Kayte Grace

Presented by the Augusta Partnership for Children, the weeklong festivities include a family festival, youth violence forum, talent show, parade and story time.
The annual event is designed to honor local children, youth and families.

Actress and musician Kayte Grace will perform at two events, the Talent Takeover-Talent Show on Saturday and Family Festival/Education Fair on Sunday.
Kayte Grace, a senior at Columbia University, comes to the event from New York City. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, she has acted professionally for more than 10 years, landing roles in national commercials and television shows including Law & Order: SVU, The Wire and Gossip Girl.
Her music career started a year and a half ago, when she began teaching herself to play acoustic guitar.
Since then, the 21-year-old has released a six-song EP called Soaked You In in April 2009 and a full album, Written On , in May. Victor Wooten, a five-time Grammy Award-winning bass guitarist and Grace's cousin, plays on two tracks on Written On .
Grace's music gained popularity on the Internet through her YouTube videos, which have had more than half a million views.
She was featured as YouTube's Unsigned Pick and has been featured in Washingtonian Magazine . Her music is a mix of folk, blues, pop and rock and has played on 130 college radio stations.
This summer, Grace and her band completed a 20-city cross-country tour to promote her new album.
The singer-songwriter doesn't back down from a challenge -- she booked the entire tour, from New York to San Francisco, by herself and even designed her own Web site.
When Grace graduates from Columbia in May, she wants to stay in New York and pursue her music career, though she's still deciding whether to go the indie route or with a record label. She also plans to continue acting, including more theater.
She has always loved to sing and started performing with a modeling and singing group in elementary and middle school. In her songs, she pulls from her experiences with love, human relationships and people she has met along the way, such as a homeless couple she met in New York.
Her advice to young people interested in pursuing a career in the entertainment industry is to be persistent and love what they're doing.
"For musicians, especially, I think it's invaluable to get your music online. For me, it was YouTube. That was like the springboard. When I had things recorded, it was MySpace.
"The value of that is that even when I'm laying in bed asleep at night, my music is still on there and people are still accessing it from every continent in the world. When you put your music online, it spreads itself," Grace said.
In addition, young people should ask for help and enlist people around them with different talents and skills. They also "have to be ready for a lot of trial and error."
"I've found that it makes your skill set grow just to have to do what each next step requires," she said.


Children's Week 2010
KICK-OFF CELEBRATION

10:15 to 11 a.m. Friday, Jessye Norman Amphitheatre; special performances by Cookie Dodson and Georgia Public Broadcasting

YOUTH VIOLENCE FORUM

1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, Glenn Hills Middle School; educational sessions for parents and youth/teens on gangs and bullying

TALENT TAKEOVER-- TALENT SHOW

4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Glenn Hills Middle School; special guest performance by Kayte Grace; admission is $1 for ages 6 and older

FAMILY FESTIVAL/ EDUCATION FAIR

1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, 8th Street Plaza-Riverwalk Augusta; special performance by actress and musician Kayte Grace

PARADE

2 to 3 p.m. Sunday, downtown Augusta; parade route will begin at Seventh and Broad streets and end at 11th and Broad streets

CHILDREN'S STORY TIME

10 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Thursday, East Central Georgia Regional Library; RSVP is required. Contact Eileen McCoy at (706) 821-2631 or mccoye@ecgrl.org.

Listen in
Actress and singer Kayte Grace's music can be found on iTune - Augusta Chronicle

Click the link to watch performance footage and the interview. - ABC

Click the link to watch the interview and on-air performance. - NBC

Welcome to Local Listens, where we profile some of our favorite Washington musicians. This week, we shine the spotlight on Kayte Grace.

By Jesseka Kadylak Published Friday, June 05, 2009

After stumbling upon a cheap guitar for sale at Linens ’n Things, of all places, Silver Spring native Kayte Grace began her journey to becoming a singer/songwriter. Though just starting her music career, Grace carries herself like she’s been in the game for years. She realizes that there’s an ebb and flow in the music industry and that opportunities fade just as fast as they come.

