Hudson K

Hudson K’s previous release and much-revered live performances have earned frontwoman Christina Horn and her towering yet delicate vocals comparisons to modern artists such as Bat for Lashes as well as songstresses such as Tori Amos. But on its first full album, Shine, the group—Horn, Jeff Christmas, and Nate Barrett—finally manages to clearly showcase the entire band’s sophisticated compositions and performing chops, as opposed to just highlighting Horn’s songwriting and impressive vocal range. Shine opens with “Fade,” which quickly establishes the album’s generally upbeat and full-bodied tone with an explosion of synthesizers and Horn’s trademark piano stylings. If Shine is any sign of what Hudson K has in store for its fans, it is almost certain that there are many more surprises to come—not only from Horn, but from the group as a whole. (Carey Hodges)
- Metropulse, Knoxville, TN

This week’s featured album is by an artist that I have talking with via e-mail over the past few weeks, and I have really grown to enjoy her music. “Shine” by Hudson K is an album with an overall pop vibe, but draws from so many different elements and styles that you are repeatedly lead astray from that immediate notion. And it’s pretty damn sweet.
Over the course of the entire album, Christina Horn, the lead vocalist behind Hudson K, continually sings haunting (yet extremely pleasing) melodies and occasionally pounds the crap out of her piano, revealing that raw emotion that is rarely seen nowadays.
My favorite track off the album has definitely got to be the title track, “Shine.” There is so many interesting styles, melodies and rhythms going on simutaneously, and they blend awesomely together. I love the short breakdown part in the middle of the track, which leads into a powerful chorus, then comes crashing back down into the quiet and erie verse. Great stuff!
- TighMIXBlog

This week’s featured album is by an artist that I have talking with via e-mail over the past few weeks, and I have really grown to enjoy her music. “Shine” by Hudson K is an album with an overall pop vibe, but draws from so many different elements and styles that you are repeatedly lead astray from that immediate notion. And it’s pretty damn sweet.
Over the course of the entire album, Christina Horn, the lead vocalist behind Hudson K, continually sings haunting (yet extremely pleasing) melodies and occasionally pounds the crap out of her piano, revealing that raw emotion that is rarely seen nowadays.
My favorite track off the album has definitely got to be the title track, “Shine.” There is so many interesting styles, melodies and rhythms going on simutaneously, and they blend awesomely together. I love the short breakdown part in the middle of the track, which leads into a powerful chorus, then comes crashing back down into the quiet and erie verse. Great stuff!
- TighMIXBlog

The opening bars of Safety Line 's title track unfurl like a handful of piano keys tossed from an upper-story window, the crash of disjointed chords followed by a spiraling melodic descent. Christina Horn's haunting voice trails closely behind, at times defying gravity, at times pooling at the bottom of itself. As a classically trained pianist, the local musician's dedication to technique is evident, but there's a transcendence of academia at work here as well—maybe a realization that classical music, so often considered an end in and of itself, can also function as a beginning.

With the assistance of Laura Bost on velvety backup vocals and Nathan Barrett on crisp percussion, Safety Line pushes past Horn's mastery of technique into the realm of intuition. The songs are as organic as they are works of musical architecture, calculated and preordained. If Horn's voice comprises the frame, her fingers lay the bricks that fill in the gaps in between, leaving just enough airspace for the compositions to breathe and expand. They say the eyes are the window of the soul; for Hudson K, it's the music.

Hear Hudson K live at its CD release party on Friday, July 27, 9 p.m. at the World Grotto. For a preview, the band is slated to play the WDVX Blue Plate Special on Thursday, July 19, at noon. The band's got one more Knoxville show on the books for Friday, Aug. 3, 8 p.m., at The Basement Gallery.
— Leslie Wylie - Metro Pulse-Knoxville's Weekly Voice

Think of it as the photo album to the wedding that never was.

It’s a sonic collage of emotion, a collection of emotional snapshots that capture some of the most heartfelt moments in the young life of local singer-songwriter Christina Horn. Tonight, Horn and her bandmates in Hudson K will celebrate those songs — gathered together on the new CD “Safety Line” — with a show at World Grotto in downtown Knoxville.

It’s moody, atmospheric and tinged with melancholy, but “Safety Line” also represents a turning point because it captures a woman on the verge of seizing her destiny and forging a new path for her life.

“I’m really happy with ‘Safety Line,’ because it’s honestly where I was emotionally and musically at the time I recorded it,” Horn told The Daily Times this week. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to reproduce that same vibe again. The whole premise of the album was in making a huge life change. I was about to get married and settle down, and instead I broke off the engagement, sold the house, moved and decided to pursue music instead of teaching full-time.

