Today – so much about the music world is BIG – the productions, venues, effects & performances. I have always like a small, intimate style of music and performance – you know – personal. This is why I am devoted to the one-voice-plus-one-guitar format of the folk troubadour.
Audiences really respond to this scale of connection and music.
AND I CAN CREATE A LOT OUT OF A LITTLE. – karin blaine
Blaine on Blaine:
In 1964 I started playing guitar. I was twelve and the Folk Revival of the mid-’60’s was raging. There was a huge amount of music in my home and a whole lot of singing. Officially, my sisters and I were studying classical music, piano, violin and cello. But the living room record player was always spinning a diverse mix of sounds – folk, blues, musicals, pop. Bessie Smith sang ‘Moan Ye Moaners’ , Big Bill Broonzy crooned ‘Trouble in Mind’, and Buffy St. Marie’s distinctive vibrato resonated on her remarkable original compositions such as ‘Now That the Buffalo’s Gone’, ‘Winter Boy‘ and ‘Universal Soldier‘.
There was a lot of singing in my childhood home. Everyone sang. Everywhere. Anytime. Music was a second language.
When my Aunt Dot taught me how to play my first song, ‘Tell Bill‘, my life changed forever. I discovered that a voice and a guitar could combine to tell every story known to mankind with feeling, power, drama and beauty. After I mastered ‘Tell Bill’ I learned every song that I could off of records, locked in my bedroom, figuring out the chord forms and sequences, playing them over and over and over again until I had them down. The possibilities were endless and I was fascinated.
It wasn’t until the early 80’s that I thought to write my own tunes. I had immediate success when two early songs, ‘I Wasn’t Looking’ and ‘Santa Rosa’, were included on two album projects produced by KEZX FM radio in Seattle in 1983 & 1986.
In 1989 I released my first cassette-album, as we called them back then. Karin Blaine was well-received and I was nominated for Best New Folk Artist by the NW Musicians Association. I subsequently was selected as a finalist in the famous Kerrville Folk Festival national ‘New Folk Songwriting Contest’ in 1991.
I released my CD, Dirty Money, in 2003, Modern Day Living in 2012, singles, The Decision is Mine and I Love Julian. I should have more albums out there but to be honest I am not a big fan of recording. I am too in love with the ephemeral nature of live performance. The recording studio is a chore for me.
To this day songwriting remains a great adventure. The magic of the process is such that I never know where I am going to end up. but I always start with the music – a chord sequence that captures my heart and imagination.
And – of course – I love the stage.
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