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Kat Edmonson Old Fashioned Gal

Kat Edmonson — Old Fashioned Gal (Apr., 27, 2018)

   Kat Edmonson — Old Fashioned Gal (April, 27, 2018)Kat Edmonson — Old Fashioned Gal (April, 27, 2018)•★•√     “Jedno z nejintimnějších a nejopojnějších představení, jaké kdy spatřilo Swyer Theater.” + “Jedno z nejimpozantnějších vokálních alb, které jsem kdy slyšel.” — Benjamínko 
•★•√     “One of the most intimate, intoxicating performances that the Swyer Theatre has ever seen.” — TimesUnion
•★•√     “One of the greatest vocal albums I’ve ever heard.” — Boston Globe    
Born: August 3, 1983
Location: Houston, TX ~ Brooklyn, New York, NY
Genre: Vintage Pop
Album release: Apr., 27, 2018
Record Label: Spinnerette Records
Duration:     37:11
Tracks:
01. Sparkle and Shine     3:27
02. I’d Be a Fool     2:51
03. A Voice     4:25
04. If     3:08
05. Canoe     3:00
06. Old Fashioned Gal     3:01
07. Please Consider Me     4:44
08. How’s About It Baby     3:11
09. Goodbye Bruce     2:31
10. With You     3:33
11. Not My Time     3:09
℗ 2018 Kat Edmonson
About Kat Edmonson
♦      Jazz chanteuse Kat Edmonson may have had no formal training, but the young vocalist possesses one of the most authentic voices to ever croon selections from the Great American Songbook. One listen to the Houston native’s ethereal purr is enough to hook even the most casual music fan, and her song “Lucky” was featured on the MTV series United States of Tara. It was Edmonson’s mother’s record collection and old movies that initially stirred her artistic soul, but having a career in music wasn’t initially a given. After a stint at college in Charleston, South Carolina, Edmonson returned to Texas and decided to follow the musical call. An audition for American Idol in 2002 landed Edmonson a trip to Hollywood and a spot in the Top 48. Her Idol dreams ended abruptly when judge Randy Jackson told the singer she didn’t “look like a star.” After her exit from Idol, Edmonson began honing her chops at open~mike nights and eventually made the transition to full~time performer. Her debut album, 2009’s Take to the Sky, was a mix of classic and modern songs, and proved Edmonson was more than ready for her jazz ascension. Three years later, she returned with the Kickstarter~funded Way Down Low. In 2014, Edmonson released the Mitchell Froom~produced The Big Picture. ~ Todd Sterling
Review
Λ→       Kat Edmonson’s “Old Fashioned Gal” her forthcoming album is set for release April 27, 2018 on Spinnerette Records and her tour supporting the full length begins April 20. NPR Music's “Songs We Love” premiered the title track, noting that “Edmonson is astute with her references, and canny about the flirtation at the center of the song.”
Λ→       Of writing Old Fashioned Gal, Edmonson says, “I wrote these songs while holed up in my Brooklyn apartment during the winter of 2016. I had a terrible, reoccurring cold that winter and was often laid up in bed. I’d go back and forth from watching 1930s movies on Turner Classic Movies to working on a song. While writing this album, I realized that I was seeing what looked like scenes from a film in my head — a film not yet made. I ultimately sat down and wrote an entire outline for a screenplay — a musical, of course — with this music, the score. I processed a great deal of self~doubt in order to write this hopeful record. Old Fashioned Gal is about believing in yourself even when it seems no one else will.”
Λ→       Old Fashioned Gal was entirely written and produced by Edmonson with associate production by band member and drummer Aaron Thurston. It was recorded over several sessions throughout the summer and fall of 2016 at Atomic Sound Studios in Brooklyn with Grammy~winning engineer Fernando Lodeiro. This is her third time working with twenty~two~time Grammy~winning engineer Al Schmitt who mixed the record at Capitol Studios in Hollywood.
Λ→       The album follows Edmonson’s critically acclaimed 2014 release The Big Picture, which debuted #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers, #1 on Contemporary Jazz Chart and #2 on the Total Jazz Chart. Her 2015 performance on “CBS This Morning: Saturday” garnered the program’s highest rated viewership since 2006. She recently appeared in Woody Allen’s Cafe Society as a 1930s jazz singer and is highlighted on the official soundtrack performing her version of “Mountain Greenery.”
Λ→       2012’s Way Down Low was described by The New York Times as “fresh as a spring bouquet” while The Boston Globe’s Steve Greenlee heralded it as “one of the greatest vocal albums I’ve ever heard.” The record debuted at #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart and was featured on several major year~end lists including Downbeat Magazine, WNYC Soundcheck’s “Best Live Performances” and Daytrotter’s “Best Sessions of 2012.” Edmonson was featured on NPR an impressive five times that same year.