“Really, all of the songs on it were as a direct result of me making those decisions. He and I had two different visions of what we wanted out of life, and I felt like I had been lying to myself throughout that whole time. I was not really doing what I wanted to do. I wasn’t following my heart, and so I blamed it on my situation and my relationship until I realized it was always in my hands to make that change and take that jump.”

Repeated listenings to “Safety Line” are proof that it was a successful leap. Horn has come far from the days as an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, where she obtained a degree in solo piano repertoire and immersed herself in a background of classical music. Funny thing is, she said, the impetus to pursue such a degree came from a childhood love of pop and rock.

“I studied classical as just a means to play the piano well enough to do something with it,” she said. “Classical music was not my original intent; I just got sidelined. But then I realized that was all I was doing — I hadn’t forgotten what I originally intended to do; I just hadn’t made the time to do it.”

In 2005, Horn began experimenting with songwriting and attempted to incorporate her original material into her particular style of playing. She drew on her childhood inspirations — radio-friendly pop-rock she listened to as a kid; her parents’ music; and songs that spoke to her on an emotional level.

“It’s not always the piano players who influence me the most; it’s people like (singer-songwriter) Jeff Buckley who have had a tremendous impact on me emotionally,” she said. “I have to say that I played the trumpet first, but that was somewhat limiting, because I couldn’t sing and play at the same time. That was my initial interest in the piano, to get away from that and into something that had the ability to play more parts.”

Initial exposure to Hudson K calls to mind piano-playing singer-songwriter Tori Amos, who’s definitely an influence, Horn said, but not the only performer from whose style she draws. P.J. Harvey is another female performer she cites as having influenced her heavily over the years, as well as Chan Marshall, also known as the singer-songwriter Cat Power.

Shortly after moving away from strictly classical, Horn joined her Hudson K bandmate Nate Barrett in Telescope, a roots-rock/experimental pop outfit fronted by singer-songwriter Matt Urmy. After Urmy left the band to pursue other interests, Horn and Barrett attempted to keep the band going but ended up moving in a different direction altogether.

“I started writing seriously, and I decided I wanted to record solo piano and voice,” Horn said. “Laura (Bost) was the production engineer for my record, and she started adding harmonies on some of the backup tracks, and I thought it sounded perfect. I asked her to join the band, and it was kind of history from there.”

(Incidentally, the band’s name was the product of audience members’ suggestions during a show at Stir Fry Cafe in Turkey Creek — one patron suggested Hudson, because of Horn’s connections to the Hudson Valley area of New York and Connecticut, where she was raised, and another simply said, “K.” The musicians combined the two out of a lack of anything better, she said.)

As an album, “Safety Line” is very much Horn’s vision. It builds with a subtle melancholy, the piano wandering down dark avenues and rain-soaked streets behind her vocals, which call to mind a variety of female singers — Fiona Apple, Cat Power and Natalie Merchant, just to name a few. Bost adds gorgeous harmonies, while Barrett’s minimalist percussion work helping to weave a tapestry of swirling emotion. The album builds to a hopeful summit on “In Line,” a song exquisite in its poetic urgency, like the sun’s demand to break through clouds after a storm.
As good as “Safety Line” is, however, it’s only the first step in Hudson K’s - The Daily Times (Maryville, TN)

Hudson K

This week has been interesting the way the bad guys in Charlie Chan movies used to use that word. You know what I mean. Interesting, my ass …

Anyway, the Drive-By Truckers cancelled their April 29 gig at Rhythm and Brews, which I hope is NOT related to their album, “The Big To-Do”, debuting at Number 22 on the Billboard Top 200. I mean c’mon, when you start to forget the places that booked y’all and the people that came to see y’all play, you are skating on some seriously thin ego ice. I’m not saying that that is what is going on, I’m just saying …

Whatever. Their cancellation allowed Hudson K to schedule a show in that slot and not just ANY show. This gig on April 29 will be their CD release show for “Shine”, Hudson K’s latest release. Let me tell y’all now, you NEED to have your asses there on April 29 ‘cause this new joint of theirs is very, very good.

Hudson K came to me from Parts Unknown, seemingly the place where all the good music I am reviewing lately resides. Hudson K consists of classically trained and educated (Masters in Classical Piano) Christina Horn, Nate Barrett, and Jeff Christmas. All are multi-talented and, on “Shine”, it shows.

