Kat Parsons
Los Angeles, California, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
Kat appeared on the cover of the National "Music Connection Magazine" with full length cover story. - Music Connection Magazine
Kat is critic's pick in The Boston Globe and has a featured show in Chicago Sun-Times.
Kat performs on MTV with Ryan Cabrera.
Kat records with T-Bone Burnett (Walk the Line, O Brother Where Art Thou, Bob Dylan, etc.).
Kat appears on morning shows: Good Morning Arizona, KUSI, WGN, among others.
Kat is interviewed in Campus Circle Magazine & Free Lance Star.
- Boston Globe, MTV, Morning Shows
Her brother, Jon, accompanied her on guitar for most of the performance...her songs possess a fiery ... spirit and melodic shifts (which elevate them above the dross flowing from other singer-songwriters...). With Parsons alternating between piano and guitar, such songs as "Go Find Her" and "Botox and Butt Tucks" conjured Amy Rigby and Joni Mitchell, while her new disc's title track simmered and fluttered, tacking relationship dynamics to a classic '70s ... backdrop. And though she sang wistfully, "I'm on the brink of something I've been on the brink of for years," the confident, dynamic songs she sang Sunday might just be enough to make her career slam into high gear. - The Washington Post
It is Parsons who proves to be [a] real revelation. A perpetual, grin, despite the cold, is plastered across her face, and her swooping, often clearly improvised vocals are the perfect complement and contrast to Hoekstra's half whispered, half sung muses. Acrobatic, feisty, they soar with an unbridled passion and energy, dropping to a murmur at one moment, raising to a roar the next. The effect is magnificent, and it is obvious that she is having the time of her life.... Parsons has talent, enthusiasm and stage presence and the ambition and potential to be one of the stars of tomorrow.
- John Clarkson
"[A] performance that revealed a passion and intimate detail well-suited to a small stage, with a sound big enough to fill an arena..thoughtful, intelligent lyrics and melodies that put themselves on a 'repeat' cycle in your head....'Does She Cry' [is] instantly memorable upon first listen, a rarity in pop music... Her set showcased a powerful vulnerability, yet it was impossible to misconstrue as weakness. Perhaps due to the strength in her voice, Parsons' songs reverberated through the room without fear."
- Steve Trumpeter
Fresh, youthful and alive.....Kat serves up a dish of unique intensity.....All pop and jaunty chords, offset against Kat Parsons' exquisite vocal. - Mike Cobley
***** out of 5 stars, Show of the year. - Live in Liverpool w/Doug Hoekstra
"The musical find of the evening came in the pleasant surprise of Chicago-based singer Kat Parsons. Described as a background singer, for a small frame she had some set of pipes on her. She brought definition and emotion as Hoekstra spun his magic......The second half began with Parsons solo, and her two songs, Standing Still and Remains were a powerhouse, the demure smile and alost unknowing sex appeal gave way to an amazon that was as delightful as it was unexpected....The real delight of the evening was listening to something other than ear candy. Sure it was challenging, sure it wasn't easy but there is everything right about extending an audience. As for Parsons she is definitely one for the future." - Michael Mee ; Live at Barrels at Berwick upon Tweed (UK)
"Kat Parsons played her acoustic heart out on a gigantic stage only to dominate every inch of it." - Jeremy Lucas
"Her songs seem aimed at the coffeehouse crowd, but Chicago singer-songwriter Kat Parsons isn't your typical folkie. Her voice is clearly the star on her debut CD Framing Caroline, and she sings with the forcefulness of modern pop-country rather than folk." - Chicago
Discography
It Matters to Me (Trilogy released 4/9/13)
(features string arrangements by Coldplay's Dave Eggar and Doug Edward)
Oh! (Trilogy released 10/9/12)
(features "Love Changes Everything" whose wildly popular music video has over 100,000 views on YouTube)
Talk to Me (Trilogy released 4/13/12)
(features production by Warren Huart & Mike Flynn (Aerosmith, The Fray, Howie Day))
No Will Power
Nationally Released & Internationally Distributed : March 29, 2005
Kat Parsons Limited Edition EP
Released Jan 2003
Framing Caroline (Waterdog Music, WM-9903, USA)
Released May 1999 - Full length original
www.waterdogmusic.com
Currently SOLD OUT
Kat Parsons' music appears on compilations in the US, UK, and France. She has also been a guest vocalist on many artists' albums. For full discography see: www.KatParsons.com
Photos
Bio
Kat Parsons has been on MTV, Sold-out shows in 23 countries, and recorded with Grammy winner T-Bone Burnett! She was just named "Best Female Artist" (2013) by the International Acoustic Music Awards.
