katie reider

Katie Reider, "Simplicity" -- Reider's achingly beautiful voice is the star on this luscious collection of stripped down, mostly acoustic-based tunes. Some of us like it better when Katie cranks up her full band and rocks out, but you can't deny the emotive beauty of these love and relationship songs. - Rick Bird - The Post

Katie Reider has accomplished more than some artists manage during an entire career. Her latest album of Folk/Pop brilliance, Simplicity, is her fourth to date, her songs have been featured on Dawson's Creek and Strong Medicine and she's taken home five Cincinnati music awards. This year, Reider decided to take her live show beyond the Columbus/Cincinnati corridor. The world can't be far behind. - City Beat

"When ask if I wanted to write an article/review about Katie Reider, I
immediately said yes. I have known Katie since 2001, a transplant from
Cincinnati to Columbus. In Cinci, she has won 5 music awards & consistently
draws fans to her shows, but in Columbus she was starting over. She had to
build a new fan base here. I knew
immediately I was going to help her in any way I could to get exposure.
Katie is one of the freshest, most hard working, & sincere musicians I have
had the pleasure of knowing in my 35 years of working & producing women's
music events. The cherry on top of the sundae is that she is also a
genuine, down to earth, positive, nice person. If you've had the
opportunity to see Katie perform live, then you know what I'm talking about
when I say she has all the talents it takes to be an artist that stands
out!! She is an awesome songwriter, talented top notch guitarist, & a sweet
voiced singer with a stage presence that draws you into her world. Her
music may have you tapping your foot, dancing, tearing up...but when she's
talking you'll be smiling or doubled over with laughter & drawn into her
world of positive energy & happiness about life. So how did Katie do in
Columbus in a few short years? Well, she did what other artists have tried
for years, or are still trying, to achieve here. She started playing at open
mics around town. Katie now has played at Comfest, Columbus Arts Festival,
Ohio Lesbian Festival, Rockin in the Streets, National Women¹s Music
Festival & more. You see, Katie also possesses that rare quality among most
artists: she has a good business sense about her & is a very centered,
positive person. For instance, I passed along the address to send original,
independent music to MTV for their new GLBT Network they're starting. The
next day she called & told me she sent it out that morning! A national
record distributor, Goldenrod Records, told Katie in order for them to carry
her cd's, she would have to get out there in other cities. Hmmm, a year
later, she's developed a fan base, & has returned to several, to play gigs
in New York, Canada, Indianapolis, Chicago, Nashville, Houston, Atlanta, &
on & on......Goldenrod now wants to carry her cd's.

Ain't no body give back like Katie! Passionate about so many causes,
Katie's love is children. She performs several benefits a year; among her
most passionate causes are Camp Sunrise (www.campsunrise.org) and the Girlz
Rhythm n' Rock Camp (www.girlzrhythmnrockcamp.com) where she is an
instructor. Watching her help these young girls tap into their creativity &
strength is truly inspiring.

So come out & see Katie perform live, either solo or with her kickass band,
as both are udderly fresh!.... "
Suzie Simpson - Outlook News

"Pick what you like about the female folk scene and compact them all into one musician. Reider’s definitely a VH-1 style artist... her pool of talent runs a lot deeper than what you’ve come to expect from such artists who’ve succeeded nationally." Ryan Horn - The Alive

Reider has a chatty demeanor and pleasantly charismatic stage presence, a casual and open-ended feel that neatly suits the living-room atmosphere at Indy Hostel. She didn’t even have a playlist in mind going in, but making it up as she went along seemed to turn out okay.

She possesses a strong, clear voice that has been compared to some of the most successful singer/songwriters of the day, such as Jewel and Shawn Colvin. But there’s a feeling all her own as she opens up her heart and mental diary on subjects like divorce, lost love, and the joy of her child. Her complex guitar rhythms are reminiscent of both Ani DiFranco and early Tom Petty. She’s exactly in the midrange of the singer/songwriter spectrum: too experienced to be innocent, not yet weary enough to be cynical. Hers is a world where things go wrong an awful lot but hope remains.
- Nuvo - Paul F.P. Poque

"A full-bodied acoustic album of wistful, wispy Pop songs, Katie Reider's Simplicity (her fourth release) recalls the days when the Lilith Fair was a top tour and getting a song on a WB show was a promising career stepping stone. But there's a timeless unfussiness and buoyant hopefulness in the Cincinnati native/current Columbus resident's adroit songcraft. Gentle but charmingly confident, Reider's voice is a sensual whisper of an instrument, giving the contemplative, emotional lyrical content even more weight. The minimal accoutrements allow Reider's vocals to commandingly lead the quiet storm, while the simple but smart production allows the songs' natural sparkle to illuminate her clear talent as both writer and performer...."
MIKE BREEN - City Beat

Eight years ago, Cincinnati was abuzz with the sounds of a new singer/songwriter, a just-out-of-high-school kid whose acoustic balladry and dynamic stage presence found an immediate audience in her hometown.

Katie Reider, with a gifted voice and a handful of songs, released her debut album Wonder to an adoring Queen City, subsequently sweeping the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards and solidifying a devoted fan base here in town. It's a beginning that Reider, now four albums later (her most recent is Simplicity), looks back on with ... well, wonder.

"Cincinnati just kind of came like a big wave that landed on my plate," she says with a sense of awe even now, years after the fact. "Wonder was just so well-received and this kind of boom happened. It was kind of a charmed experience."

ALL IN THE FAMILY
For Reider, music was a family affair and a logical career choice. "I grew up with music in the family. My dad was very much influential - guitars all around the house," says Reider, referring to Rob Reider, a singer-songwriter and one-time musician on the locally-produced Bob Braun Show in the '70s and '80s. Reider's brother, Robbie, also caught the bug and built a career making music.

"The history of my dad made it a really sweet and easy transition for me in Cincinnati - to go from nobody to somebody on the radar," she says. "People would recognize my dad's name and be like, 'Oh, my gosh, that's his daughter. Wow.'

"It wasn't until my senior year in high school that I started writing at the point where I thought, 'I might be able to do something with this,' " she says. "So, between high school and college, I started recording my first album and released it my freshman year in college."

The result was Wonder, a collection of spacious, folk-rock songs that exhibited musical ability and lyrical maturity you don't often hear from a recent high school graduate.

BEYOND 'WONDER'
Wonder cemented Reider's Cincinnati music career, but one problem remained: As an Ohio State student, she wasn't really a local musician anymore. "I lived in Columbus, but my band was in Cincinnati and I was doing music primarily in Cincinnati," she says. "In Columbus and other cities, I had to do what most people have to do - start playing the venues that you don't really want to play, but in order to get into them, that's what you do. I had to build a fanbase, to earn people's ears."

The hard work paid off - now out of college, Reider has expanded beyond Cincinnati, and beyond her adopted hometown of Columbus, to become a nationally recognized act. "We can do stuff regionally and have people come," she says. "We can play from Michigan to Indianapolis to pretty much anywhere in Ohio and have a good turnout."

Reider's success is due in part to her dedication to putting on consistently high-quality performances. "We strive to make great music and to do it well. We're trying to take it to the next level.

"And it's fun," she adds. "I want people to be laughing, I want people to have an escape from the work week. I think the energy on stage between me and my band is good and it's positive - it's more than an uplifting experience. We talk about real-life stuff, but there's no chance you can be brought down at a show. Unless, you know, the stage catches fire or something like that ... that would be sad."
- RODNEY WILSON | CIN WEEKLY CONTRIBUTOR