“Shine” is what Portishead might do if only they didn’t have their collective heads buried so firmly in their collective arses in some myopic depression dimension. The title track starts with some keyboard/percussion/bass bossa nova vibe that just smokes. Ms. Horn’s vocals are wonderfully expressive. As she states in the song, “I am an actress/I rehearse my lines”. With the tempo changes, rock heaven harmonies, and horns (?), the title track summons the vibes of Tom Waits, the aforementioned Portishead, and a nice dash of Howling Bells. It is simply marvelous.

“Fade” has some smoking piano lines joined with some choice guitar licks. The vocals float and crash in and out of the melody and, as the song winds down, all I could think of were some of the 60s/ 70s classic fadeouts. Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and Mott the Hoople’s “All the Way from Memphis”, and the Monkee’s “Pleasant Valley Sunday” popped to mind immediately …

“Prayer for Love” is tres cool, with flute, skiffle percussion and some great – what? – piano. Muted trumpet haunts the break and flute notes drop like rain throughout. This song begs for some blank verse praise but all I could manage was slack-jawed awe.

The very opening of “I Could Learn A Lot”, the album’s fourth track, is “The Exorcist” and Mike Oldfield’s stone freak of a soundtrack re-envisioned in all of about eight seconds before the tune goes about setting another seriously COOL vibe. Dude, I had to sit back and groove on this, the best recommendation I can give.

The next tune, “Champion”, is the beautifully stark, emotionally bare tune that all the female songstresses of late have been climbing all over one another to come up with. This should be all over college radio, satellite radio and the sound systems of anyone with any taste. Damn, damn, DAMN! Where has this bunch been? Not since Jim Cheney/Jimmy Duke and the Riot has someone local/regional hit me like this.

A quick side note – All the above may be wrong. I may have encountered some local/regional act(s) that twisted my knobs but Red and me have an infant son, so my memory is worse than ever with helping take care of the Dali Lama. It is wearing my old ass out, and … I would not trade it for the world. Hey, Red and Dan, I love y’all.

Whatever the case may be, Hudson K is the real deal, a band with influences galore but a sound that is their own, a rare quality in this day of the doppelgangers haunting the charts and airwaves. “Shine” is regional act Radiohead, brilliance with a ten-buck cover. Hudson K has knocked one out of the park with this one; I could go into more track-by-track break down but why? I mean, how many ways can you say this fantastic, anyway.

Don’t let the piano scare y’all; this bunch kicks it. April 29 at Rhythm and Brews – be there or be square. While you are there, buy the album. You need it like a hog needs slop.

Y’all be good. I’m going to go and kiss on my boy.

Later taters. - Jim Sells, Enigma Magazine Chattanooga, TN

Talk about an album that will get inside your head. Christina Horn may not be the first woman to pound on a piano while forcefully delivering confrontational lyrics in a hauntingly beautiful voice, but she definitely does it her own way. Really. These ten songs sound like little else, and make no mistake: that's a compliment. Beginning with the propulsive-yet-cynical "Fade," this three-piece (she's backed by a tremendous drummer and guitarist/bassist) jumps right into it, thumping on makeshift percussion (trash cans make an appearance here) and relying on rhythms that are strong, but loose enough to fit deeply into grooves. Tracks like "I Gave It All" and "Rattled" are slightly more subdued, but Horn's voice fills the songs so full that they never threaten to slow things down. It ends up being hard to keep track of all the instruments used on this album (there are a bunch of guest musicians), and that only works to make it an even more unique listening experience. There is so much to ingest during the course of these tracks that it'll keep you playing it over and over. So get to it.
- CD Baby

In years past Knoxville has been blessed to have many strong female voices emerge from our local stages and this year recognition is definitely due for an independent artist who's been working her ass off to put it out there, Christina Horn and her latest musical project Hudson K. Performing this Wednesday at the Preservation Pub with Ben Maney and the Countless Sheep, Hudson K will be delivering its own brand of thought provoking lyrics and danceable grooves.

A classically trained pianist since age eleven Christina Horn is no stranger to the stage. Finding the realm of "serious" music a bit constricting to her personal artistic goals she did what any good musician would do, she joined a rock band. In the past few years Horn has taken part in a number of notable projects with some of Knoxville's favorite artists including Telescope with Matt Urmay and Umanos Umana with Dave Campbell, all leading to the present moment which finds Christina with the confidence and material to project her own musical vision to the community.
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That vision has manifested itself into the musical trio Hudson K. Although listeners may draw obvious initial comparisons to the likes of Fiona Apple and Tori Amos, Husdon K takes inspiration from huge wealth of influence ranging from Bjork and Beethoven to Grant Lee Buffalo and Widespread Panic. Christina's deep sultry vocal leads are well complemented by the light, airy harmonies of vocalist/guitarist Laura Bost and the rock solid time of percussionist Nate Barrett. Barrett is a veteran of the Knoxville scene having been in numerous past projects including Difficult Children, The Jodie Manross Band, Hummus and is currently a member of the jamband Artvandalay.

