Quick Q and A with Kat Quinn
 by Kathy S-B  ·  25 February 2012

I knew Kat Quinn before she had a stage name.

I met Kat when she was in my son’s kindergarten class. She was Katharine Feeley then but college and a musical career have taken hold of this young woman from Marblehead and we couldn’t be happier for her! Kat participated in our annual Beatles benefit last summer and we couldn’t wait to find the perfect slot for her to come back and sing her own tunes.

Kat has just released a new EP called Exhale which was produced by Peter Calo, a long-time musical partner of Carly Simon’s. To learn more about Kat, check out her website. Here’s a little video that Kat has up on her new YouTube channel. And to give you an idea of what she’s like in front an audience, how about “a little help from my friends”?

I happen to know that you were very involved with the arts when you were attending school here in Marblehead. Did you ever in your wildest dreams ever think that you’d be pursuing a career as a musician?

Never! In high school, the drums were my main instrument. And I loved playing, but it was always more of a hobby than a potential career. I also did a lot of musical theater, but never a main role or anything. Singing in front of people used to terrify me! It never even crossed my mind to study music in college. My plan was to focus on International Studies and pursue a career in foreign service.

Do you recall any special turning point in which you began to view music differently? Have you always gravitated to acoustic music or was this a new passion that you discovered during college?

The summer after I graduated high school, was the first time I really got into playing the guitar. I would look up chords online and learn all my favorite songs. So college is really where I began exploring acoustic music. The turning point came about half way through my sophomore year when I sent the first few songs I had written to a recording artist/producer in LA who saw some potential in me. That was the first time I realized that this thing I loved doing so much, could maybe be more than just a hobby. It might actually be a career.

Tell us about your move to Nashville and then to New York. Did you have any contacts in the music worlds in either of those big cities or did you just plunge right in and see what it was like.

I was very lucky to have had music contacts lined up for me in both cities. I moved to Nashville to follow up on a series of meetings that had taken place on my behalf before I arrived. New York was a similar situation, but at the same time I was plunging in on my own. I was going to open mics and meeting people, and that’s really what gets things going in a more immediate way.

How would you describe your style to someone who did not know your music?

I have to do this all the time, and I still don’t have a very good answer. I usually call it acoustic, indie-pop. With a few exceptions, most of my music is pretty well-suited for a coffee shop setting (or a Coffee House!).

Do you have any current favorite musicians?

Hmmm . . . so many. I’m currently listening on repeat to Patty Griffin, Mariah McManus, Ingrid Michelson, and Andrew Belle.

What would your dream gig be like?

My songs are pretty lyric-based, so I really love playing intimate venues where you can actually hear the words. It would be in a cozy place like that. And since I’m dreaming. James Taylor would be singing backup.

Quick Q and A with Nora Jane Struthers
 by Kathy S-B  ·  31 January 2012

We fell in love with the unique sound of Nora Jane Struthers and the Bootleggers. It’s old-timey and contemporary all at the same time. It’s difficult to argue with David Mayfield from Cadillac Sky who said, “Nora Jane is one of the best songwriter-singers this side of the Himalayas!” To learn more about Nora Jane and the Bootleggers, visit their website. Here’s a great little video that gives you a taste of what Nora Jane and the Bootleggers are all about!

I love the fact that you were an English teacher while grooving to traditional music and made the connection to implementing stories into old time music. Can you recall coming to the realization that your two passions — literature and music — were connected?

I don’t think I had the realization that for me stories and songs are bedfellows, until after my album was done and I had to be able to talk about it intelligently to DJs and writers.

You have been quoted as saying that your music is “not really bluegrass, not really old time and not folk — it’s all of them.” Do you find that a lot of musicians are blurring the lines between all kinds of musical genres a lot these days? Have you had the experience of meeting died in the wool bluegrass fans who don’t quite know what to make of your musical detours?

