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As
a female singer/songwriter in New York City, Melineh Kurdian
faces the obvious challenge of how to get noticed among the crowd.
For me, there's only one way to do it, which is to play out live,
and do it so well that I put down my glass of PG and take notice.
And that's just what this Kansas export of Armenian descent managed
when I saw her recently, upstairs at Piano's.
Like
many solo artists, Melineh sometimes extends her sound with a
backing band, a combo that's featured on her debut album From
Where You Are, released this summer. It's a collection of
tunes that crosses styles from the funky "Icarus Kiss"
to the Ani-ness of "Goddamn 'n Just Do" and the more
mainstream slow-dance pop vibe of "Santa Maria."
Melineh's
honest lyrics provide the common denominator to the songs, drawing
on her own experiences of growing up, love and coming out. Featured
recently in GO NYC as one of "12 Out Artists on the
Rise," Melineh says: "Rejection's a scary thing, but
I'm not going to let my fear of it stop me from expressing myself
truthfully through my music." Which is something she does
beautifully. Check her out at www.melinehkurdian.com.
~~~~~
 Getting
noticed isn't a problem for Kate Fenner. Sure, she's tall
and pretty and all those things that boys love, but it's when
she begins to sing that the she grabs the attention of an audience,
and captivates them with a voice that words like "distinctive"
and "unique" were created for. That was my experience
when I first heard her perform at the Mercury Lounge back in 2001.
Since then, I've barely missed an opportunity to see her live
— I've even been known to get on planes to go do it!
Kate
has been singing since her teens, when she fell in with her childhood
sweetheart Chris Brown and formed The Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
- a sprawling rock/R&B/funk band that rose to something of
a legendary status in her native Canada. The band toured continuously
for 10 years, put out some albums, got signed to Sony, moved to
NYC ... and promptly split up.
Staying
on in the Big Apple, Kate and Chris as a duo began to work on
new material, often drawing on social and political themes, as
exemplified in their latest offering, an e.p. titled GO ON.
As a side project, Kate released her debut solo CD Horses and
Burning Cars in 2003, with lyrics reflecting the parallel
heartbreak of a failed love affair and dealing with it in a post
9/11 world in NYC. More recently, she's applied her diva-esque
voice to some standards, which she's posted to her web site for
download.
Buy
Horses and Burning Cars
in the WOMANROCK MusicShop!
Now
almost a fixture at the Living Room, Kate's lately been persuaded
to take a more center stage in the band that she and Chris regularly
play with and is about to embark on a series of dates with them,
opening for B.B King. Lucky guy. Find out just how lucky at www.katefenner.com.
~~~~~
 It's
also pretty hard to miss Lourds when she's performing.
Be it her theatrical doll-like styling, belting rock tunes or
multi-dimensional musicianship, she's one to get fans fired up
into a frenzy. That was my memory from a while back seeing her
play out at the Continental and Meow Mix, and she proved to be
just as memorable when I caught her recently at the re-emerging
Kenny's Castaways in the village.
Still
playing her trademark electric violin with out-and-out passion
(I once saw her break one in half by playing it too hard), at
Kenny's she was embracing electric guitar for more songs, though
still delighting the audience with the violin-bow twirling as
she sang. She also plays electric mandolin and piano at some shows.
A
native New Yorker who first played violin on stage at Carnegie
Hall when she was just six (!), she now plays both electric and
acoustic sets around the city and beyond — recently opening
before thousands for The Roots in Syracruse. She's also put some
tracks down on her full length Limited Edition Basement Tapes
and Bootleg albums, as well as selling more than 17,000
of her earlier demos. Learn more about Lourds at www.lourdsmusic.com.
Photograph of Kate Fenner courtesy of www.mebeeb.com.
Check
out these Scene and Heard artists: Ana
Egge, Butterfly
Boucher, Crescent
and Frost, Dana
Fuchs, Dawn Kinnard,
Julia Darling, Kristin
Sweetland, Ladybug,
Laura Thomas, Mahogany,
Martha Redbone,
Megan Slankard,
Mimi Ferocious,
Mudville, Nefertiti
Jones, Nikki &
Dara, Nomoredolls,
Oh Susanna, Po'
Girl, Sarah Harmer,
Sirsy, The
Kennedys, Valeze,
Vienna Teng.
Pete
Harris founded Harris Radio as a response to the music being played
on corporate-controlled mainstream radio. He is also a partner
in WOMANROCK. Check out Scene and Heard artists on www.harrisradio.com.
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1999-2004. WOMANROCK.com. All Rights Reserved.
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