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email: k8k8@hotmail.com
There are literally hundreds of thousands of singer-songwriters, both male and female, recording and performing their tunes, putting out cds, looking for gigs, waiting for airplay. How does one stick out from the bunch? I don't think you can rely on having great songs. Lots of incredible music has been ignored and put by the wayside over the years.
I'd hope that the songs of Kate Rae don't get lost in the mountain of music because her four songs are very memorable, with the first two 'Out To Sea' and 'My Love' being the highlights. It took a few listens to 'get' the songs. Sometimes you need a little bit of time and patience. Not that these are difficult tunes, they are quite 'straightforward stories of loss, love and everyday experiences' (to quote the bio).
What I like is the near-fragility of the vocals, the lyrics and the melodies over the simple acoustic guitar. Maybe to stand out from the crowd (or to become part of the crowd, depending on your view!), Kate needs to have some loose and dirty backing band ala Crazy Horse or Abbe May's Rockin' Pneumonia. Not to swamp the sweet songs - what I'm getting at is a drunk Mazzy Star.
Kate Rae has been performing around Melbourne for many years. She recorded these songs in Hawthorn in 2008 with Joe Hammond and Nick Huggins and they 'kept the songs true by minimizing extra instrumentation'. If these songs were to be commercially released my advice would be to add the band and get them to pretend they are backing the warm and cosy fire-side version of Neil Young! -ND
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