Λ→       Growing up in Houston, Edmonson wrote her first song on a school bus at age nine. The Texas native evolved her signature style in Austin’s local club circuit for several years before self~releasing Take To The Sky in 2009. In the proceeding years, Edmonson toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan while also supporting high profile acts including Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Gary Clark, Jr., Jaime Cullum, Shawn Colvin, Smokey Robinson, George Benson, Michael Kiwanuka, Nick Lowe and Willie Nelson.   Λ→      
Review
★      Ken Grand~Pierre linked up with Kat Edmonson to learn more about the artist’s forthcoming album, Old Fashioned Gal.
★      You have to love people who can take phrases and make them their own. To hear someone say “old~fashioned” is usually correlated with a slew of negative assumptions, but then you’ll meet someone like Kat Edmonson, who challenges those negative thoughts. She’s very much the sort who finds inspiration from an older world — whether it be film, books, or personalities. But Edmonson isn’t about lamenting the past, rather, she’s about reframing it within a modern lens. Her upcoming album, Old Fashioned Gal, is her most personal body of work to date. Ken Grand~Pierre linked up with Kat to find out how exactly the album came to be.
★      “It feels really great knowing I don’t have anything to prove, to anyone.”
•★•√     https://www.thefourohfive.com/
Review
by Jeff Tamarkin on April 30, 2018
★      Listening to Old Fashioned Gal, you may find that you’re certain you’ve heard these songs before. Even the titles — “Sparkle and Shine” and the title track — seem so familiar, so close. The idea that these songs, all of them written by Kat Edmonson, evoke another time and a distant place is never the question; but where that place is and when that time might possibly be are. Edmonson’s backstory is that she wrote these 11 songs as a “film in my head, a film not yet made” — or, alternately, a musical — and Old Fashioned Gal would indeed serve fittingly in that capacity. There is drama inherent in the ballad “My Voice,” with Edmonson declaring nakedly, “I’ve walked along this path alone/ I’ve seen my share of things/ And now it’s only I who knows what any of it means.” In “Please Consider Me,” with her trademark girlish delivery bathed in orchestral swirls, Edmonson offers what’s not a mere Paris travel guide but a more fragile emotion: “The loneliest sound that I’ve ever found, the clanging of the church at night/ It’s the sound of my heart calling you but sacré bleu, you’re not in sight!” The album~closing “Not My Time” is like some ethereal lost 1920s plea from the beyond, revealing heartbreak in oh~so~many ways amid the frolic, and “Goodbye Bruce” may be the most to~the~point get~lost tune ever: “Goodbye Bruce, gonna miss you/ You were such a lovely guy,” Edmonson sings over a fractured piano. That’s it. No need for elaboration. This is someone who knows what she wants to say.
★    https://www.relix.com/
Review
NATE CHINEN, January 8, 201811:00 AM ET
•★•√     A little over 75 years ago, Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire introduced “I’m Old Fashioned,” a graceful, guileless ballad that dismisses the latest trends in favor of timeless romantic verities: the glow of moonlight, the holding of hands, “the starry song that April sings.”
•★•√     The song — by Jerome Kern, with Johnny Mercer’s lyrics — forms an elegant set piece in the film musical You Were Never Lovelier (with Hayworth’s singing ghosted by Nan Wynn). It has since become a jazz standard, with dozens if not hundreds of versions on record.
•★•√     Kat Edmonson, an avowed fan of Astaire’s films, probably had “I’m Old Fashioned” in the back of her mind when she wrote “Old Fashioned Gal,” the title track of an album due out in the spring. But as a socially observant singer~songwriter in a social media age, she’s also well aware that the bar for antiquarianism has moved since 1942. So instead of waxing poetic about the moon and stars, she pines for a respite from pop~up ads and notifications, for a phone “inextricably connected to a wall.”
•★•√     Edmonson is already well established as an old soul; she’d have that reputation even without her recent contribution to Café Society, the Woody Allen rom~com set in 1930s Hollywood. Her previous three albums all exude a twinkly throwback charm, whether in jazz~cabaret or folksy indie~pop mode. She was, briefly and incongruously, a contestant on the second season of American Idol, where her vintage, soft~spoken style caused befuddlement among the judges.
•★•√     There’s a song on Old Fashioned Gal called “Not My Time” that seems to allude to that experience, with a bit of wry comic distance. (“I auditioned to be a star,” it begins.) But Edmonson, who produced the album and wrote each of its 11 songs, isn’t looking to revive grudges here. The album is a handsome showcase for her songwriting, which has grown ever more confident over the last decade, nostalgic in tone but clear~eyed in the application.
•★•√     The title track, which she sings with simple piano accompaniment, strikes a droll and knowing tone with its lyrics: It might make you think of Blossom Dearie finessing some lesser~known number by Cole Porter. But Edmonson is astute with her references, and canny about the flirtation at the center of the song. When she sings “Just come over, let’s play records,” and rhymes the last word in that phrase with “checkers,” she’s not being coy. She’s extending an invitation — while letting it be known that “Netflix and chill” isn’t her idea of a good time.  •★•√     https://www.npr.org/
PROMO
•★•     Critically  acclaimed  vocalist  and  songwriter  Kat  Edmonson  has  played  major  stages  across  the  United  States,  Europe  and  Japan,  appeared  in  major  motion  pictures,  performed  on  radio  and  television,  and  released  three  groundbreaking  albums  to  date.    The  genre~defying  artist  recently  appeared  in  Woody  Allen’s  film  set  in  the  1930s,  Café  Society  (2016),  as  a  jazz  singer,  and  is  highlighted  on  the  official  soundtrack  performing  her  version  of  “Mountain  Greenery.”