In the music of Hudson K you'll find what is best about being a singer/songwriter; lyrics prompting deep insight into the personal mind of the artist set over intelligent, melodic progressions commanding your attention. You can listen for yourself right now at hudsonktoday. Here you can get a preview of their newly finished self-titled EP.
-Dustin Milotte - Knoxville520.com

Whatever “Safety Line” once anchored Hudson K front woman Christina Horn to musical preconceptions has been cut.This weekend, Horn and her bandmates — Jeff Christmas and Nate Barrett — will release “Shine,” a new album. It's the first full-length by the group, which emerged as talented purveyors of intricate piano-pop in 2007 on the EP “Safety Line.”Then, Horn channeled any number of female artists — Tori Amos, Cat Power, Sarah McLachlan. It was pretty and sumptuous and infinitely listenable, but it was also sedate. By contrast, “Shine” is an explosion of color, sound and energy. If “Safety Line” was the tentative knock on the door of a full-time music career, then “Shine” is the sound of a woman kicking that door open, proclaiming with sensual bravado and brash attitude that it's time to let loose and live life to the fullest.“I do feel free, a lot less intimidated and a lot less scared of my own voice and what I have to say,” Horn told The Daily Times during a recent phone interview. “I'm a lot less scared in general as a human being. ‘Safety Line' was coming out of a huge transitional phase for me, like after a dream. I was looking around with my eyes half-opened, wondering what had just happened; they were the first songs I ever wrote, and I sang them half-asleep.“These are all new songs, and I'm starting to believe that it's possible to make music and have a message that people will care about. Believing that I have a message helps tremendously, and these days I'm living the life that I want. I'm totally broke and poor, and I'm working hard day in and day out, even on the weekends, booking and touring and recording, but I'm happy.”It's been a long time coming for Horn, one of East Tennessee's more-talented-but-lesser-known female artists. A graduate of the University of Tennessee, where she obtained a degree in solo piano repertoire and immersed herself in a background of classical music, she began experimenting with songwriting and attempted to incorporate original material into her particular style of playing in 2005, drawing on her childhood inspirations — radio-friendly pop-rock, her parents' music and songs that spoke to her on an emotional level.Shortly after moving away from strictly classical, Horn joined her Hudson K bandmate Nate Barrett in Telescope, a roots-rock/experimental pop outfit fronted by singer-songwriter Matt Urmy. After Urmy left the band to pursue other interests, Horn and Barrett attempted to keep the band going but ended up moving in a different direction altogether. The duo adopted the Hudson K moniker after a show at Stir Fry in Turkey Creek, when they solicited suggestions from the audience — one patron suggested Hudson, because of Horn's connections to the Hudson Valley area of New York and Connecticut, where she was raised, and another simply said, “K.”Other players came and went over the past few years — most of whom will perform at Saturday night's “Shine” release show as special guests of the band — and slowly, the band started to build a respectable local following. It was a rocky transition at first for Horn, who found herself overcoming timidity in a very public arena.“With ‘Safety Line,' I was very hesitant when someone wanted a copy — almost like, ‘Here you go, you can have one if you want,'” she said. “With ‘Shine,' I'm more like, ‘This is valuable! This has worth!' I love it, and if I can love it, other people can, too. I remember well an e-mail conversation I had with (local musician and bandleader) Jonathan Sexton, who was doing so much about the same time as we were, and I asked him how he was managing to book all these shows and build this audience.“He said, ‘When you start believing that what you're doing has value and worth, things will change for you.' I think about that a lot, because at the time, I was kind of hoping people would like what we were doing, but I didn't believe it. When people would tell me, ‘I like your music,' I didn't believe them. Now, I'm trying to accept that and believe they really mean it.”She laughs — a soft sound, but filled with more certainty than in the past. That self-confidence shows most in the band's publicity photos — in the beginning, shots of Horn were never posed. They captured her in mid-performance, as if focusing on the audience instead of the camera was easier.Now, she embraces the opportunity to take part in a photo session. Vintage clothing, quirky hats and off-the-beaten path locales play up the fact that she's grown into her role as a songwriter, a performer and an artist. That itself is a label she's only come to accept recently, she added.“It took a long time to feel comfortable calling myself an artist,” she said. “I always kind of categorized everyone else as an artist — but I was just me, the girl who teaches piano lessons. I didn't think of myself as an artist. But I started to realize what I was doing was definitely a little different than everything else I was hearing, and I slowly started to think of m - Steve Wildsmith of the Maryville Daily Times

