Tori Amos, Sandy Denny, Bjork, Kate Bush, Sheila Chandra, States Of Amnesia, Martha Tilston, Ani Difranco, Eva Cassidy, Nick Drake, Regina Specter, Donavon, My home Town and life experiences, 16thC poets, John Dowland, Sting, Immogen Heap,
Sarah Curtis has been described as having an amazing voice with a quality rarely heard. The influence of artists like Tori Amos, All About Eve, Ani Difranco and Bjork can be detected in the way her songs are crafted with an interweaving of melodies and her unique vocal style.
Sarah was born in Bristol in 1978 and currently lives in Somerset. She spent her early childhood singing, and made her performance debut at the age of eight. That year she was also given a Casio keyboard and quickly started picking out tunes by ear, finding it easy to memorise them. She started formal piano lessons and wrote her first song Remember at the age of twelve. Sarah's strong and distinctive voice was much enhanced by a classical voice training she received from 13 to 18.
Between the ages of 17 and 19 she studied Performing Arts at Strode College, where she often took lead singing roles in end of term productions. During this period she was co-writing songs with a local guitarist Dan Sparks, who bought her first guitar for her 18th birthday. They performed their songs together at Strode College and at Glastonbury Festival in 1997. He helped her with her first CD Clear in 1999.
In 1998 she performed solo at the Chard Festival of Women in Music, accompanying herself on guitar an piano and singing entirely her own material. By this time she was becoming well known on the festival circuit, at such events as Gaunts House Gathering and Blissfields Festival. In 2001 when she attended a week's intensive music makers' course in Bournemouth, Sarah found herself in great demand as a collaborator, contributing as an arranger and singer on many of the other participants' tracks.
In 2003 Sarah formed a band called 'Delphin' with vocals, guitar, and keyboards. They played at the Buddahfields Festival and the Big Green Gathering, along with gigs on the local pub circuit.
After the Delphin project, Sarah was asked to team up with established musicians Pete Milne and Dan James to form the band 'Savernake' (www.savernakemusic.com) In the two years spent working with them (2004-06) they recorded a six track CD, which were sold at performances at Ely Festival,Priddy Folk Fayre, Wells Cathedral, and not to mention the QEH London.
In 2007 Sarah worked alongside Stephen Parsons (www.statesofamnesia.com) as a-co songwriter.Together they produced a four track EP, entitled 'Thieves Of Beauty' of which it is possible to hear some of at myspace.com/thievesofbeauty. A few copies were sold at gigs, but again the project as a whole never took flight.
Seemingly destined for a solo carear, Sarah is currently working on new material and has plans to record and keep performing.
"Sarah Curtis's songs are absolutely beautiful"
-Beth Orton
"The young Sarah Curtis sang thoughtful self-penned songs full of emotion with her unique contempory voice"
-Fosseway Magazine, May 2004
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hello honey thank you for being part of the weekend and bringing along your marvellous mystery guests too ;) Pete looked so at home or shall we say 'installed' snuggled up on the sofa at 10.30 am ish Sunday morning that I was thinking of leaving him there as an art installation ;) I don't think he would have minded (!!) do you?! Please come and play Lucy's piano again soon (I'm going to have her tuned this month) everyone was really taken with your voice & piano, seems so natural for you to pair the two. Sunday was precious too all the 'boys' poddled home to roost (Pete, Jo, Jet, Andi, Philip, Dan) 4.30 ish and jammed as the last visitors drifted in and out, but most staying to listen. So Long Marianne was an unexpected treat! Hey, we'll do it again before the summer is out or something similar. Good luck Sarah with everything, fingers crossed xxxx (kisses & fingers crossed) nik xx
thank you. you like them? i was going through a time of having laryngitis when i wrote those so it was the first time i'd written lyrics without singing them at the same time if that makes sense!