Kate Mann

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Kate Mann -02- Cowboys Are My Weakness

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Video courtesy of Tom Surber

“Ok. I don't know about you, but I have been to some over sold shows before, but nothing quite like this. The White Eagle is not exactly what you would call a huge venue. Trying to squeeze through the crowd to get to the stage or the bathroom was like trying to thread a garbage can through the eye of a needle. I actually had a well-to-do-40-something throw an elbow in my face for trying to get back out of the crowd and to the bar...seriously people, where's the love? None of this mattered though when Kate and the band took the stage. I had never seen a photo of her before heading out to the show, and once I saw her I have to say the sight of her matched up perfectly with the voice I had heard in her songs. When she looked out over the crowd I realized I was looking at the eyes of an artist that is very familiar with the road and cherishes it and caries that out in her music. Her voice came streaming out over the speakers, bright, eager, bourbon soaked. The kind of voice that belongs with this Roots/Americana music. A voice that belongs to the wilder history of this country. A genuine voice that begs you to listen, move your ass to the music and dream of the open road. In the course of the evening, Kate Mann and the Calamities played through her new album from beginning to end. Now that I am looking at my notes and thinking to myself, I think they even played them in order. Not something you normally get at a show like this. I have to say it was really great and has made the album just that much more amazing to listen to. Each song is like a photo in a scrapbook of one of the better shows I have seen in Portland in a great while. Through out the show, the band showed us that they can take the mood from fun, playful, energetic to mild, slow, thoughtful and dark and keep the crowd thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. When you get the chance to go see them play, make sure to keep an eye to the crowd. Everyone's eyes will be glued on the stage, swaying and tapping their feet to the music in that way that only Portland crowds are capable. That night, at the White Eagle, Kate and her crew had everyone's full attention. High points in the evening was their performances of Robert Johnson Knew and Bird In My House. The latter of the two in particular got the crowd going totally crazy. I suppose you have to expect a good reception to any song that includes a whistling solo or two. This song also gave me a whole new first at any show. The crowd was actually whistling along. It's quite something amazing to hear a crowd of people whistling in unison. Towards the end of the evening, Kate brought a contributing artist from her album who played the saw for the song You Can Have My Heart. Again, if you haven't heard a saw played as a musical instrument, there is yet another amongst the absolutely many reasons to go see Kate Mann in concert. Over all, this show was out of this world. It completely overshadowed it's surroundings for the evening and I can't recommend going and catching this act enough. Get out there. See them perform and let them know we sent you.”

Jake Carlsen
Live Music PDX

“It’s been a while since Portland-based desert gypsy rocker Kate Mann called New Mexico home, but the Land of Enchantment still swims in her blood. Her latest release remains intimate even as it fills to the brim with acoustic and electric guitar, fiddle, cello, accordion, piano, saw and harmonica. Mann’s sleepy-eyed acoustic ballads sit at one end of the bar, while cello-heavy movers and shakers beg for another shot at the other. Things Look Different is an album that gets its point across with forceful grace.”

Simon McCormack
Albuquerque Alibi

“Kate Mann's third solo album is full of the kind of rich, graceful folk that spreads warmth through your body like a big mug of hot chocolate on a chilly winter day. Mann's voice has a depth and soul that instantly grabs your attention, and it works especially well on slightly ominous numbers. Haunting and memorable, it's also irresistable.”

Barbara Mitchell
Portland Tribune

“Kate Mann's voice struts out of your speakers like a Southern belle dancing in the alleyways of a Nashville ghetto; her sway and cadence sashays over a decidely Red-Stated influence, making songs like "Robert Johnson Knew" hot, even in the cold Northwest. Mann's new album, "Things Look Different When the Sun Goes Down," splashes Pollock speckles of torn struggles, never musically relenting on the hunch that most days have their fair share of speedbumps. The songs do manage to remain hopeful, however, thanks to the power of Mann's poetic verses and the mystical bliss of deep cello on songs like "Needles and Pins," or with accordion on the Spanish-sung "La Llorona." So it seems the sun also rises on Kate Mann's horizon; thankfully we're there to see it..”

