Katy Boyd & Marty Atkinson's Blue Cactus Choir

When you grow up listening to such wide musical influences as American Music, Folk Music, and Tchaikovsky, the end result is going to be a little bit on the diverse side. The music of Katy Boyd definitely fits this description, and then some. It’s hard to define what genre her music would fall in, as she has elements of the afore-mentioned musical styles, as well as a great deal of traditional country in her sound.

The more “Country” sounds on the disc come on tracks such as “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels” and “Can’t Find My Way Home,” where she definitely strikes a Lynn / Wynette type sound. Other winners include the wistful “Time Machine,” as well as the nostalgic “Mama.” As a writer, she scores best with cuts like “Colors” and “Circus Folk,” which has some incredible instrumentation all throughout.

She has assembled some incredible musicians, Mark Fain, Lynn Williams, Justin Moses, Fats Kaplin, and Thomm Jutz among them, and each do a fabulous job – putting their own musical stamp on the disc. All in all, it’s a winner from cut-to-cut, with maybe the best cut being the twang-heavy “Happy Single Mothers’ Day,” which deserves to be heard by the masses. This could very well be one of Americana’s top new voices! Chuck Dauphin - Nashville Music News

The songs themselves are in the same sort of field as those of Mary Chapin Carpenter - a wry, contemplative look at real lives. Some songs sound like they could be autobiographical but it’s not really important to know whether they are or not. Dysfunctional families, relationships gone wrong, a couple of songs about the lives of travelling entertainers and one about single mothers all add up to a bunch of songs that deal with the rough side of life. Katy tells a story within a song – very much in classic country style – and the expansiveness of her storytelling is pointed up by contrast with the one cover she performs, Steve Winwood’s Can’t Find My Way Home. That song is pretty much a masterclass in lyrical minimalism, and it gets a lovely treatment here with some lonesome banjo and fiddle, both sounding pretty mournful.
Most of these songs unfold at their leisure but Happy Single Mothers Day has a nicely ironic jauntiness to its down-and-dirty tale of life in a household where even the dog can’t make it outside in time. She can also pull off the kind of humour that country music is so frequently good at: “If I had a time machine/I would tell Jesus about Judas… (and) I would not marry you”. Katy’s voice is quite restrained and straightforward; frequently she sounds like she’s just telling you a tale over a cup of coffee, so her style is one that’s going to work its way into your affections over time as you come to appreciate her un-showy sincerity. On the back of this album there’s a new one on the way, a collaboration with Marty Atkinson that is supported by the same bunch of players that appear on this album. That will be well worth checking out as Paper Hearts demonstrates that Katy Boyd’s really hitting her stride as a songwriter/performer. - John Davy for No Depression/Flying Shoes Review

It’s safe to say that this album has some of the best, most sharply observed tales of life with all it’s warts, in modern day country music. In fact that can be extended to any form of music, such is the power of the stories that this tremendously talented country singer songwriter has come up with. Easy listening they certainly aren’t, but quite evocative, at times harrowing, stories they certainly are. - Mike Morrison, American Roots UK

*****
Colourful, creative and wittingly honest are just some of the words that can be used to describe American singer-songwriter, storyteller and single mother to four, Katy Boyd’s PAPER HEARTS—a stunningly carved follow-up release consisting of nine self-pens and a beautiful banjo-led cover of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” written by Steve Winwood. The album—produced by Thomm Jutz (Nanci Griffith), recorded in Nashville and boasting a first class band of notable musicians including Justin Moses (banjo, mandolin, fiddle); Mark Fain (bass); Fats Kaplin (steel, accordion); Lynn Williams (drums) and producer Thomm Jutz on guitar, keyboards and harmony vocals—has already enjoyed superb acclaim and solid radio airplay both here and in the US since its release late 2011, and it’s easy to see why.
It’s hard not to fall in love with this delightful collection, as I have upon first listen—a pleasant sounding blend of country-folk (with a dash of pop) fuelled musicality, fused with Katy’s simple, yet effective vocals, memorable lyrics and personally captured stories.
Five songs in particular caught my attention, the first being the gently composed “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels”—a title that simply rolls off the tongue—opening the album beautifully with visual words of love that always seem to end badly; the poignant theme continuing with the melancholic “Mama” which reveals a heart-breaking story about an abusive mother, hooked on drink and a little neglectful of her daughter; its toe-tapping chorus adding an element of catchiness to the song. The comedically told “Happy Single Mother’s Day”—a hysterically sung account of raising four kids single-handedly, by which she toys with the idea of putting them all on eBay and delivering them free to a good home—and the poppy ear-pleaser “I’m Not Depressed”—another wittily written song about being suicidal—deserve a mention here, both sure-footed album highlights, whilst the upbeat, assumed love song, “Circus Folk,” with wonderfully yesteryear-hinted sounds, closes the beautiful album perfectly. It’s an album of never-ageing, never-tiring quality and one which proves its potential to be played time and time again.
Emily Saxton
- Maverick Magazine, UK

