IMN : Updates for Kaki King

Kaki King: A Guitar Wizard Conjures New Colors

IMN

October 12th, 2012

from NPR.ORG

Kaki King: A Guitar Wizard Conjures New Colors
by SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN

If you listen to NPR news shows, chances are good that you’ve already heard the music of Kaki King. Her rich, distinctive guitar playing is a favorite of the directors of our programs — certainly Morning Edition.

She gets her sound by playing the guitar in a unique and mesmerizing way. Rolling Stone has named her a “guitar god” and called her a “genre unto herself.” When she plays, King says, “there’s a lot of really strong flailing and strumming and beating.”

It’s a style she developed over years of practice: King is 33 and has been playing guitar since she was 4. In her early 20s, she started busking in the New York subway. Today, she tours worldwide, does soundtracks and has put out five albums. Her records have run the gamut from solo guitar to playing with a full band to singing. Her latest release is called Glow.

“I wanted to make a solo guitar record really badly again,” she says. “But I really didn’t hear that in my mind; I heard something more. So there’s a lot of color in this record, a lot of added sound.”

She teamed up with producer D. James Goodwin and went to a studio in Woodstock, N.Y., with solo guitar tracks that she’d already recorded. The two of them went after that colorful, added sound.

“We really spread it all out — we took all the instruments that we had at our disposal and just made them visibly present,” she says. “So there’s a Weissenborn guitar hanging out in that corner, and there’s a piano here. I brought all my shakers and percussion things, so it was all really ready to go.”

King says she was skeptical that she’d be able to get the sound she wanted without the guitar getting lost. But to her surprise, adding layers around the guitar often enhanced its presence.

“I’m really pleased with this record,” she says. “There’s a lot of magic and mystery in where your ear’s going to take you. It’s almost like exploring a house — you kind of peer into little bitty rooms. Your ear can just pick out all these little things, but it can also listen to it as a whole, and it’s beautiful.”

Hear Kaki’s interview on NPR’s Morning Edition here

Kaki King and new album featured at PasteMagazine.com

IMN

October 9th, 2012

“With its haunting melodies and eclectic mix of sounds, Kaki King’s sixth full-length album, Glow, is a solid entry in the guitarist’s varied discography.”
- TAYLOR EVANS, Paste Magazine

More at PasteMagazine.com:

Read their review of Glow here
An interview with Kaki here
Video premiere, the making of Glow here

Rolling Stone Daily Download - 'Great Round Burn' by Kaki King

IMN

September 13th, 2012

from rollingstone.com

Artist: Kaki King
Song: “Great Round Burn”
Album: Glow

“‘Great Round Burn’ was written in tribute to the sun which is the source of all life and much pain,” Kaki King tells Rolling Stone.

Download mp3 here

LIVE VIDEO: Kaki King with Jack Johnson

IMN

July 26th, 2011

From Youtube

Kaki King has recently been touring with Jack Johnson. On July 23, 2011 the two shared the stage in Italy at the Rock the Roma show for a great rendition of Breakdown.

LIVE VIDEO: Kaki King at Bimhuis

IMN

May 10th, 2011

Kaki King performed a great show on May 4th, 2011 at Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Check out the pictures and video below:

For all of Dennis Stempher’s great photos of the performance click here

Kaki King Traveling Guitar Freak Show To Stop in Brussels

IMN

May 3rd, 2011

from www.abconcerts.be

But it’s also a nimble-fingered and impassioned lady guitarist, who was also her virtuoso self two years ago in a sold-out club.

In the meantime there’s also a fifth CD: ‘Junior’, out here via V2 and again produced by Malcolm Burn (see too: Daniel Lanois, Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris…). This time Kaki King really will come to shine solo, on (fabulous) vocals and guitar. Though the latter could be either a ‘harp guitar’ or a ’7 string fanned fret nylon’ or a ‘hi-tuned 12 string’ or her favourite ‘Ovation’.

To read the full article and watch video click here

INTERVIEW The Secret Life of Kaki King

IMN

November 16th, 2010

Kaki King, known for her eclectic array of musical techniques and percussive melodies, has strayed somewhat from the path on her latest effort, Junior. It’s an album laden with radio-friendly pop songs that still manages to stay true to her roots, throwing in the odd jazzier, instrumental tune.

Recorded in Kingston, New York, King once again sought out producer Malcolm Burn (Patti Smith, Emmylou Harris), who worked with her on 2008’s Dreaming of Revenge. In contrast to her album’s predecessors where King would write and play the instruments herself, her latest oeuvre Junior relies more heavily on the collaboration and musicianship of multi-instrumentalist Dan Brantigan and drummer Jordan Perlson.

To read the full article click here

Kaki King "The New Green"

IMN

October 26th, 2010

from xpressmag.com

New York guitarist extra-ordinaire Katherine King, aka Kaki King, is back in town next month, playing at Fly By Night in Fremantle on Sunday, November 21. She speaks with JOSHUA HAYES.

The diminutive guitarist has a big reputation, having been named one of the New Guitar Gods by Rolling Stone magazine, working with artists as diverse as indie rock darlings The Mountain Goats, super producer Timbaland and playing on the Twilight soundtrack.
She has also shown an affinity for Australia, visiting our shores regularly (most recently in December 2009), starting a side project, Daysleeper, in Sydney and guesting on the Foo Fighter’s Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners in 2006. Her upcoming tour is to promote her latest album Junior, released earlier this year.

The album was a step in a new direction for King, working with a live band in the studio for the first time. The band, made up of King, drummer Jordan Perlman and multi instrumentalist Dan Brantigan, recorded Junior in a matter of days in November last year.

To read the rest of the article click here