Kate Price
Country of origin:
U.S.
Type of music generally:
A mix of ethereal traditional and Celtic-influenced folk with a world flavour
Status:
Most recent release, The Kitchen Table Archives (covers, 2015)
See also:
Kate Price's site
Comparisons:
Loreena McKennitt, Lydia McCauley
Covers/own material:
A mixture of own material, own arrangements of traditional songs, some covers, and own settings of poetry.
General comments:
Just listening to Kate Price again, and find she's becoming one of my favorite artists lately. She is often compared to Loreena McKennitt, and although they are distinct, she is very moving to me, just like Loreena McKennitt is. Kate (like Loreena) has an excellent violinist (she is fun to see live!). Kate plays hammered dulcimer, hummell, and voice for the most part, and has an excellent percussionist who plays all sorts of neat, authentic instruments, including the clay, headless drum called an oudu/udu (spellings for this neat little lap-drum abound.
She used to sing with Queen Mab, and I have *ONE* tape of that effort, the Unquiet Dreams cassette.(rholmes@cs.stanford.edu)She has two albums, and was billed as America's Enya and Loreena McKennitt. I'm not so sure about the Enya comparison, but she does sound a lot like Loreena McKennitt. (EEKadel@ucdavis.edu)
Quite wonderful. If you enjoy Loreena McKennitt, chances are you'll enjoy Kate. Her music I consider "Celtic-flavored", versus "Celtic-based". Altan is "Celtic-based", for example. One other artist she reminds me of is Happy Rhodes. I could honestly say that if you enjoy Happy (not too many here don't ;-)) you'll like Kate. Give it a try. (Matt.Bittner)
I see the Loreena McKennitt comparison, but I haven't heard the Happyness in Kate Price. Going negative again: I think the Loreena/Price similarities are superficial. Where Loreena McKennitt is dense and complex, Kate Price is, to my mind, thin and dull (bordering on insipid). A nice sparkly surface of sound, but no real depth to it. The old craftsmen-vs-artist argument: they both have the same skills and talents, but one lacks the art. One man's pissy opinion. (lissener@wwa.com)
Comments about live performance:
The concert was wonderful. It was the first time I've seen Kate, and it was just so incredible to see all that sound produced live. It was not the best mix, but that's understandable. (rholmes@cs.stanford.edu)
Recommended first album:
Well, Deep Heart's Core is what I'd recommend as an introduction. (rholmes@cs.stanford.edu)
Recordings:
- Hungry Moon (1984, cassette only, out of print)
- Dreams of Annwfn (1985, cassette only, out of print)
- Not Far From Here (1987, cassette only, out of print)
- Unquiet Dreams (1989, cassette only, out of print)
- Belaich An Dorain (1991, cassette only, out of print)
- The Time Between (1993)
- Deep Heart's Core (1995)
- Isle of Dreaming (2000)
The Time Between
Release info:
1993—Priceless Productions—PP402
Availability:
Hard to find, possibly out of print
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
Kate Price—hummell, vocals, keyboards, hammer dulcimer, piano, dumbek
Guest artists:
Brian Mann—keyboards, accordion
David West—guitar
Lorenzo Martinez—percussion
Charl Ann Gastineau—violin
Ed Rockett—bodhran, djembe
Lorin Grean—recorders
Produced by:
Priceless Productions with Bill Griffin
Comments:
This took a couple of listens, but I'm growing quite fond of it. At first it really bothered me that the "olden dances" verse was left off of "Stolen Child", but now I can even hang with *that*! The Time Between, was done during some personal troubles and is less uplifting than Deep Heart's Core—though I hardly was troubled, some more unbiased people mentioned that! I think it's primarily because people don't tend to talk about *REAL* things in their songs, life's manic and depressing moments, but that's another story...). (rholmes@cs.stanford.edu)
Deep Heart's Core
Release info:
1995—Access Music Label—AML-500 (also released on Emd/Virgin/Higher Octave)
Availability:
Widely available
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
Kate Price—hummell, vocals, hammer dulcimer, piano, djembe
Guest artists:
Teja Bell—bass, sitar, electric autoharp, classical guitar, synthesizer, fretless bass, 12 string guitar, keyboards
Ian Dogole—udu, dumbek, conga, kashishi
Charl Ann Gastineau—violin, viola
David West—steel string guitar
Doug Harman—cello
Ethan James—hurdy gurdy
Paul McCandless—wooden & penny whistles, oboe, English horn, selje flute
Dierdre McCarthy—tabla saidi, finger symbals, percussion, bodhran
Mark Jeffrey—percussion
Kim Atkinson—additional percussion
Patrick Swyney—cittern
Produced by:
Kate Price in association with Teja Bell
Comments:
I happened upon Kate Price's Deep Heart's Core. Now, I did not recognize the name really, but I seem to remember some mention of her here before. I brought up the first of the 3 selections, "Temple of the Wind" and knew within five seconds that I was buying this CD. (This one-song-purchase-decision happens occasionally, but I am frequently disillusioned with the work in its totality.) I then selected "The Labyrinth" and knew immediately that I would not have any regrets purchasing this CD. Kate has an incredibly haunting, effortlessly powerful voice that grabbed me fully. While not intending any comparison, I find myself thinking that some of this CD could easily be mistaken for Loreena McKennitt, but with subtle differences. I highly recommend it to anyone who appreciates Loreena's music. In addition, I should mention that in addition to piano, Kate performs several atypical instruments including hammer dulcimer, djembe and hummell. I fully intend to acquire her earlier CD as soon as I can find it. (Cloudbust@aol.com)SWOON! I love this! I love hammered dulcimer anyway...and yes, she *does* sound like Loreena McKennitt! Some Celtic stuff, some gypsy/Middle European stuff...all *good*! (fleur )
Pretty good. Granted, not Loreena McKennitt, but good—and different enough—to make me seek the next release. (Matt.Bittner)
Isle of Dreaming
Release info:
2000—Emd/Higher Octave—????
Availability:
Widely available
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Comments:
I just wanted to recommend The Isle of Dreaming highly. It is wonderful! It will definitely make my Top 10 for Y2K.
At any rate, Kate has a very lovely voice that is well-suited to the modern Celtic music that she performs. The music on her new recording has many world music elements interwoven within the framework of celtic music. It is reminiscent of the recent recordings of Loreena McKennitt. Those of you who enjoy the music of Loreena, Clannad and Louisa John-Krol will no doubt appreciate Kate's work. (wpm@value.net)
Further info:
Kate Price has done backing vocals on several of Kenny Loggins' albums.
Thanks to Marion Kippers for work on this entry.
