Katie Sawicki

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KATIE SAWICKI

FOLK CHANTUESE MIXES

RURAL & URBAN ELEMENTS

by Ernie Thomas

Katie Sawicki is a clear-voiced, singer/songwriter who blends strong musical elements of bluegrass with traditional folk crooning that often recalls the vocal sound of an early to mid-period Joni Mitchell.

Like Mitchell, a confessed influence on the rising young indie artist, Sawicki incorporates some subtle brass tones into certain selections of music, flavoring it at times with hints of jazz and blues.

“I write in two very different ways and styles,” she noted. “I have this very strong country style on some songs and a more contemporary folk sound on others. There's two sides to me.”

Sawicki noted that she has written all of the material she plans to record for her next album. “I don’t have a title for it or anything yet, but I’m planning to record it later this year,” she said.

The next batch of songs will be a bit more politically flavored. Sawicki has spent the last few years as a prison rights advocate, working with families of correctional facility inmates.

Sawicki’s most recent release, Black Boots, is her first ever full-length studio recording. It is a collection of self-composed, gender-bending songs that are vibrant, well performed and self-produced, but as a whole the album lacks a cohesive flow. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Sawicki has one of her black boots ankle deep in rural America, while the other is walking the dirty urban streets of her adoptive Big Apple.

“See, that's what I was talking about, Black Boots sounds like a collection of songs, rather than something planned out,” she said. “The next album will be more planned out along those kind of lines.”

Aside from a few obligatory EPs that were hustled at early coffeehouse shows from the side of the stage, Sawicki introduced herself to the world with an energetic 2002 live album, Scrapbook.

"I didn't have the budget to go into a recording studio at that time and I was comfortable performing live, so that just seemed the way to start out," she commented on beginning her career with a live concert recording.

This Connecticut native relocated to New York upon graduating high school in 1998, after having spent years singing in choirs and choruses. Her intent was to chase down a musical degree in college, only she soon found herself stifled by the intense curriculum that attaining such a degree required.

“I had already fallen in love with folk music, because of how simple it is in many ways. Folk also allows an artist a forum to say a lot of things,” she noted. “I got a late start I guess. I taught myself guitar and started writing songs about the time I was graduating high school.” Sawicki now also plays banjo.

Albums that Sawicki cited as having had an impact on her included Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks and Joni Mitchell’s Blue. “Those were the well known ones, but some underground artists have had a pretty profound impact on me as well, like Kris Delmhorst and Pamela Means," she said.

Oddly enough, moving to New York had a reverse affect on her sound. “I thought I’d have this harder edged, urban sound, and what I was writing had a progressively more countrified feel to it,” she laughed.

Sawicki admires self-made artists like Ani DiFranco and has modeled her own career in many ways after her. Sawicki has embraced the indie artist credo with vim and vigor –– self-composing, self-producing, self-booking and handling all necessary promotion and publicity chores inherent with being on the road and supporting a new album.

This year is sort of a baptism of fire for Sawicki, who is stepping up to full time musician status this July. "I don't want to work in a coffeehouse or tend bar or any of that again," she stressed. "I only really started hitting the tour scene hard and heavy for the first time starting this past January."

Now performing an average of 12-15 dates a month, Sawicki is downscaling to a more affordable apartment this July to make it easier for her to focus all of her efforts on things pertaining to her music and career.

Aside from her many intimate headline performances in clubs, pubs, coffeehouses and on college campuses –– Sawicki frequently takes part in collective singer/songwriter nights in many cities. She knows the value of networking and sharing audiences with other like-minded artists.

The artist's two shows this month in Chicago are just such events. Each artist does their own respective 60-minute set of music and sometimes they hook up for a song or two in various combinations.

Sawicki noted that no collaborative stage time was planned for this weekend to her knowledge, but added that she and Kate Peterson are fans of each other’s music and have been wanting to do a show together for a while.

More Information: www.katiesawicki.com

Katie Sawicki performs May 13 @ Uncommon Ground Coffeehouse

in Chicago and May 14 @ The Green Note in Chicago.

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