My favorite musicians use different influences to create something totally unique; I think there are a lot of talented people out there fusing genres to create something that is entirely their own. I have yet to meet a staunch bluergrass fan who could not on some level appreciate how I’ve incorporated elements of bluegrass in my own work. Perhaps, the fact that I do not call it bluegrass has something to do with that open-mindedness.

When did you first start singing and playing?

My dad has a wonderful voice and a passion for harmony singing so I have been singing my whole life. I picked up the guitar when I was 14.

Do you recall the first song you wrote? And how about your first performance?

I was 4. The lyrics are: “Where ever there’s a weeping willow, weeping willow, weeping willow, where ever there’s a weeping willow there’s water near by.” copyright Nora Jane Struthers

Right now you’re fronting two bands, the Bootleggers and Bearfoot. Can you explain the difference between the two bands? Is there any crossover “sound”?

Sonically, the bands are quite similar except, Bearfoot is slightly bluesier while The Bootleggers have more of an old-time fiddle influence. Both bands have guitar bass, mandolin, fiddle. Bearfoot has two guitars, two female voices, our bass player occasionally plays an electric, and our mandolin player plays fiddle on a few tunes. The Bootleggers music has a more “vintage” aesthetic; we perform a few western swing tunes and a few old brother-duets off of a record I recorded with my dad in additional to my original songs.

Q and A with Kris Delmhorst
 by Kathy S-B  ·  18 January 2012

Kris Delmhorst is one of our favorite songwriters. Period. She is a splendid instrumentalist and weaves together some magical songs with her intelligent, articulate lyrics. Listen to her song “Hummingbird” here. Listen to the lyrics and feel them envelop you with their warmth and sincerity. To learn more about Kris Delmhorst, check out her website.

Your latest CD is a tribute to the rock band, The Cars. What is it about their music that attracted you enough to record an album full of their songs? Did you grow up listening to The Cars? You’re obviously too young to have seen them “back in the day”?

I did grow up listening to them, and no I’m not at all too young (thanks though!), but I didn’t ever see them play live. Although, to be truthful, the scintillating live performance was never really their strong suit anyway I don’t think.

The album of their songs was just 100% for fun, something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Their songs are so intricately and ingeniously constructed; the parts are all perfect and amazing, but the production is so much of its era that sometimes it’s hard to hear around that. So I just wanted to have regular acoustic instruments playing all those parts, and have girls singing all the great vocal stuff. Just because! It was a blast. But I won’t be playing many Cars songs this weekend, if any at all, because they’re not really that interesting without the band.

Now, tell us about your own songwriting. The whole scenario about the self-imposed solitude that you undertook to write “Shotgun Singer” sounds very romantic but I have a sneaking suspicion that the experience probably wasn’t all that romantic. Or was it? Did the songs pour out of you when you didn’t have to look at the clock and worry about everyday errands and such?

Romantic is definitely not the word. It’s always uncomfortable for me to talk about creative work being hard, because in the grand scheme of things, who are we kidding? Most people work harder, at a job they don’t care about as much, and don’t get applause at the end of their work day either. However, the fact is that there is real emotional discomfort involved with trying to write songs. The initial ideas do pour out, no matter what else is going on in my life, but then getting the work finished can be a real struggle. It helps immensely to go away and focus, but you also have to tough out the initial stages of that solo time, when everything resists you and every door feels closed. It’s the psychic equivalent of being locked out of the house, and it involves feelings of frustration, panic, low morale, and desperation. But when you do get through that blockage, it really pays to have a few days to stay there and get things done.

How has motherhood affected your life as a musician?

I sleep less, I write less, I tour less. But as someone who writes a lot about human relationships, I do have access to a whole lot of new emotional experience to throw into the soup when I’m writing, so maybe it evens out in some way.

What’s it like to be married to another singer-songwriter? Are there always new songs floating through the air? Do you and Jeffrey critique each other’s new work or do you seek out others who may be more objective?

We don’t usually write together but we do rely on each other’s help for editing quite often. Even working separately, it’s inspiring to hear the other person writing things across the house.

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