•★•     Edmonson’s  most  recent  record  The  Big  Picture  debuted  at  #1  on  the  Billboard  Heatseekers  Albums  Chart,  #1  on  Contemporary  Jazz  Chart  and  #2  on  the  Total  Jazz  Chart.    While  promoting  the  album  in  2015,  she  performed  on  “CBS  This  Morning:  Saturday,”  garnering  the  program’s  highest  rated  viewership  since  2006.  Edmonson  also  shared  the  stage  of  CBS’s  Ed  Sullivan  Theater  later  that  year  with  nine~time  Grammy  award~winners  Ray  Benson  &  Asleep  at  the  Wheel  on  the  “Late  Show  with  David  Letterman”  during  the  program’s  final  weeks.The  Big  Picture  was  recorded  with  Grammy~nominated  producer  Mitchell  Froom  in  his  Los  Angeles  studio.  
•★•    Ray  Benson  &  Asleep  at  the  Wheel  on  the  “Late  Show  with  David  Letterman”  during  the  program’s  final  weeks.The  Big  Picture  was  recorded  with  Grammy~nominated  producer  Mitchell  Froom  in  his  Los  Angeles  studio.    The  album  followed  Edmonson’s  2012  release,  Way  Down  Low,  which  The  New  York  Times  hailed  as  “fresh  as  a  spring  bouquet” and  The  Boston  Globe’s  reviewer  called  “one  of  the  greatest  vocal  albums  I’ve  ever  heard.”  The  idea  to  make  Way  Down  Low  came  about  when  Edmonson  was  invited  by  the  METAlliance  (an  organization  of  today’s  leading  music  producers  and  engineers)  to  record  for  two  days  at  Avatar  Studios  with  legendary  industry  figures  Al  Schmitt  and  Phil  Ramone.    Following  their  session,  Kat  initiated  a  Kickstarter  campaign  that  raised  over  $50,000  through  her  fan~base  to  complete  the  record  at  Hollywood’s  Capitol  Studios.    Debuting  at  #1  on  the  Billboard  Heatseekers  Albums  Chart,  Way  Down  Low  features  a  duet  with  fellow~Texan  Lyle  Lovett  of  Kat’s  original  song,  “Long  Way  Home.”    The  album  was  featured  on  several  major  year~end  “Best  of  2012”  lists  including  Downbeat  Magazine,  WNYC  Soundcheck’s  “Best  Live  Performances”and  Daytrotter’s  “Best  Sessions  of  2012.”
•★•   Edmonson  was  featured  on  NPR  an  impressive  five  times  that  same  year  and  performed  on  an  episode  of  the  nationally  syndicated  television  show,  “Austin  City  Limits”.    Soon  after,  Kat  made  her  debut  on  the  silver  screen  in  the  movie,  Angels  Sing  (2013)  starring  Harry  Connick,  Jr,  and  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  Kat  was  a  featured  guest  on  “A  Prairie  Home  Companion.”  She  returned  to  “A  Prairie  Home  Companion”  in  November  2014,  reprising  the  character  Cat  Mandu  that  Garrison  Keillor  wrote  for  her  for  the  show’s  regular  skit,  “Guy  Noir,  Private  Eye.” Texas  native  Edmonson  grew  up  in  Houston  and  sang  in  the  local  club  scene  in  Austin  for  several  years  before  self~releasing  her  first  album,  Take  To  The  Sky,  in  2009.  A  musical  kinship  developed  from  performing  with  Lyle  Lovett  led  to  their  high~profile  duet  of  the  Christmas  classic  “Baby,  It’s  Cold  Outside,”  which  the  pair  recorded  on  his  album  Please  Release  Me  and  performed  together  in  2010  on “The  Tonight  Show  with  Jay  Leno.”
•★•   Along  with  her  own  headline  tours,  Edmonson  has  gone  on  the  road  in  support  of  Lovett,  as  well  as  Chris  Isaak,  Gary  Clark,  Jr.,  Jaime  Cullum,  and  Shawn  Colvin,andhas  opened  shows  for  such  luminaries  as  Smokey  Robinson,  George  Benson,  Michael  Kiwanuka,  Nick  Lowe,  and  Willie  Nelson.    Her  song,  “Lucky” has  been  featured  in  many  feature  films,  television  shows  and  commercials,  including  the  Coca~Cola  “Footprints”ad  from  the  2014  Winter  Olympics.    Edmonson  lives  in  Brooklyn,  New  York.
Website: http://katedmonson.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katedmonson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/katedmonsonmusic
Press:
Sacks & Co | Samantha Tillman |
Agent
North America:
Mike Epstein & Matt Morrell | Epstein & Co. | |
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Kat Edmonson Old Fashioned Gal

ALBUM COVERS XI.