Grace, 20, and her guitarist Kevin Plybon jumped into the recording studio shortly after Grace received close to 250,000 hits in two days on a YouTube video. She recognized it as a rare opportunity and decided to record something. She and Plybon laid down six songs in roughly seven hours and created their debut EP, Soaked You In. Though that seems like a hurried process, the EP sounds like a big-budget production.

Grace’s voice is more matured then her age might indicate—like Duffy’s, only Grace’s vibrato isn’t overbearing or obnoxious. She says the EP excavates love in all its forms.

Grace, a college student at Columbia University, had her share of good and bad interactions with men—which inspired her EP. “Uncomplicated” starts off lyrically in the manner of Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain,” with Grace singing, “First of all, this song’s not about you, it’s about someone else. And another thing, I’m thriving without you.” That track, along with “Thursday Night Love Song” and “Love Perfect,” can be streamed on Grace’s MySpace page.

Celebrate the release of Soaked You In with Grace and Plybon at Coffihouse in Merrifield on June 6. The show is free and starts at 8. In the meantime, learn more about Kayte Grace in our interview.

Name: Kayte Grace.

Age: 20.

Hometown: Silver Spring.

First song that made you want to play music:
“Once at camp, when I was about 15, a girl had a guitar and decided to share a song that she’d written. Everyone listened, enthralled. Before that, it had never occurred to me that I could just write music and captivate people with the story I told. I went home and wrote a song on the piano that night. It wasn’t very good, but I was hooked on the idea of crafting and performing my own music.”

First instrument:
Violin.

Local spot to seek inspiration or write music:
“College Perk near the University of Maryland. There was a fire recently, and I don’t think it’s reopened yet. But it’s a great place with friendly musicians, interesting strangers, and an artsy-fartsy feel, and I think the zebra-stripe paint job outside makes me feel more creative.”

Best local venue:
“Jammin’ Java or Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse.”

Best bar to hear music:
“I’m 20. I’m not allowed in. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.”

Favorite local band other than yours:
“Tim Be Told.”

Best thing about Washington’s music scene:
“I’m definitely still getting my footing in the Washington scene. So far, I’ve found really friendly people, and I was excited to find out about the artist showcases that the Songwriters Association of Washington does at coffeehouses and venues all over the area. I’m playing at one at Mad City Coffee on August 15.”

Worst thing about Washington’s music scene:
“Accidentally signing up for open mikes at over-21 venues, waiting for my 11:30 PM slot, only to be turned away by the bouncer. Ouch.”

Craziest tour/show memory:
“Unknowingly playing at a venue on a night dedicated to comedians. I was introduced like this: ‘And next we have Kayte Grace. It’s her first time here, but I’m sure she’s very funny.’ I got onstage and said, ‘Do you guys mind if I just play some music?’ They laughed. I was serious.”

Finish this sentence: “When not making music, you can find me . . .”
“. . . cooking or watching the enchanting Alton Brown on Food Network, poking around a thrift store for cool purses, or sitting at - Washingtonian Magazine

“Victor Wooten, the bass player for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, is Kayte Grace's cousin, but Grace, a senior at Columbia University from Silver Spring, is a talented musician in her own right. She writes great pop songs with smart lyrics and a country feel, and her first full-length album, "Written On," is an impressive debut.” - Washington Post

As if life as a Columbia student isn’t already busy enough, Kayte Dzime-Assison, CC ’11, is also making her mark on the Manhattan music scene.

Last night, she performed a set of original music at Sidewalk Café—New York’s self-proclaimed “Antifolk stomping ground”—under her stage name, Kayte Grace.

Grace’s self-described musical style of folk, rock, and pop lends itself to various niches in the music world. “My music is kind of all over the place, but I can say what it’s not. It’s definitely not rap, not ska, nothing extreme,” she said.

Her sources of inspiration for songwriting are just as varied, ranging from romance to poverty to inquiries about life. “One song I wrote called ‘Revolution’ was inspired by homeless people, by a lot of people in our neighborhood I’ve gotten to know, and about the gaps between people,” Grace said.

She added, “A lot of them [the songs] are about love, unrequited love, sort of sad love. ... I’m super girly and romantic so that sort of helps.”

Though her arrival to the music scene is relatively recent, Grace is no stranger to performing. “I’ve been acting professionally since I was in fourth grade, doing commercials and stuff, and that’s part of the reason I came to New York to go to college,” she said.