Music fans can find good offerings at the Back Room at the Flat Rock Wine Shoppe almost any day of the week now -- fresh local flavors from the kitchen, top-shelf beers and wines, and a music lineup that's beginning to rival any small club in Western North Carolina.
"It's a pretty awesome place," says Christina Horn, vocalist/pianist with Hudson K, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based band.
Hudson K celebrates the release of its new CD, "Shine," with a performance at the Back Room at 9 p.m. on Saturday. The band's name gives a glimpse into what its music is about.
"It's me trying to figure out where I'm from," Horn explains. "I spent a lot of time growing up in the Hudson Valley of New York, and then the K being Knoxville because Knoxville is my home too. I feel like it's kind of a blending of North and South in a way."
Horn was born in Connecticut and lived in New York and Chattanooga, Tenn., before moving to Knoxville 12 years ago. Fascinated with music at an early age, she played trumpet in the school band in New York and tinkered on the piano at her house.
"My mom got me piano lessons but I wasn't always the best student," she says. "I listened mostly to the radio as a kid, and to the music that my parents listened to, pretty heavy on the classic rock."
Seeking a career as a veterinarian, Horn enrolled at UT Knoxville to study biology and picked up piano lessons as an elective class. "My professor (Dr. David Northington) actually convinced me to major in music," she says. "It wasn't in the plan, but that's what happened."
Nor was it in the "plan" for her to then leave the classical world to front an indie rock band. She first joined forces with drummer Nate Barrett in the group Telescope in 2005, and they formed the foundation of Hudson K in 2007.
"Mutual friends kind of stuck us together and said, 'You should play music together.' Another friend told me, 'You should have (Appalachian State grad) Jeff Christmas play with you.' He brought his guitar, his bass and his voice over to my house, and I was like, 'OK, perfect,' " she smiles.
Violinist (and Hendersonville native) Erin Tipton Archer sometimes joins the group.


On "Shine," Hudson K combines vintage keyboards, horns, strings, tasty guitar and drums, and the singer's expressive vocals to create its self-described "anti-pop piano rock." Horn's classical music background is apparent in the lovely piano intro of "I Could Learn a Lot" and the rolling 6/8 tempo of "Where Did You Go." There's a nod to Lucinda Williams' aloofness on "Fade," to Joni Mitchell's complexity on "I Gave It All," and to Sarah McLachlan's balladry on "Champion." "Shine" has the exciting sound of a band gaining courage -- and Horn delivers her hopeful messages in beautiful high falsetto voice and in a husky lower register, reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde at times.
"These songs are a lot more evolved, more brave," Horn says. "Studying classical music for so long, it becomes part of your muscle memory and how you approach an instrument. Whenever I sit down to play or improvise or write a song, all those lessons and all those sonatas and inventions and so forth that I learned while I was in school inevitably surface in what I do."
- The Hendersonville Times-Robin Tolleson

Featured FNO Band - Hudson K of Knoxville, TN


"Orcha-synth anti-pop piano rock".... this was a new one for me. When Christina Horn of Hudson K emailed me about becoming a Featured FNO band, I checked out their myspace page and really dug what I heard. Then I noticed that they had a gig in my town a day or two later and took the chance to see Hudson K live at the French Broad Brewery, an intimate venue tucked away in Biltmore Village in Asheville, North Carolina.


WIth Christina on keys and lead vocals, Jen Rock on guitar, and Nate Barret rocking out on the drums, I was enamored by their passionate stage presence, gorgeous and emotive lyrics, and calm and cool musical integration. Harmony is one of my favorite elements of performance, and when the three musicians blended their unique and varying vocal tones, I was instantly a fan.

With a background in classical piano and rock and roll, Christina Horn has found her well-balanced musical home with Hudson K, her fervent and sometimes poignant lyrics coupled with her striking and awe-inspiring piano playing captivated me.

In addition to the many club dates, you can catch Hudson K at these upcoming festivals: Rockin' Womyn's Festival - April 6th in Knoxville, TN and the debut event, Cocktails and a Concert - May 9-11 on River John's Island in Maryille, TN (more info on their myspace page!)

- Festival Network Online

Hudson k (solo) was the winner of the annual singer song-writer contest sponsored by Rik's music. - Rik's Music Knoxville, TN 2007

Hudson K (solo) survived this 10-week competition to make it into the final evening. - Stir Fry Cafe and 105.3, along with Rik's Music