An In Depth Interview with Tracy K
Like everybody else, Tracy K has a full plate, busy schedule, and a great deal she wants to accomplish. Yet, she remains as cool as the blues that colour her world; laidback like the tranquil countryside that stirs her spirit. She approaches life – and making music – in a go-with-the-flow kind of way. And for those who find themselves caught up in today’s hurried world, you might hear her ask this question: what’s the rush??
If there’s something Tracy K has learned in 50+ years of living, and 30+ years of making music, it’s that things don’t always go as planned. Life happens. Kids happen. Marriage and divorce happens. Serious sickness happens – not once, but twice, in Tracy K’s case – that can really take a toll and set you back. Amid all this, fortunately, music continues to happen.
Fittingly, What’s the Rush? is the title of Tracy K’s brand new blues album, recorded at Winnipeg’s award-winning Bedside Studios, and being released in September 2016. Her fourth studio album contains eight tracks that truly reflect her depth of talent, uninhibited soulful passion, and appetite for storytelling. With vocals reminiscent of songstresses like Bonnie Raitt and Koko Taylor, Tracy K effortlessly delivers moodful melodies laced with that unmistakable bluesy groove.
What’s the Rush? pays homage to the genre that helped mold and shape Tracy K into the resilient woman she is today. Like most blues recordings you’ll hear smooth slide guitar riffs, haunting harmonica, toe-tapping percussion, and musical scales sensually strummed on acoustic. But listen closely, and you’ll also discover an honesty and authenticity in musicianship and lyricism that can be acquired only from a lifetime of living. Proving that for Tracy K, there is still a lot of life-after-life waiting to happen.
Tracy K possesses a fun and engaging energy that turns everyday gigs into compelling performances. She knows how to capture your attention, making you feel like you’re the only one in the room, and she’s there playing just for you. She began indelibly stamping her versatility on the Canadian music scene in the late 1980s in Toronto, when her outstanding vocal harmonizing skills lead to her being sought out for live and session work.
Apparently she wasn’t in a rush back then, either, because it took her until 2000 to finally release her own album, Welcome to My Fantasy. Becoming her own recording artist took her to blues, jazz and folk festivals, theatre concerts, tributes, and women-in-blues events, on a touring map spanning Canada, the United States, and as far south as the Caribbean. She was fortunate to hone her craft by sharing the stage with A-list international blues performers.
Unknown to locals at the inaugural Thunder Bay Blues Festival in 2002, Tracy K was an instant hit and invited back for an encore in 2003. She moved to Thunder Bay in 2004, where she became a positive force impacting the local music community. She created and hosted a weekly Sunday Night Blues Jam at the local Legion, and also performed as a member of tribute troupe Thunder Bay Legends, posing as Janis Joplin, Ronnie Spector, Bobby Gentry and Brenda Lee.
Tracy K’s recording career continued in 2007 with the release of a second album, the award-garnering Old, New, Borrowed & Blues in 2007, and then the five-star rated acoustic duo album Canned Heat in 2011. In 2014, she was the sole Canadian included on Ruf Records Blues Harp Women compilation album, and Mary4Music’s Keeping the Blues Alive: Volume Six. Twice she won regional competitions to represent Thunder Bay at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Tennessee, and was invited to return to Memphis in 2015 as one of the judges. She also worked at Memphis’ Ardent Studios, arranging harmonies on a song for a fellow bluesman.
Having already lived many different lives as a blues artist, Tracy K thrives on the thrill and challenge of reinventing herself. Now an empty-nester who recently returned home to Manitoba, today she still enjoys the support of top-notch players utilising her many talents.
Tracy K is often featured as a solo performer with her own impressive roster of supporting casts that includes the like of the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra. Among her personal reinventions is her own contemporary blues band, wherein she likes to kick it up notch with her trademark amplified harmonica, and test the limits of her vocal prowess. She also performs in an acoustic blues duo with partner Jamie “Snakeman” Steinhoff, whose mastery of acoustic, Dobro and lap steel guitar is derived from a well-informed history of early blues and folk.
When not performing, you might find Jamie and Tracy K selling ‘Snakeman’s Canned Heat Salsa’ and ‘Tracy K’s Stolen Apple Jelly’ alongside her CDs at farmer’s markets near their quiet country home in Beausejour, Manitoba. And, if you find yourself at the right market at the right time, you just might be lucky enough to hear them belt out a blues tune or two. Because, well, that’s just the way Tracy K rolls these days, same way she always has: going with the flow, seizing the moment, and living every incarnation of life to the fullest.
Yes, there’s still a lot of life-after-life waiting for Tracy K. And she’s still not in a rush to get there.
