Kate Freeman - Harp /
Hillary Kay - Voice & Guitar
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Influences
Howlin' Wolf, Charlie Patton, Big Momma Thornton, Lightnin' Hopkins, Little Walter, Robert Johnson, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Corey Harris, Guy Davis, Otis Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Mississippi John Hurt, Elizabeth Cotton, Laura Nyro, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Odetta, Son House, The Staple Singers, John Lee Hooker, Sly & the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Miles Davis, Rory Block, Bach, Coltrane, Bird, Chopin, Rimsky Korsakov, Marie Boine, Sonny Boy Williamson, Ulali, Ubaka Hill, Pura Fe, Ani Difranco, Eva Cassidy, Joan Baez, Joan Osborn, Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell, Carlos Nakai, Mary Watkins, Ferron, Linda Tillery, Richie Havens, Chaka Kahn, Kelly Joe Phelps, Steel Pulse, Paul Pena, Michael Hedges, Nat King Cole, Dina Washington, Miss Sarah Vaughn, Miss Betty Carter, Miss Nina Simone, Ms.Ella Fitzgerald, Ms.Billy Holiday, Ms.Aretha Franklin, Fugs, Holy Modal Rounders, Indigo Girls, Joe King Oliver, Jimmy Cliff, Sandy Bull, John Fahey, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Andre Segovia, Ulysses Kay, Aaron Copeland, Jorge Morel, Leonard Bernstein, Leonard Cohen, Ray Charles, Alive, Keb' Mo', Muddy Waters, Robert Belfour, R.L.Burnside, John Hammond jr, Keith Jarrett, Marvin Gaye, MJQ, Thelonius Monk, Cat Stevens, Neil Young, Edwina Lee Tyler, June Millington, Gil Scott Heron, Taj Mahal, Nawang Khechog, Big Mama Thornton, Little Walter.
*Independent Music Awards - "JOSIE" - 2005 Best Blues Song
*Pasatiempo's Best -"SKY DIRT SPEAK OUT TRUTH"-2003 Best New Mexico Album
*WILDSANG - "Strong voices giving good messages!" - Rhiannon
Currently based in California, award winning blues duo WILDSANG makes a ton of sound for two people.They are a trip back in time from the twenty first century to the early years of the blues, folk & murder ballads. Soaring harp. Crying slide guitar. Scorching vocals. Real emotion. This is the Real Deal. It is also an answer to the old time male blues singers. It is feminist blues. Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton would be proud.
A Berklee College of Music alumni, Hillary Kay's roots are buried deep in the black musical tradition. Joe "King" Oliver (and his Creole Jazz Band), who was one of the originators of jazz music & was Louis Armstrong's mentor, is Hillary's great uncle and classical composer Ulysses Kay is her father. From her Freedom Rider mother Barbara Kay, Hillary learned the Freedom Song Tradition of the Civil Rights Movement. Inspired by her love of the blues and the music of Howlin' Wolf, Charlie Patton, Big Momma Thornton, Robert Johnson and Son House, Hillary acquired a 1933 National Resonator and embarked on what has become a life journey into early blues.
Kate Freeman fell in love with the blues the moment she heard Lightnin' Hopkins and Big Momma Thornton in 1964. Next, she picked up a $2.00 Hohner Harmonica and never put it down. Shortly thereafter, the richness and spirit of the music from the Mississippi Delta and North Carolina's Piedmont Plateau got under Kate's skin and there began a lifetime love affair with the blues. A San Francisco native, Kate was surrounded by the musical greats of the Sixties. At any given time you could be jammin' or hangin' with The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin & Big Brother & The Holding Company, The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, or Moby Grape. You never knew who would be around the corner and music and magic were definitely alive and well. Kate dedicated her life to the blues over thirty-five years ago and this dedication has never wavered.
WILDSANG has shared the stage with and/or opened for - Taj Mahal, Ani DiFranco, Corey Harris, Gov't Mule, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Iris Dement, Eliza Gylkison, Sophie B. Hawkins, Chris Williamson, Hot Buttered Rum String Band, Buffy Saint Marie, Arlo Guthrie, Rick Danko of The Band, Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin, Tony Furtado & The American Gypsies, Henry Butler, John McEuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Judy Mowatt of the I-Threes (Bob Marley's back up singers), Toshi Reagan, Janis Ian and Pete Seeger, to name a few.
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You gals play the blues like everything a rabbit can do to a stump! I think this is still ILLEGAL in Alabama. I will check... I love me some murder ballads.
