Event
Natalie Lovejoy + Katy Vernon
$10 in advance
4:30pm doors/5pm showtime
All Ages
Natalie Lovejoy:
"One of my favorite quotes from a movie is from 'My Dinner With Andre,' where he says, 'I could always live in my art but never in my life,' and I've always held that near and dear to my heart," said Natalie Lovejoy. "This has been a huge lesson. In the last ten years, I've kept my art mostly to myself and I acted out in other ways. It was such a drive in me to make this album."
Lovejoy's third album, "Hiding In The Light," is the first recording from the St. Paul-based ambient singer/songwriter since 2003. Although she's played plenty of live shows at the Aster Café and other Twin Cities venues, much of the last decade-plus was spent writing songs in private, raising her two children, Veronica and Lucinda, going through a divorce, opening her hair salon/performance space, Soapbox Salon in St. Paul, and falling in and out of love.
"I'm really connected with my clients," said Lovejoy, who hopes her story a single mother and independent business owner and recording artist inspires others, especially women in similar situations. "The majority of my clients, I've been cutting their hair for 15 to 20 years, and I have amazing relationships, and I'm affected by their relationships as well. My clients and I are always communicating about life; very rarely do we talk about hair. I think that's why my music is so introspective, because that's what I do all day. In fact, one of the songs on this record was written about the end of one of my client's marriage."
The grist of all that experience can be heard in the deep grooves and dreamy melodies of "Hiding In The Light," a work driven by Lovejoy's huge heart, luxurious voice, and a batch of tunes that suggest Kate Bush holing up on a cold winter night with Lake Street Dive. And while Lovejoy's first two albums, "Wish I Could Fall" (2001) and "One False Move" (2003) are good introductions to the self-taught musician's vulnerable tunes, the new Andy Thompson-produced collection of songs is her most full-bodied work to date.
"Two babies close together kind of knocked me on my ass," said Lovejoy, whose effervescent personality gives way to a decided pensiveness on "Hiding In The Light." "Between that, working fulltime and trying to maintain a marriage, music got swept by the wayside. I didn't mean for it to be a full decade between albums, it just happened. But it was the slow and painful fade-out of my marriage that made me turn to music again. Writing and playing songs became my therapy and my salvation from an unhappy marriage."
Backed by the crack studio band of John Munson (bass), Alexander Young (drums), Dan Lawonn (cello), Josh Misner (violin/viola), Kevin Steinman (back-up vocals), Brian Tighe (guitar) and Thompson (everything else), "Hiding In The Light" was recorded at Thompson's Instrument Landing Studio in South Minneapolis. The Grammy-nominated Thompson (Dan Wilson, Taylor Swift, Jeremy Messersmith, Julia Douglass) proved to be as musically inspiring as was Lovejoy's sometimes painful real-life subject matter.
"Working with Andy was delightful," she said. "He just 'got' me; we spoke the same language. He could play exactly what I was thinking with almost no explanation on my part. I had complete trust in him. He helped me grow immensely as a vocalist, he challenged my playing, and he really got the feel behind each song. He was also unbelievably understanding.
"My marriage ended just as I began recording with Andy. The poor guy barely knew me and I showed up bawling in his studio a few weeks after we got started. I would start crying during recording and say that I needed to take a walk. He would just sit back and say, 'No problem, take your time, we're gonna get some really great raw emotion in these vocals today.'
"I had to stay in the moment. It was sort of a Zen experience. I had to turn my brain off from whatever was going on, or whatever attorney meeting or court date was happening, and sing my heart out."
You can hear as much all over the tracks, be it in the forlorn feelings behind "Goodbye," "Would You Be Happy?," "Fallen From Grace," "House of Coates," "Fool," and the title track. Then there's "Demolition Derby Queen," a radio-ready should-be hit that mixes broken hearts with car crashes and takes the whole lover-as-hot-mess oeuvre to another level.
It's been a long time in the making and gestating, but thanks to a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign that's attracted new fans as far away as Germany, Lovejoy and the rest of us now have "Hiding In The Light" as a soundtrack to our lives.
