Katie Knipp

Me

Independent

Katie was ten years old when she played clarinet in her elementary school band. With a friend she began to sing as she developed her sense of musical comradery. Seeds were planted at the time and during the next year she joined the choir and realized that singing was fun. At the age of thirteen her parents paid for her private voice lessons and she begin to dream of being a well known singer someday. Thoughts about boys consumed her and she experienced her first broken heart. At the age of sixteen she began to play piano. She listened to Bonnie Raitt and appreciated that her music was rooted in blues. After experiencing a severe accident she helped a younger boy who needed holding. Soon after she began to write poetry and started what would be her songwriting career. She attended the University of California and experienced a school shooting, she was traumatized. A few months later, The Columbine school massacre occurred and she realized we live in a dark place. While finishing her degree she was headstrong on “making it” in the music industry. She signed a preliminary contract but the venture did not pan out. She played coffee houses as a solo act, and eventually started her own band. She recorded some songs with a friend who died of Cystic Fibrosis and the friends spirit stayed with her.

She finally moved out of her parents house and moved to Mill Valley. She found a manager who embraced her individuality and she opend up for the Doobie Brothers. She recorded her first two albums “Violent in Here” and “Take Her Down”. She reunited with her grade school sweetheart and worked at a bank. When she quit her job she got certified to teach piano. She recorded “Midnight Mind” and a few years later an EP called “Nice To Meet You”. She opened for Tim Reynolds, Robert Cray, Joan Osborne, Ruthie Foster, Jimmie Vaughan and others. She got pregnant and had her first of two boys, Tommy and later James.When she recorded “Take it With You” in 2018, the landed at #10 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. Katie released a live album in 2022 and it hit #9 on Billboard. She studied New Orleans blues styles, and learned that music, like God, is infinite, there is always more to learn and more joy to be had.

“Me” was released on June 6th, 2024 and it reached #5 on the Billboard chart. All of the songs were written by Katie who also plays piano, the Wurlitzer organ, and electric guitar. Her bandmates include Chris Martinez, guitar; Steve Utstein, Hammond organ; either Pancho Tomaselli or Jen Rund, bass; Neil Campisano, drums; and the horn section of Justin Au, trumpet and horn arrangements; and Brandon Au, trombone. Danny Sandoval also pays tenor and baritone sax on two songs.

The lead off track is “Mud”, as Katie sings “Surrounded by garbage, perched on a stool, I’ll try to write songs that aren’t about you, the birds are extra loud, the sky is really blue, well that’s enough creating for now, it’s time to text in on you again…”, the music seems like poetry.  “Outlaw” opens with some slide guitar as Katie chants “Gonna get hung at 9 am, I can’t say I am innocent, didn’t expect the woman’s blood to spill, now I’m gonna get buried on the hill, being a doctor didn’t pay, except when it helped my prison escape, me and Bill Gristy learned some stuff, like stagecoach theft to get gold bullion…born in Rome, Tennessee, I was gonna make somethin’ special of me”.

On “Vampire” Katie screams “You’re lovely, tell me all your pain, bite my lip, while I kiss you in the rain…The Madness is so seductive, this vampire on a stage”. “Time and Space”, Doesn’t matter what they say, doesn’t matter this place, doesn’t matter the lives we’re living, time and space…I’ll love you through time and space”. “Go” starts “I know you’re just trying to get laid, but could you, not do this crap in front of me, like spill that beer over your crooked excited feet as you bring her another drink”. “I Want To Tell You” as Katie belts “Lately I’ve, been meaning to call, got your number, pinned to my wall, I wanna tell you that I love you before I die, cause if I don’t tell you that I love you, then life’s a lie”.

“The Devil’s Armchair”, “When you sink, into the Devil’s armchair, soft woven fibers deceive, when you sink into the devil’s armchair, tightly sewn threads enclose mouths hungry to feed…you think you are at peace, falling back in his embrace…moment of bliss, another empty kiss, another empty kiss, another empty kiss”. On “Dirty Cables” Katie chimes, “I saw my phone light up on the side of the stage, still got an hour left to play, on this cold Wednesday night, at this no name bar, sing my thoughts, take the money, call her back in the morning…did those two drunks remember anything I played…”. “Lava Pot”, “You’re my lava pot, bubbling over, streaming around, swirling round my feet, bringing me to my knees, and I know I’m over my head”. The closer “Stillness”, “There’s a stillness in the air, right now, a silence, in the heavy air right now, I feel it all, yet nothing, I see the fire and the hating, a stillness in the air, right now,,,you say you love, others but not them, only those like your brothers, but not them, the racism and the fear, the neglect is so clear, stillness, in the air right now, you better run”.

This album can best be summed up by Walter Trout. His quote is significant because as blues lovers we beared witness as his own songwriting grew from the often mundane to the eloquently profound. Trout states “I haven’t been this moved by anything in a long time. It just knocked me out. I have listened to the whole thing and it is just remarkable, incredibly moving and beautiful. This is some of the most creative and beautiful song writing. Original, unique, inspired and visionary”. I share his thoughts.

Richard Ludmerer
Contributing Editor/Making A Scene

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