For SOTD No. 224 we move from Canada into the USA, the home of our next very good singer-songwriter, Kyle Carey. This lovely lady was born in Quinhagak, Alaska and is now based in New York. Todays song is the title track from her second album entitled North Star and features Dirk Powell on banjo, Ben Walker on guitar, Chris Stout on fiddle, Chico Huff on bass, and Pauline Scanlon & Eamon McElholm on harmony vocals. vocalsyoutu.be/uQhNuEWHYeI The ingredients of Kyle Careys music include the songs of the American Folk Anthology, influences of Irish, Scottish and Cape Breton traditional music, and the Appalachian poetry of Louise McNeill. It is best described by Jeremy Searle of R2 Magazine: “Finally released in Europe after and album launch in the US and Canada, the debut album from Alaska born and extensively traveled Kyle Carey is, quite simply, a delight. Drawing from both the American and British folk traditions, the songs, including some very fine originals, are beautifully crafted and performed. ‘Magical’ is the mot juste for this album. Assured, confident, charming and irresistible, it sticks to the CD player like glue, as does the finger to the Repeat button.” In the winter of 2011 Kyle traveled to Western Ireland to record her debut album, ‘Monongah’. Produced by Donogh Hennessy (Lùnasa), Monongah features Pauline Scanlon (Lumiere) and Aoife Clancy (Cherish the Ladies) on harmony vocals, Cape Breton fiddler Rosie MacKenzie (The Cottars), Brendan O’ Sullivan (Gràda), old-time fiddler Cleek Schrey, Appalachian expert John Kirk (Quickstep) on mandolin and banjo, and Trevor Hutchinson (The Waterboys, Lùnasa) on double bass. In the summer of 2011 eleven, Monongah shot to #8 on the Folk DJ Charts, placing Kyle one slot behind Alison Krauss. She followed the success of the album with a North Eastern tour alongside Cape Breton fiddler Rosie MacKenzie. Pre-album release tracks off the album were selected for airplay on Celtic Roots radio out of Belfast, and The Songwriter’s Networks radio station, and the album in its entirety named ‘Album of the Week’ mid-May by Celtic Music Radio out of Glasgow. Kyle has shared the stage with artists that include Mick Moloney, Brendan Begley, Gerry O Beirne, Caoimhin O’ Raghallaigh, and Maura OConnell. Her songs have been praised by Canadian singer-songwriter David Francey and Nashville artist Diana Jones. She has played North America’s most prestigious folk venue, Caffe Lena, and Ireland’s Pan-Celtic festival. Her title track was chosen in April 2011 as one of Songwriter’s Universe ‘Best Songs of the Month’ and in May her song ‘Adenine’ won first place in the Americana Category of the ‘Dallas Songwriter’s Association Song Contest’. By years end, Monongah had landed on a number of Best of 2011 lists, including The Celtic Show in Atlanta, Georgia,The Celtic Show in Alberta CA, Celtic Connections Radio Show in Carbondale IL, folk radio show The Waking Hour in Tampa, FL and number eight of Johnnys Garden Top 20 Releases of 2011, the Netherlands premier music blog. Monongah was also chosen as a Top Critics Pick of 2011 on World Music Central.org. Kyle spent her earliest years in the Alaskan Bush, where her parents were teachers and where she found herself immersed in the Yupik language and its songs. “I think I developed a sensitivity to language there,” she says, “that would help me later in my study of Gaelic language and song.” As a young woman, Kyle traveled to Cape Breton on a Fulbright Fellowship to study traditional Gaelic and Cape Breton fiddle styles. Once there, she struck up a friendship with fiddler Jerry Holland, and wrote songs. “The Star Above Rankin’s Point” is based on a short story by Cape Breton writer Alistair MacLeod. “Adenine” is an eerie song about a Rattlesnake Baptist preacher’s only son, a child sold to the circus to make ends meet. She recorded both tracks (and several others) at Lakewind Studios, whose clientele includes Natalie MacMaster and the Barra MacNeils. Then it was time to learn more about the language and culture that fostered the music of both Cape Breton and the Appalachians—actually, it was time to immerse herself in it. Kyle went to the Isle of Skye in Scotland, there deepening her study of Gaelic song and achieving fluency in the language. Under the tutelage of songstress Christine Primrose—a native of the Isle of Lewis, and one of Scotland’s respected traditional singers—she learned the secrets of pronunciation and tone that distinguish such singers in their delivery of a traditional Gaelic song. In her own songs, not just the language, but the longings of her ancestors echo through such modern American narratives as the impact of a mining disaster on the Monongahela River, or a Kentucky woman’s loss of innocence, or a Raleigh man’s grief for a lost and unlikely love—or what John Hardy’s wife has to say about her side of the marriage. kyleannecarey/
Posted on: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 01:10:12 +0000
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