AP Track Review
Sundays are, I suppose, the prime day for reflection maybe mostly in Churches and while I don't frequent those houses of the "holy" there is something about a Sunday morning after quite possibly a too late a Saturday that does feel reflective. So it is a good time to feature singer-songwriter Katie Blount's very reflective Official Video for her folk alarm bell The Alchemy of Modern Times. As typewriter taps write "Prologue" we see a short whirlwind of the dark moments of our modern times, President Trump (on Abortion) "there has to be some form of punishment", the attack on immigrants (the attack on ourselves), increasing encroachment on our privacy rights, social unrest, global environmental issues, Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements, women's rights and more. As chapter 1 opens and Blount's classic folk voice starts, I am still struck how much she reminds me of classic folk protest artists like the iconic Joan Baez. The words are deeply sewn and interweaving the hazy blend of what we think is reality, what is truth, what promises are really deceit wrapped up in the shiny bow of media as commerce. When money is the end all, we all will suffer at the hands of others.
"Who sees beyond the curtain Behind the mirror turning wild Who’s pointing it to Phony sideshows of numb hearts, when there's no more answers"
The video ends with words by famed 60's English San Francisco transplanted Zen philosopher, teacher Alan Watts (The Way of Zen) who dabbled in psychedelics and coalesced many religions and philosophies into teachable words and deep questions. Ones that may never be answered really but ones that might fuel tiny atoms of hope between all of us who ask them.
Katie Blount's debut album "Dark Water" drops on January 31st, 2020.
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Robb Donker
HERE
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
They say it can take a few albums to really write something of quality, but not with Katie’s debut album ‘Dark Water’. Katie has written an album with the skill of a poet and the heart of a musician. With lines like ‘Fingerprint my mind for evidence’ and ‘I've been fooled by the weight of a rolling dice that only ever landed in mid-air’, she sings these songs with depth and meaning. As if she has lived them, as if she knows them intimately. These songs aren’t lighthearted tunes, but ones that draw you into the heart and soul of who we are underneath our disguises.
Then there are her more unusual melodies that twist and bend into unexpected places, melodies like “Dark Water’ that convey how someone sees a relationship ending through someone's quiet distances. A melody so unique it reminds you of no one and is yet strangely familiar, until comparisons seem futile.
Katie is an artist’s artist and has the quality of work of some of the old songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen, who weren’t only beloved by their fans but by other artists too.
A body of work that commands and deserves attention and respect.
‘This is sensitive, skilled, pulled back where it should be, then let out where it needs to. Light and shade with the skill of a poet but with a totally heart-felt believable story expertly delivered. I LOVED it.’
Stephen Gilmore BBC Illustrator and renowned artist commenting on Orion Sky
Her artistry is carried through into the videos she made for ‘The American Song’ and ‘Orion Sky’. These have been made from many different video clips provided under the creative commons licence. She scours the web for just the right imagery that helps to tell the lyrical story. She then slices them together, creating some very compelling and interesting sequences.
‘I really like those music videos where the words and video are held together with each other, rather than at odds with each another. I wanted to create videos that gave the words another dimension….Plus it was a lot of fun ploughing through the web for video clips!’
And if that wasn’t enough Katie has also recorded and produced her own album. She built her own home studio and made a vocal booth from an old doctor’s screen she bought on eBay. ‘I tried to keep the production as simple as possible, only adding what the song needed and leaving the rest to breathe.’
Katie’s talent is undeniable, this being her first album you can only imagine where she may go next, her potential seems long and vast. Her vision clear…
‘I want to bring all the elements together from the songwriting, the videos and the production so that each one belongs to the other’.
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