Ryan J. Prado
Portland Mercury

Fast Heart Mart, Kate Mann, Gunsafe
7/5/08 Burt’s

“...But it was the unknown-to-me until tonight Kate Mann who won my Best of Show. Turns out Portland citizen Mann is a ‘burque native who used to hang in this very club when it was the Fabulous Dingo Bar, mercifully minus the annoying Tiki crap. I don’t believe she ever graced the stage when it stood where the foosball table is now but I’m betting she spent lots of time in front of it, whiskey in hand.
A lonester onstage with an acoustic guitar rarely commands the attention of a boozy crowd but her riveting voice & strong delivery of tops lyric content grabbed me immediately. Sort of name dropping P.J. Harvey as an influence -- Polly’s Song -- I heard other references, intended or not. Mann’s strong vibrato reminds of Sam Phillips (the singer/song-writer, wife of T- Bone Burnett, not grumbly ol’ Sam Phillips of Sun Records fame) mixed with some Syd Straw from her landmark 1996 countrified disc War and Peace and a bit of the mostly unknown Eleanor McEvoy. The themes are the usual -- to quote Straw “Love and the lack of it” -- but the skilled presentation and compelling lyrics make it fresh rather than another undistinguished voice clamoring for attention in the overcrowded Americana field.
Mann’s latest release Devils Rope (on her own Orange Dress records, 2007) finds her joined by the rotating back-up outfit known as the Calamities but it’s to Kate’s credit that her voice, lyrics and tunes command attention full band or solo, as evidenced by her performance tonight and a few of Devil’s numbers reprised from her sparely accompanied November Songs disc (Speed of Light CDs and Vinyl, 2005).
I’ll be at her next Albuquerque show, of which she assured me there will be plenty more. So should you.
”

Captain America
Wig Wam Bam issue 84

“Kate's got a back tat that's the size of Oregon and a voice that's twice as big. Armed with a guitar and harp, she cranks out a chicken-wired wall of country rock that'll have your toes tappin' while you watch out for flying beer bottles.”

Jeffrey Morgan
Metrotimes - Detroit's Weekly Alternative

“Kate Mann is much more than a pretty face with an acoustic guitar. She is an artist in every sense of the word, and her music speaks volumes way beyond her years. The New Mexico native's style was shaped by her surroundings of endless skies and vast deserts, giving her a Southwestern disposition that is a little bit treacherous. Affected by such artists as PJ Harvey, Townes Van Zandt and Tom Waits, Mann possesses a gritty and somewhat jagged sound as she enlists unusual chord progressions to accompany her gruff vocals. While she writes with abstract metaphors that could be construed as idiosyncratic, her messages come across compellingly clear. Since her arrival to the West Coast a decade ago, Mann has become one of Portland's most recognizable talents, winning audiences throughout the entire Northwest. Mann's debut disc, November Songs, was released last year. This first outing was recorded live in the studio in a single weekend, and it shows - I mean that in a good way though. The disc captures Mann raw and exposed. The minimalism of each song is refreshing as she takes you on a dark journey to the corner of her soul.”

Tony Engelhart
Weekly Volcano

“Devil's Rope, (Kate Mann’s) second album, shows her confidence growing, her sound toughening, and her future brightening.”

Marty Hughley
The Oregonian A&E ..

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Kate Mann’s songs take you on a southwestern journey of the nighttime world with snapshots of love lost and dangerous encounters. Kate grew up at the foot of the Sandia mountains in New Mexico, and the texture of the desert subtly sculpts her music. A deeply resonant, unique vocal quality, atypical chord progressions, and compelling and intelligent lyrics combine to conjure comparisons as varied as PJ Harvey, Lucinda Williams, Tom Waits, and Nick Cave.

A former high school teacher, Kate had an awakening of sorts in 2005 and dedicated herself to music full time. She traded in her car for a van, fixed up her mother’s old 1963 Gibson acoustic, and started touring the Western United States. Her unique brand of moody Americana has been cultivating a loyal local fan base, and she is continuing the trend regionally. Her song “Cowboys are my Weakness” was recently selected as a finalist in the Americana category of the Independent Music Awards, and she received some national airplay for selections off her most recent album. Kate has also been winning fans in Europe, where her first album has gotten airplay and positive reviews.

On her third full length album, "Things Look Different When The Sun Goes Down", Kate delivers a world-weary, lived-through collection of late-night, cathartic musings regarding life, doubt, self-preservation, and the all-consuming power of love. One listen to the record will have you realizing Mann is a strong-willed, but heart-on-the-sleeve pursuer of life, one that doesn't observe, but jumps in, taking in everything as much as she can before pulling away to not get burned. With rootsy, folk-soaked melodies and a penchant for crafting downright melodic Americana, Mann delivers an album that lives up to its title, creating a personal, but universal record of the soothing, slumbering, haunting, and unsettling.

Member Since:

July 13, 2005

Members:

Kate Mann - vocals, guitar, banjo, whistling

Kate Mann and The Calamities - Dan Lowinger (guitar), Bernardo Gomez (upright bass), Philip Coombs (harmonica), or some combination of the above

Ashcan Orchid - Shawn Hawkins (vocals, saw, accordian, harmonica, guitar), Dan Lowinger (guitar), Mark Campbell (baritone sax, tenor sax, melodica), Noah Rector (upright bass), Nick Zorich (drums), Kate Mann (vocals, banjo, acoustic guitar)

Influences:

singing cowboys, heartache, eighties hair bands, old rock and roll, troubadors, bourbon, travellers, gentle souls...

Sounds Like:

People have made comparisons as varied as: Lucindia Williams, Michelle Shocked, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits, Gillian Welch, Marianne Faithfull, Neko Case...

Record Label:

Orange Dress Records - my own "label"