FILM/TV/AD placement:
Danny Benair, Natural Energy Lab, nelab@earthlink.net
PUBLICITY:
Dawn Kamerling, The Press House, dawn@thepresshouse.com
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PRESS
k.s. Rhoads is one of those gems, glittering in the neglected Nashville pop scene. Dead Language, [his debut album] is an exhibition in style, grace and limitless possibilities. Rhoads is a brooding, tireless producer… with a soft side. He brings it with a rapturous stage performance. Audiences are wrapped around his finger and knocked on their asses at the same time. You’ve got to see him play for yourself.
- American Songwriter
...Imagine Rocca DeLuca produced and arranged by Jon Brion... a staggering amount and range of talent... a gifted and admirably broadminded songwriter.
- The Nashville Rage
k.s. Rhoads delivered one of Nashville's best performances of the year… he not only channels the social/political commentary, irony, and melancholy of Roger Waters, but also matches his songwriting and orchestration talents.
- listen! Nashville
k.s. Rhoads …revealing himself to be the most flexible performer on this night, tacking an endearingly awkward rap coda on to the end of his second song even as he strummed a slide guitar. What’s not to love when a dude will reference both his fellow players and Dr. Seuss? His playful, knowing shtick was hard to follow and lent a sure uptick in energy. Think Eminem does Nashville. Rhoads came across as a pavement busker in the best way.
- Stereo Subversion
k.s.Rhoads is one of the most respected musicians and artists in Nashville.
- Lightning 100 Radio, Nashville
k.s. Rhoads’ debut, Dead Language, is quiet and delicate at times, grandiose and elegant at others. It sounds honest without getting all confessional, impressive without stumbling into pretension.
- The Nashville Scene
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NEWS
FALL TOUR:
k.s. RHOADS + MIA CARRUTHERS + MTV, 10/6/09
Rhoads was just in Cincinatti recording the final touches on Mia Carruthers' new CD. MTV (for Nich Lachey's "Taking The Stage") filmed the session: 30 of Mia's classmates singing back-up vocals. Album releases in November.
k.s. RHOADS, ARTIST & MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR
TEN OUT OF TENN
Between tours, Rhoads has been in the studio producing an album for Mia Carruthers (Nich Lachey's MTV show "Taking the Stage") as well as a couple singles for Erin McCarley (Universal.)
k.s. RHOADS + ERIN McCARLEY, JULY '09
Music Director and keys for McCarley,
Rhoads hit the road with her, promoting her new release.
ANY DAY NOW, MAY '09
The performance documentary of the
Ten Out of Tenn Fall Tour 2008
Filmmaker, Jeff Wyatt Wilson did an amazing job capturing what it's like on the road with 10 artists in one bus. It's been getting great reviews since it premiered at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival (where it received honorable mention.)
The first time I met K.S. Rhoads was in Nashville, TN, at a hole in the wall coffee shop/exotic foods store. I had been listening to his album Dead Language on repeat for about 3 days, researching this enigmatic artist, for whom I was asked to write a short biography. I had also read some reviews and seen pictures of him online, so I already had a pre conceived notion of him in my mind. The timeless, dapper, vagabond poet. The self-taught maestro. The gentleman in the singular grey fedora, beaten, discolored and worn. His jacket, vest and tie, plaid pants, square jawline, and stunning blue eyes, all melding together to evoke a young man from an older era. So, I wasn't surprised when he pulled into the parking lot in a black & white 1966 Ford Galaxie, with red flames on the side, as beaten and beautiful as his grey hat.
Here arrived an artist whose music ranges from the epic and grandiose, to the intimate and singular. He is a singer, poet, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, and self-producer. His debut album, entitled Dead Language, could be likened to a career overture. It shows numerous sides to an artist, all of which will undoubtedly be expressed more attentively in albums to come.
A full listen to this record feels like a day of watching movies. Musically, there are elements of Russian classical music, Southern Americana, A Fellini-esque film score, hip-hop, and 60's folk. Lyrically it is more akin to reading F. Scott Fitzgerald or T.S. Eliot, than it is to listening to a pop songwriter. K.S. Rhoads has done a fine job of presenting himself as a composer/author, and less as a singer/songwriter. His music is a mixture of high art and folk storytelling. Intelligent, but relatable. The songs are technically brilliant and complex, but with a strong notion of intimate simplicity. He paints a fine juxtaposition of being the smartest one in the room, yet being the biggest fool of all.
The character I was now meeting was much different than whom I had imagined. Though at times he was the pensive and mysterious eccentric I had been expecting, I was pleasantly surprised by the extroverted and comedic enthusiast before me. Our conversation spanned entirely too many topics. He spoke like an actor, in and out of various characters. His train of thought ebbed and flowed, his wit and attention were little coffee-drenched monologues, a spitfire all too often steering the conversation away from his personal story and onto ideas and past or current events that would spontaneously pique his interest.