Fats Kaplin’s steel makes singer/songwriter Boyd’s already beautiful “Jigs & Reels & FerrisWheels” even more so, while Thomm Jutz picks it like a Nashville pro on “Happy Single Mother’s Day” and Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home” – just a couple of the highlights here from a multi-talented real country artist. – RA - Vintage Guitar Magazine

“ Country fan or not, you can't deny that this beautiful and smoothly blended CD, with the lyricism and touching melodies of James Taylor, is above and beyond the norm of today's country pop. Whether you like your country tangy and twangy or just honestly reflective of the down-home wonders of simple livin', Cactus Choir Lightly brushes over CSNY harmonies, the old, 70's Kenny Loggins nostalgia and classic rock magic to please most everyone.”
- CD Baby - CDBABY

First time I heard this cd, it blew me away, it was like the eighties and nineties were back with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Nanci Griffith sounding from the speakers.

“Paper Hearts” is the best Americana cd I’ve heard in many years. It seems that Katy has gathered a lot of songs during her long stay in the UK. Together with some great musicians like Fats Kaplin on steel, accordion and Thomm Jutz on guitar, keys she has now recorded an excellent cd in Nashville. The rest of the band consists of Justin Moses on fiddle,mandolin,banjo; Lynn Williams on drums and Mark Fain on bass.

If you like music from Lucinda Williams or Eliza Gilkyson, you can buy this cd blindly.

Very recommended

Score : 9/10
- Roots Revival Belgium

When you grow up listening to such wide musical influences as American Music, Folk Music, and Tchaikovsky, the end result is going to be a little bit on the diverse side. The music of Katy Boyd definitely fits this description, and then some. It’s hard to define what genre her music would fall in, as she has elements of the afore-mentioned musical styles, as well as a great deal of traditional country in her sound.

The more “Country” sounds on the disc come on tracks such as “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels” and “Can’t Find My Way Home,” where she definitely strikes a Lynn / Wynette type sound. Other winners include the wistful “Time Machine,” as well as the nostalgic “Mama.” As a writer, she scores best with cuts like “Colors” and “Circus Folk,” which has some incredible instrumentation all throughout.

She has assembled some incredible musicians, Mark Fain, Lynn Williams, Justin Moses, Fats Kaplin, and Thomm Jutz among them, and each do a fabulous job – putting their own musical stamp on the disc. All in all, it’s a winner from cut-to-cut, with maybe the best cut being the twang-heavy “Happy Single Mothers’ Day,” which deserves to be heard by the masses. This could very well be one of Americana’s top new voices!
- The Nashville Music News

As a songwriter, Katy
Boyd draws on her life expe-
riences to create a body of
work that any adult can re-
late to: from the struggles to
maintain a relationship to
coping with the conse-
quences of one’s decisions.
On Paper Hearts she
demonstrates a knack to
spin a song in an unexpect-
ed direction. “Time Ma-
chine” starts out as song
about a failed marriage but
goes beyond that in the cho-
rus: “If I had a time machine
I’d know just what I’d do/I’d
tell Jesus about Judas and
Hitler and World War II,” she
sings wistfully over a folk
melody. “If I had a time ma-
chine, I would not marry
you,” the chorus ends,
bringing the song full circle.
“Mary Katherine Magdalena”
is a haunting song of a
young girl giving up her
child for adoption and the
repercussions that ensue.
“Happy Single Mothers Day”
is a humorous look at the
and joys and frustrations of
parenthood that show her
eye for detail. Boyd wrote
nine of the CD’s ten songs and shows goods taste with her airy version of Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” a highlight of Blind Faith’s 1969 album. ¦ - Icon Magazine

With the help of musicians from the bands of Ricky Skaggs and Delbert McClinton, and Nancy Griffiths’ producer Thomm Jutz behind the board, Katy Boyd has fashioned an album both beautiful and heartbreaking; an album that may or may not be drawn from her own experience, but feels real, and close to the bone. Boyd (who also performs with Marty Atkinson in the duo Blue Cactus Choir) sings in the voice of a storyteller, pretty and tuneful enough but more resonant for the way she brings her stories to life with smart phrasing and through the force of her personality—if you think “Rosanne Cash” as Boyd sings, good for you, because she can sound uncannily like Johnny’s firstborn, and her writer’s eye for the telling detail and the unvarnished personal statement is much akin to Ms. Cash’s. Katy Boyd, like Rosanne, owns—becomes--her songs; you can’t imagine anyone else interpreting them more vividly than she does.


