Kriki

Ask Kriki where she see's herself in five years and you'll get a hearty laugh as a response. "in my life so far, I've learned that every plan is going to change," she said. "Every plan I've made in my life as of now has not come true, except the music aspect."

The female vocalist echoes the sentiment in the track title "Change", part of her debut solo album, Talk (We Act Like We're Doing Something)."

The 26 year-old Harding native will play Bart and Urbys in Wilkes-Barre at 10pm, Saturday supported by her band, Anne Chairge on keyboard and flute and sister Jessica on bass. A drummer will take the fourth spot, which is most often filled by a guest musician.

Before this album, Kriki was part of several other musical projects, such as Evernight, Rippletree Effect and Barefoot.

"Its been eight or nine years that I've been playing with other bands," she said, "I just decided to do my own t hing, work on my own material, and express myself."

This project differs from the others in terms of sound. Kriki describes it as "a little bit of folk rock with a lot of pop influences."

"This is different from what I've done in the past in the sense that its a lot more laid back and reflective" she said. "I think that, on the whole, its just a bit calmer while still having a good amount of energy to it."

Reflection is a theme that runs through Kriki's lyrics.

"I really have a hard time writing about the small small stuff," she said, "I write about the things that are the big questions that make me wonder, specifically God."

"I wonder about why life goes the way it does. Every once in a while I'll write about something specific in my life, but its mostly about things I just don't understand."

Her favorite track on the EP is its namesake, "Talk".

"It hits on the big picture, the big questions," she said "It's kind of an inverted conversation with myself trying to figure things out."

No matter what changes may come her way, Kriki knows that five, even 10, years down the line, on thing will stay the same.

"Putting my thoughts down on paper and to music is my passion," she said "I would think that no matter what changes in my life, that won't."
- by Sara Pokorny, the Guide

Thanks to Alan K. Stout! - The Weekender

Review by Jim Munster
PA Music Scene.com
September 2010

This five song collection is musically well written. There is some stellar pre- and post- production to all the songs herein. The collection is stylistically diverse and musically challenging without being overly-presumptuous. The music is not difficult to appeal to the casual listener, yet gives a musician something to sink their teeth into. The critical musician will appreciate the time that was spent constructing the songs and the effort that went into recording them.

Kriki’s singing voice reminds me of Ivory soap: clean, pure and smooth. I really fell head-over-heels for her crystal clean voice when I heard her on Anthony Narrow’s recent effort (see my review of his CD). A few notes of her inflection might come off as slightly contrived and breathy, but she is able to hold on to a unique singing style of her own. Fans of 10,000 Maniacs will immediately notice a similarity to Natalie Merchant’s tone and style, but Kriki makes good use of it and creates a new style of her own.

Throughout, Kriki’s melody lines float nicely over each song. She seems to naturally know how to treat the lyrics to fit the mood of the song. These songs are mature, thought-provoking and display a level of songwriting beyond the normal realm of the pop tune.

Track thoughts:

“Talk”: A fun, tap your foot/nod your head number…nice harmonies…Whoa! A truck-driver gear shift!..the elusive song-ending modulation..one of the most controversial features of modern pop songwriting. Does it work for this song? I’ll leave that up for you to decide.

“Done For Love”: A non-assuming, laid back blues-tune with tasteful guitar licks…a keeper for me…I’d like to hear the guitarist open up

“Change” my favorite tune on the collection… the violin is cool but a bit heavy in the mix after the intro…a pop-Irish tune for sure…I just saw a Leprechaun dancing in the corner… “It’s as good a time as any for change” tongue-twister..say that 3 times fast..she does…the bridge in the song transations into a cool mandolin solo. The instrumentation and musicianship on this song is top-notch. - PA Music Scene.com