Times
"at once smart alluring and evocative.” - Washington Post
“an instinct for classic country charm… a gorgeous album” - Tucson Citizen
“to listen is to fall long and hard into a well of wonders… Grace reminds me of early day mavericks like Tom Rapp, Dory Previn, Janis Ian, Gram Parsons, and others, composer-singers who stepped beyond the periphery while holding tightly to tradition, yanking the borderlines out further by inches, miles, and more.” - Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange
“Here are a couple of platters (Dolly Parton and Kathleen Grace) that in their own ways stretch the parameters of that notoriously conservative field known as country music…Grace and her combo… navigate that it’s-there-but-elusive common ground between forlorn country soul, honky tonk bounce, and elastic jazz balladry. She’s something special, someone to watch.” - ICON Magazine
Discography
No Place To Fall - Release Date: 5/15/14
Photos
Bio
To hear singer-songwriter Kathleen Grace’s singular, sophisticated take
on country music is to hear an artist coming into her own. Her new,
career-defining album, No Place to Fall, was tracked live at Los
Angeles’ Carriage House Studios and produced by Sheldon Gomberg (Ben Harper
& Charlie Musselwhite, Lucinda Williams, Shelby Lynn). The album features
performances from pedal steel wizard Greg Leisz (Eric Clapton, k.d. Lang, Amos
Lee), jazz guitar virtuoso Anthony Wilson, acclaimed singer-songwriter Patrick
Park, and country-folk singer Leslie Stevens along with Grace’s top notch band.
Long known as one of jazz’s rising stars, Grace has three albums to her credit. But in the years since her 2009 release, Mirror, Grace has planted her jazz roots in the soil of country music. Praised as “smart, alluring and evocative” by The Washington Post, Grace boldly presents her own dynamic original music alongside revelatory covers of artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt and The Meat Puppets.
With material both new and old, Grace charts her musical and personal journey on the new record. Her Tucson Arizona roots provide the inspiration for her original songs on No Place To Fall filling her songs with imagery of burning deserts, dry winds and copper land. Her exquisite choice of moody covers often explores the same terrain. And Grace proudly demonstrates her versatility, as well as her journey from jazz to country, with a deliciously honky-tonk takes on Tin Pan Alley classics.
Born and raised in Tucson, AZ, Kathleen Grace began to discover her voice after a move to the San Francisco Bay Area. After a career steeped in jazz, Grace found new inspiration in the music of country legends such as Kitty Wells, Dolly Parton and John Prine, struck by their recordings’ honesty, song craft and musicianship. “For me, it was organic” says Grace. “I felt a completely natural connection to country music, both in spirit and sound.”
Over the last ten years, Grace has performed
around the world, including the Montreux Jazz Festival, an official SXSW
showcase, and festivals in Europe, South America and Asia.
Band Members
Links
