Katrin is a strong musical personality that can forge the elements of ballads, rock and roll, singer-songwriter, and even progressive into her music . Her new CD Frail To Fearless is loaded with songs that will move you, delight you, and rock you. Each lovely sonic detail gets a boost from many of the Boston area’s finest musicians, and, each detail is brought to life with pristine clarity by producer Jerry Marotta.
“Home” opens the disc with its amicable guitar strumming and Katrin’s plaintive vocal call for her companion to open up to her. She sings this one likes she’s gliding fearlessly straight into emotional bad new. Her voice smoothly lists her number of anxieties with a brave push of feisty vocals. Her coos and the jittery percussion add a nice secondary level of engagement.
Katrin coos her way into “Enough” like a bird of prey swooping down at a fearless pace. She goes toe to toe with edgy guitars and an aggressive rhythm section and emerges as the dominant voice. She’s folkie, rock and roll, and dramatic, her personality being the hefty wedge that welds them all into one. She has no trouble pushing songs in any direction she wants to go in. You know she means business with each note she sustains and infuses with a distinct Katrinness.
“Far Away” is one of those mid tempo rockers, slowed down to let each player and Katrin emphasize the strength of the song. It’s the moments when Katrin emotes largely over bristling ensemble work that make her a larger than life musical presence.
“Breeze” feels like its title implies. Katrin finesses this one with her vocal strength infused into a gentle line. You can hear and feel all her voice has to offer. Silky smooth and rangy as hell, she draws out the cautious emotions she sings of.
“More” gets an edge from an electric guitar that scrapes sparks around the perimeter of the tune. Katrin puts her words across with a jumpy vocal that bursts through the sounds cape. She has a muscular spring in her voice that makes you feel her song is going somewhere, like an unstoppable force of natural. It’s just cool to listen to her belt.
Katrin, getting more mellow, coos her way into “Ivy” and then elevates the sound to a special place. The song is likely her next hit song on local radio and on national adult contemporary radio. It is irresistibly catchy when Katrin sings her “Do-do-do. Do-do-do” at the beginning and going into the chorus. Her voice is fulsome, breathing tremendous life into verse and chorus alike.
“Cobblestones” shows more of Katrin’s self-restraint, keeping the emotion simmering just below the surface of the song. Her chorus, aside from capturing the ear, packs an emotional punch and showcases how this singer is the architect and carpenter of a soaring landscape. She builds a mountainous arc in the tune and then she sings her way up and over it with confidence, skill, and true beauty. It’s impossible not to pause and consider the richness in her timbre, the power in her range.
“Dreams” has a soulful depth in its funked up guitar, organ, and rhythm section. Katrin, with her silky smooth vocal, moves around these notes like a dancer moving around stage. She just comes grooving along, slipping and sliding her voice in and out the space left open for her band and their smoky, jazzy inflections. You can hear Tony Levin (yes, that Tony Levin) apply the most tasteful bass notes in the city when he recorded his tracks for Katrin’s disc. He just pilots his glider-like bass notes around with the greatest of ease.
Katrin does her magic in a slower groove on “Blame,” a meditative piece focusing on the whys of war. She is quite effective when she builds this slower tempo up to an emotional release with greater dynamic belts.
The singer wisely selected Led Zeppelin’s “That’s The Way” to close out her disc. Now recognized as an essential album of British folk and singer-songwriter glory, Led Zeppelin’s third album has come into its own. Katrin makes “That’s The Way” her own with a slightly gentler feel than the original yet manages to capture the flow of forlorn emotion and realistic reflections on human interactions.
Along for the ride with Katrin are a who’s who of Boston’s most tasteful players, Scott Tarulli, John Harrington, and Alison Keslow, as well as others from New York and Canada, Daniel A. Weiss, Ross Rice, Bill Dillon, Mark Shulman, John Sebastian, Lawrence Gown, and Anjani Thomas.
Katrin has moved to an even higher level of artistic detail and inspiration than she did on her superb 2009 album Soul Wide Open. She will likely be one of New England’s most recognized singer-songwriters in the years to come.
Hi Bill! Thanks for being the first to review the new cd! I plan to use your article to further promote the release. My manager read it and suggested I write to you about fixing a couple minor spelling things if you want. Thank you again for such an awesome review!
The things are below
Best, KATRIN
“home paragraph” “bad news”
“toe to tow” in the “enough” paragraph
Last sentence in ” dreams” para…didn’t finish glider reference…I think?
separate “Boston based” from the others “Gowan and Ananji” for instance