Entertainment World said "Kat's vocals and sound will stand up against Norah Jones!"
You haven't heard Kat Parsons? Grab the free download at http://KatParsonsMusic.com now and find out what all the buzz is about.
Because like the Washington Post said her new album is "confident, dynamic songs that possess a fiery spirit... enough to make her career slam into high gear."
You're just in time to say you knew her when.
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"A passion and intimate detail well-suited to a small stage, with a sound big enough to fill an arena."
Kat Parsons is a fearless performer who walks the line between innocence and exuberance. Equally funny and effortlessly sexy, her acute self-awareness allows her to be both excitable (shes a hugger) and self-deprecating. With the release of the final installment of her three part EP series, each showcasing a distinct image and sound, Kat Parsons brings her multifaceted personality and talentto the forefront.
Born in Vienna to opera singer Darrell Parsons and recording artist Julie Parsons, she grew up immersed in music, studying piano and later majoring in theatre at Northwestern University. And since the 2005 release of her fan funded (to the tune of $18,000) album No Will Power -- which was distributed nationally by Cleopatra/Navarre -- Parsons career has been on overdrive.
From the cover of Music Connection magazine, to winner of the Acoustic Live competition (beating out more than 600 musicians), Parsons talent and pure passion has helped make her sophomore album No Will Power runner-up for Album of the Year at the 2005 DIY Music Festival, nabbed her coverage in Billboard, Boston Globe, Washington Post ("a fiery spirit...confident, dynamic songs..."), The Onion, and more. The International Acoustic Music Awards just named her Best Female Artist. OurStage.com & Mike Flynn (Head of A&R at Epic Records) chose her out of 1,400 artists to produce an upcoming single.
The now Los Angeles based singer/songwriter has opened for or shared bills with heavy hitters like Billy Corgan, Jim White, Spin Doctors, and Sara Bareilles. And shes performed across the U.S., Japan, Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia.
In late 2010, Parsons created a highly successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the manufacturing, art and promotion of her next recordings. Her legions of dedicated fans contributed $19,560. Over the last year, Parsons will have released three EPs, each distinct bodies of work: Talk To Me, OH!, and It Matters to Me. Sometimes I think of a song as a naked body, and there are so many ways you can dress it., she said. I had a lot of curiosity about different approaches -- I wanted to try on different clothes. So, she decided to try them all.
With a writing style and pop singer/songwriter sound akin to a modern Carole King, on April, 9 2013 Parsons will release It Matters to Me, a disc that her over 8,000 fans may herald as her best work yet. The most spare and tender of her body of work, this piano-based singer-songwriter has created an album lush with vulnerability.
Writing from Washington D.C. where she is temporarily staying in order to do work with prevention and treatment of human trafficking, it is no coincidence that she is releasing the final EP of the three part series, called It Matters to Me. This EP was born out of conversations with friends and fans about wanting to lead a meaningful life even about what a meaningful life really isand out of that striving to get my youthful dreams of saving the world in line with my adult understanding of limitations my own and others.
Kat channels Linda Ronstadt in Harder than it Is, with Ben Peeler on lap steel (Shelby Lynne, Jim White). With the help of Dave Eggar (Coldplay), she gives a simple rendition of I Wont Ask, a song co-written with her mother and reminiscent of her previous recording of this song with T-Bone Burnett.
With the release of It Matters to Me, Parsons music and beautiful voice remain an accurate reflection of her glowing and layered personality: it reveals her as tough, yet vulnerable; knowing yet nave; expecting the best in people without being blind to their faults. Her raw authenticity and uncanny ability to connect with listeners has proven that shell never bend to fit others expectations of her.
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