"I was blown away by the Kickstarter process; it was an amazing experience, because it put me on the map," she said. "I did so many personal updates on Kickstarter, that I think people got emotionally involved with the making of the record. Then my music, where I also put myself out there in not-so hidden ways I've been getting lots of emails from people who say how they can relate and that it's more than they expected, and thanking me for my honesty."
Katy Vernon:
Katy Vernon is a Minneapolis / St. Paul based singer songwriter. She grew up in London, England and has been writing and singing as long as she can remember. It's been the way she can get out some pretty serious personal notes about the loss of both her mother and father when she was a child.
Looking for a new way to find her voice led a singer of sad songs to a happy instrument. Katy always poured herself into her lyrics but sometimes found it difficult to share some of her most personal subject matter with an audience. Despite her inclination towards the melancholy, Katy has always been a natural entertainer. Seeking that balance of musicality and expression led her to the ukulele. Not as simply a novelty toy or even as the increasingly popular jam band instrument, this little Hawaiian guitar opened up Katy's songwriting and allowed her to take herself a little less seriously and in turn got her taking her music career a lot more seriously.
"After my mom passed away, it became a more serious outlet for me. Instead of journaling, I would write songs," Vernon said. "You either want to scream or you just want to sing."
She pours not only her grief, but also her dreams and desires into her songs and used that as a way to communicate and connect. "There's nothing much that beats that feeling of singing a personal song and seeing how it can translate to another person". This has taken many forms as Katy has grown as a writer, from people dealing with loss, to people with other challenges and struggles. Rather than shy away from that feeling of exposing her inner most feelings, she has worked in the past few years to explore that further. "I always felt a slight sense of over indulgence, or embarrassment to be that open, that miserable! In front of people, I think it's a very English thing to try to and pretend everything is fine, but that's just a part of who I am, and the kind of connection I want to have with the world. I wear my heart on my sleeve, take it or leave it!"
She eventually moved to the US after meeting her future American husband on a train from Amsterdam to Berlin. This was a chance to start over. A chance to choose family and happiness and re-invent her life. The very definition of an American dream!
She spent the first few years getting to know Minneapolis and playing with several bands. Most notably as lead singer of 'The Camdens' with another English transplant, Scott Walker. During this time Katy wrote many of the bands songs. One of those was nominated for 'Song of the year' at the Minnesota Music Awards.
In 2010 Katy picked up a ukulele and this led to a whole new direction for her writing and performing. This was a turning point after a lengthy break from performing while she started a family. It was also the beginning of her embrace of taking the central role in a band as more than a vocalist. Learning how to play a new instrument and performing solo re-charged her in every way.
Katy's heartfelt lyrics add a weight and poignancy to this happy little instrument. "I'm a singer of sad songs on a happy instrument,"
"As soon as I started to play around on it I started writing. The song "Five O'Clock" was the first one I wrote. After years of staring sadly in frustration at my guitar I realised I just needed to play a different instrument! Now I like to switch back and forth between guitar and uke and it helps give the songs a different feel from each other."
In 2012 Katy put together a band and released her debut solo cd 'Before I Forget'. This was both a tribute to her parents, but also an embrace of the new found joy of playing the ukulele. A follow up is scheduled for release Fall of 2015. Katy Vernon performs regularly at venues such as the Aster Cafe (Which sold out for her Third Annual Uke-Fest!), The Amsterdam Bar, 331 Club, Icehouse, and Lee's Liquor Lounge. She has also been featured at The Guthrie, The Cowles Center with the James Sewell Ballet, and even the Fitzgerald Theater with Garrison Keillor! Katy also enjoys playing outdoor shows and benefits.
"After all, you'd hate to be in the middle of a world-changing conversation, catch one of Katy Vernon's songs out of the corner of your ear, and find yourself standing there, leaving you wondering what the hell you were talking about a minute ago. " Dwight Hobbes, TC Daily Planet
|
|
 |
LocationIcehouse (View)
2528 Nicollet Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
United States
Categories
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
|
Contact
|