Quick Q and A with Catie Curtis
 by Kathy S-B  ·  12 February 2010

Catie Curtis is one of the busiest and most prolific singer-songwriters on the acoustic music scene. Her boundless energy, insightful lyrics and playful spirit has helped her garner fans from all over the country. Her latest CD, Hello Stranger, adds a new element to Catie’s music: a string-band project which was recently selected as one of the ten best folk albums of the year by the Boston Globe.

Learn more about Catie on her website. Check out this video of her singing her poignant song “People Look Around.”

Your music has popped up on various major-league TV shows. How did that come about? That’s big, for sure.

The music supervisors of shows like Dawson’s Creek, Alias and Grey’s Anatomy happened to be fans. When I was approached about having my songs in those shows, I was like, sure!

Wayback machine: what was it like to tour on the Lilith Fair Tour?

I found Sarah McLachlan and the other celebrities on the tour to be very accessible. Sarah took me in to her dressing room to find me a lyric sheet for a song she wanted me to sing on. I brought a band for my set and we really rocked out. It was great fun!

So, what brought about the production of your “Hello Stranger” CD? Did you have a highlight of this production?

My label, Compass, is based in Nashville. They are well-connected in the bluegrass world and offered to help me make a string-band style CD with Grammy-award winning players. The highlight was hearing Stuart Duncan (Allison Krauss’s fiddler), Alison Brown (award-winning banjo player), and George Marinelli (Bonnie Raitt’s guitarist) trade solos. After one particularly inspired take, Stuart said “now there’s yer stimulus package!” I wanted to keep that on the CD but it got cut!

What has being a parent brought your life and to your creativity process?

Patience. Ability to delay gratification. More rooms opened in my heart . . . rooms I didn’t know were there. Coffee addiction.

What can we expect in the next few years from you?

More songs, more recordings, more shows. . . . I continue to do lots of benefit concerts which make the business more meaningful. Also, I enjoy teaching workshops with songwriting students in high school, college and beyond. I plan to do more collaborating with other artists and ensembles. Damn, I like my job!