Kim Carson

Internationally known country roots and "Renegade Honkytonk" singer Kim Carson will take the main Acura stage at the 2008 New Orleans Jazz Fest on Friday April 25. Kim Carson is known for her unique style and sound, known as "the real deal country." Carson is fresh off a thirteen-week winter tour that took her to Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Panama.

New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) April 24, 2008 -- Country Roots singer Kim Carson will command the Acura Stage at The New Orleans 2008 Jazz and Heritage Festival on Friday, April 25 at 12:30 PM. Carson is no stranger to Jazz Fest, having played the festival eleven times in fifteen years with her unique sound which evokes what critics call "the real deal country." Carson's influences include Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and the great Loretta Lynn. This year's opener for the seven day festival sees Carson's star aligned with names such as Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Susan Cowsill and Sheryl Crow.

After Kim Carson's 2005 Jazz Fest performance, Live New Orleans said, "Kim Carson was in full control. With her broad smile and swagger, she emitted an undeniable aura. She and her band had such a hold on the songs that the Jazz Fest performance on Friday was a no-lose situation."

Alex Rawls of New Orleans' OffBeat Magazine has said, "Kim Carson is as fine a roots/country singer as someone like Rosie Flores. Her brand of high Octane Twang is traditional without being retro."

Readers of OffBeat named Kim Carson "Best Country Artist" eight times. Her concert album "Live at Tipitina's" was voted "Best Country Album" of 2004. She's a hard working, full-time musician performing in old-time music clubs from Texas to Florida to Nashville and has appeared on several "Outlaw country" shows with David Allan Coe, Junior Brown, Dale Watson, Jesse Dayton, John Anderson, The Hollisters and Loretta Lynn.

Kim Carson is a well-known face on the Gulf music scene and is a staple at Bay Fest in Mobile, Alabama and the Gulf Shores Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Rounding out the venue roster, Carson is a regular at the dancehall in legendary Luckenbach, Texas and has played the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville, Tennessee.

Carson and her band, with members from the Casualties and Buffalo Speedway, did a three-month tour of Europe last summer and will return to the European Union for twelve weeks, performing in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Norway and the Netherlands.

"I really enjoy traveling and the people who come out to hear live music are my kind of people," Carson says about her European audiences. "Country music is like Levi's," Carson says. "It's very American. Europeans are fascinated by our western heritage."

Carson has just released a new compilation CD. "Looking Back -- 1997 'Till Now." There are three new songs on the compilation, which is a retrospective of her last five recordings.

This year marks the first time since Hurricane Katrina delivered a body blow to the Gulf Coast that a seventh day will be added to the festival, which runs April 25-27 & May 1-4, 2008. The extra day is a "sign that Jazz Fest -- and the city of New Orleans -- is returning to normal," said Quint Davis, Jazz Fest's producer/director.

Hurricane Katrina hit Carson and many New Orleans' musicians hard, but she has vowed to make the Crescent City her permanent home once again. "Going Back to Louisiana" is Carson's ode to the state where her face and music are well known from French Quarter Fest to the Louisiana Crawfish Festival. Carson donated the song to a Katrina Compilation CD.

Jazz Fest began in 1970, and celebrates the indigenous music and culture of New Orleans and Louisiana. Blues, R&B, gospel music, Cajun music, Zydeco, Afro-Caribbean, folk music, Latin, rock, rap music, country music, jazz and bluegrass dominate the event.

- PR Web

By Georgianne Nienaber

Kim Carson Jazz Fest 2008
The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest 2008) opened on Friday May 25 to a packed park, and the sight of the crowds staking out spots on the racetrack infield signaled that the heart and soul of New Orleans was back.

That is not to forget that much of the city infrastructure is still in shambles, but the spirit of New Orleans does not and will not give up in the continuing aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Like their protecting presence in so much of southern life, women dominated the main Acura Stage, and the opening acts featured New Orleans’ sweetheart Susan Cowsill, honkey tonk queen Kim Carson, and the incomparable and indefinable Theresa Andersson.

The women graciously supported each other on a song or two and the crowd loved it. You did not read about this in the mainstream reportage or the local Louisiana press, since Friday’s headliners Sheryl Crow, Allison Krauss and Robert Plant dominated reviews and headlines from USA Today to the Advocate. The truth be told, the crowd loved the local talent as well, and responded with enough hoots, whistles and applause to be heard all the way to Lafayette, Lake Charles, and beyond. The place was packed, but actual attendance figures have not been released yet for this, the third fest since Katrina made her mark on New Orleans.

Susan Cowsill opened the Acura stage on Friday. For readers too young to remember, pop icon Cowsill was the “baby” sister of the late 60’s pop group, The Cowsills, a real life model for television’s The Partridge Family. Cowsill is now a fifteen-year resident and multiple music awards winner in the Crescent City, and either consistently wins or is nominated in the Best female Vocalist and Roots Rock Categories. If anyone has ever doubted that her homage to the city that America forgot in the aftermath of Katrina, “Crescent City Snow,” is the best Katrina song ever written, ask the crowds that are riveted with every performance. Review after review mentions the intense audience response and connection to the song. Even the mainstream has picked up on this phenomenon and the Associated Press dubbed Crescent City Snow the “anthem” of Katrina in its opening feature on Jazz Fest 2008.

John Swenson has been writing about pop music since 1967. Swenson wrote for Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Circus, Rock World, and OffBeat Magazine, and was a syndicated music columnist at United Press International and Reuters. Cowsill was on Swenson’s must-see list for Day One of Jazz Fest.

Here is a video of Cowsill’s cover of the great Lucinda Williams’ “Drunken Angel,” performed at French Quarter Fest. Video, unfortunately, was not permitted at Jazz Fest. I guess what happens at Jazz Fest stays at Jazz Fest.

Swenson also picked “underrated local country/rockabilly singer and roadhouse queen Kim Carson, [and] the eclectic and imaginative Theresa Andersson Group” to head his personal Fest plan.

Kim Carson is a Texas native country singer and has performed at Jazz Fest close to a dozen times. Carson is known for her unique style and sound, known as "the real deal country." Carson is a hard-working musician and walked onto the Acura Stage fresh off a thirteen-week winter tour that took her to Germany, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Panama.

Cowsill joined Carson for harmony vocals on the song, “Wondering,” and the result had audience members whispering that the two women sounded “like angels.” It was the first time Carson and Cowsill had performed together.

Jazz Fest organizer Quint Davis personally picked local vocalist and fiddle player Theresa Andersson to precede Krauss and Plant. Davis was quoted as saying there was “nobody else” he wanted for the slot but local girl Andersson with her self-described “psychedelic, healing and easy listening” music. Susan Cowsill also joined Andersson for harmony vocals. The poignancy of the three hometown women joining each other on stage was not lost to locals. All suffered tremendous personal and financial losses to hurricane Katrina, but returned to live and love in the city that loves them back.

- COA News

Thanks to Jim Stratton, Arctic Cactus Hour, KNBA Anchorage. The following are excerpts from his email message:

"Kim - On a recent trip from Alaska to Nashville, I was lucky enough to catch your set at Billy Block's....blew me away.

I produce and host a weekly show here in Alaska called the Arctic Cactus Hour and would like to add your new disc to my playlist

When I previewed your disc, I liked 1,2,3,6,7,10,11 on the first listen. Yep, I really like your disc. Since my show is a Saturday evening, I go for the more upbeat stuff, so I added Going Back To Louisiana last night and I'll probably add "Honky-Tonk Girl" sometime in the next few months. May also add Midnight Angel...anyway, hope that is helpful."
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