The transition from acting to music was a natural one that her family supported, and arose from her first encounter with a six-string.

“My family’s really musical and that’s cool because it’s always been natural for music to be a career possibility. Two years ago I got a 50-dollar guitar and started teaching myself how to play. I was writing music while I was learning chords,” Grace said.

Grace’s industrious self-managing and promotional work are part of what has led her so quickly from learning chords to performing across the country. “I started posting videos of myself on YouTube and one of them [a song called “Soaked You In”] got 250,000 hits. ... It was on the main page of YouTube for a week!” she said.

Grace has produced CDs, booked shows, and built an online fan base independent of a record label contract. “There is no ‘getting discovered’ because there are so many people in this field that the record companies hardly need to go out and find people,” she said. “People should realize all the things you can do on your own.”

Despite just having started writing and performing her own songs at the beginning of the last school year, Grace is already releasing her first full-length album next month, titled “Written On.”

Kevin Plybon, CC ’11, performed alongside Grace at the Sidewalk Café and will join her at a number of other gigs later this year. The pair met last year through Columbia’s InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. Plybon, a classically trained guitarist, will be performing with Grace at the South by Southwest festival this March in Austin, Texas.

“She [Grace] always says she wants to get famous before we graduate,” Plybon said. “That would be good for me if she gets famous because then I could be a guitarist for a famous person.”

Though not as big as South by Southwest, Grace’s New York show still holds some significance. Regina Spektor, whom she cites as one of her biggest inspirations, performed at the Sidewalk Café in 2002 when she was still at the relative beginning of her career. “I’ll be in the presence of greatness,” Grace
said. - Columbia Spectator - Andrea Folds

“Kayte Grace, 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Carolina Ale House Stage ---- Don't let Kayte's famous cousin, superbassist Victor Wooten, fool you. She's got plenty of talent in her own right, not to mention national attention that seems to be growing exponentially. Grace's intoxicating brew of pop, rock & roll, soul, folk and blues has gained attention from The Washington Post, NBC and ABC News, and YouTube, where she's got 600,000 views. It might sound like difficult music to categorize, but Kayte brings her various influences together seemingly effortlessly, just like she brings a crowd under her seductive spell.” - www.greenville.metromix.com

Now that I have ranted all I can about what I hate, we can get back to the good stuff...MUSIC. I fell in love with this girl the first time I heard her voice. She is not main stream, but I listen to her everyday and she always puts a smile on my face. Kayte Grace, marry me.

[This blog posted the YouTube video for Thursday Night Love Song under this paragraph] - www.nawamuks.blogspot.com

Sorry I haven't posted since last month.... But I'm back!

I found a songwriter named Kayte Grace on YouTube. She is nothing short of graceful. Her songs remind you what is important and why you do what you do...no matter how completely crazy it is.

She reminds me why I take music lessons. She reminds me why I haven't decided to work on flexibility(mostly because it isn't all that important to me..flexibility that is).

She plays guitar and piano(so do I!), and she is an amazing singer. Not Celine Dion, but she isn't one of those stupid, washed up, fake, techno, popstars. She isn't signed yet though. But I would buy 6 of 7 of her originals.

Check out her on ouTube...PLEASE! For the sake of music that is actually good!

http://www.youtube.com/user/KayteGrace
- http://randomthingsbyme.blogspot.com

I love getting put on to new things and people. Today i got put on to a very talented person and i can't stop listening to all her original songs she put out on Youtube. She goes by Kayte Grace [...] But back to Kayte not only does she sing but she also acts. She played in many shows from one of my favorites Gossip girls, the Wire, Law and Order etc. What can i say the girl is talented but i guess talent runs in the family because her brother has a lot going for himself to. So make sure you go on Youtube and check out some of her stuff she has a different feel to her music, shes like a mixture of a lot of things so i know yall will like it. FYI she is on Youtubes homepage under Featured Videos she has 90,451 views in 2 week. Do your thing girl! http://www.youtube.com/user/KayteGrace” - http://azslyrics.blogspot.com

Unsigned singer-songwriter Kayte Grace has "graced" YouTube with her original music. Click on her channel for more - and sing along, lyrics are included. - YouTube