When I did entice him to divulge details about his personal life I learned these few things... That he was born in Tucson, AZ, and his father left the family when K.S. was but one month old. Alone with his mother and older brother, he moved all over the United States. He lived in Denver, Albuquerque, Lansing, Chapel Hill, Ft. Myers, and Ft.Worth.
In Denver, at age three, he wandered out of the house, climbed a hill at a construction site, and jumped up and down, declaring "I defeated you!" to the Evil King that lived in the Mountain. A policeman found him, and took him home. His first time in the back of a squad car. Age three. In Lansing, when he was six, he began tinkering on his mothers upright piano. A week later, he got lost and almost died in a snow drift; his brother found him and took him home.
They then traversed the country for four months in a van with a sink and a stove. They settled in Chapel Hill, NC. There, on the elementary school blacktop, he learned to beatbox and freestyle. He would ride his bike to UNC campus, sneak into the symphony hall through a window in the basement, and listen to the orchestra rehearse for hours.
He taught himself to play piano, guitar, bass, and various other instruments. His high school years were spent in Ft. Myers, FL, where he bought a 4 track recorder, and started making his own tape recordings. He studied theatre and religion, at college in Texas, then moved to Nashville, worked odd bartending jobs, recorded some songs in his living room, and was discovered by producers Robin Eaton and Lij Shaw, who then helped him transform those living room sessions into what is now Dead Language.
He is a young man with an old soul. Equal parts Leonard Cohen, and Beck. The marriage of a by-gone era and the MTV generation. An introspective writer, and an extroverted performer. There is juxtaposition in his music, in his personality, and in his life. When he has a full band his live show is epic. A string section offering intricate melodies and counterpoint harmonies, a tribal-like drum section of beats and rhythm, and a grand vocal presence, ranging from one delicate, quiet vocal, to an entire stage of powerful singers.
The improvisational aspect of the show is stunning. Rhoads is known for writing songs on the spot and guiding the other musicians through his ideas, like a captain. Moreover, he almost always ends the show with some sort of free-styling, harmonica wielding jam, which seems as cathartic and necessary for him, as it is entertaining and inspiring for the audience. When he does not have access to his full band he becomes a one man band by looping his beatbox, guitar, piano, and vocals, all live, and all by himself.
When not touring or writing, K.S. Rhoads is a producer, string-arranger, and a session musician, and also performs with other friends and artists, whom he says are "Brilliant, generous, emotional and important." He is currently working on his first novel, and his second album. He resides in Nashville, TN.
is an artist, poet, singer/songwriter, author, composer, and producer.
He is one of ten artists, and is the Music Director, for Ten Out Of Tenn, a critically acclaimed singer songwriter-artist collective out of Nashville, now on their 5th tour.
Ten out of Tenn is the subject of the documentary Any Day Now, which won 2nd place in it’s premiere at the 2009 Nashville Film Festival, received rave reviews, and is currently submitted to the Sundance Film Festival. Any Day Now is set for release in 2010.
K.S. has played over 200 dates in the past year, in venues from The Troubador (LA), to The Bowery Ballroom (NYC), to The Cobden Club (London). He’s shared the stage with Marc Broussard, Guster, Landon Pigg, Erin McCarley, Ari Hest, and others.
He is currently wrapping up production on the debut album from Mia Carruthers (Nich Lachey’s MTV show Taking The Stage.) This winter, he heads out on a holiday tour to promote the Ten out of Tenn album entitled Christmas, which he also produced. He has produced songs for Erin McCarley, The Sugardames, Sarah Donaldson, Josh Hoge, and others.
K.S. Rhoads has also become one of the premiere sting arrangers in Nashville. His singular style and employment of string and classical music in modern pop has been essential to his own sound, and to the sound of the burgeoning Nashville Indie music scene. He has arranged strings for Erin McCarley, Trent Dabbs, Jeremy Lister, Phillip Larue, Ashley Monroe and many more.
His much anticipated second record is currently underway, and will be released next year.
this is just a quick note to let you know that this is the last chance to get a physical copy of my first album "Pretty Boys and Ugly Girls".
I'm going to release my new album this fall (subscribe to my blog if you want to be informed!) and the first one will then be only available as a download version.
So if you prefer a proper CD - like I do! - a record you can really hold in your hands, with all the artwork and stuff - this is your chance! :-)
Grab your hard copy of "Pretty Boys and Ugly Girls" now on CD Baby while stocks last!
Dear Friends, this is just a quick note to let you know that this is the last chance to get a physical copy of my first album "Pretty Boys and Ugly Girls".
I'm going to release my new album this fall (subscribe to my blog if you want to be informed!) and the first one will then be only available as a download version.
So if you prefer a proper CD - like I do! - a record you can really hold in your hands, with all the artwork and stuff - this is your chance! :-)
excellent show last night at 12th & porter! you should be proud. can't wait to hear more new stuff from you, but remember... there are plenty of new fans out there who still haven't heard the old stuff. and it's still good. keep on keepin' on. :)
Online Now!