As for the stories, they’re not for the faint of heart, or for those seeking folky kumbaya moments of togetherness. “Mama” begins soft and solemn with a delicately fingerpicked guitar and Boyd singing tenderly, “I remember mama…” but no sooner do you think you’re into a warm reminiscence of she who gave birth to you than does Boyd complete the sentiment with an ominous “…crouched behind the door.” It’s a reminiscence, alright, but not a warm one: the mama in question is perpetuating a cycle of abuse she experienced in her own childhood, leaving her daughter to fend for herself while she smokes cigarettes, drinks coffee and gin, and serves TV dinners every day. As she does on many of her dark tales, Boyd maintains an emotional even keel while singing, dropping into a whispery tone when something really cuts deep, such as her hope that mom “might kiss me as well, but she never did…” Exactly where she’s at with all this, now that she looks back, is revealed in a weary shrug of acceptance of the hand dealt: mother “never meant to hurt anyone/it just worked out that way.” The track’s shimmering southwestern ambiance, with its gently twanging guitar and soft, persistent percussion, is like a numbing narcotic enveloping the wounded singer.


“Mama” immediately precedes “Mary Katherine Magdalena,” a somber Appalachian-flavored ballad with an evocative, subdued soundscape fashioned by Justin Moses’ plaintive fiddling and discreet mandolin, along with Jutz’s solemn guitar work. These serve a measured scorching of religious hypocrisy as experienced by a Catholic girl who was impregnated by a priest and subsequently “locked away in shame.” Given the song title, Boyd may be singing about a girl’s experience in the infamous Magdalene asylums, where sexually promiscuous females of all ages were sent for rehabilitation. (Think A Clockwork Orange, although the asylums predate the book and movie by a couple of centuries.) The twist comes in the second verse, when she sings lovingly of how much her daughter means to her—“she was my reason to be”—only to reveal in the third verse that her daughter is the child of the fallen woman who gives the song its title. Happy ever after? This then is followed by a fiddle-fired honky tonker, “Happy Single Mother’s Day,” describing the whirlwind and aggravations (“have I heard that my third son is gay?”) of a single mom’s life in dealing not only with a rambunctious brood on her own but also doctors, preachers and social workers who are summoned to keep her in line. Jaunty as the music is, Boyd, without ever losing her cool, does a credible impression of a woman on the verge of madness. Not only does she keep her wits about her, she fairly revels in her ineptitude on the upbeat “I’m Not Depressed,” describing with wry humor several comical attempts to snuff out her own life (“ran the hose into my Cabriolet/but then I just ran out of gas…”); yet however desperate and trying the circumstances her characters face, they all persevere, each determined to find her own state of grace. The heroine of the cheery, Cajun-flavored album closer, “Circus Folk,” which uses the big top experience as a metaphor for being more circumspect in matters of the heart (I don’t do the tightrope/I don’t fly too high any more/and every time I get back up/I fall down even harder than before/yes, I do/and I am so afraid I’m gonna fall for you, uh-huh), delivers her vows with breezy self-assurance, the lighthearted mood enhanced by Fats Kaplin’s jaunty accordion work. Although it falls sixth in the song sequence, Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” rendered as a thoughtful bluegrass ballad with Moses on banjo and fiddle and Jutz and Boyd harmonizing with affecting soulfulness on the choruses, might well serve as the benediction for a journey as trying as the one these songs describe. The spirit may be weak, wasted and disoriented, but it knows “somebody holds the key.” Hope abides.

Katy Boyd’s Paper Hearts is available at www.amazon.com - The Bluegrass Special Online Magazine - David McGee

There’s something about living what you write that adds the blood and humanity to the work and Boyd is one of those singer/songwriters that walks it like she talks it.  Coming back to music after a while away and finding herself in the midst of a bunch of Nanci Griffith hands, Boyd is one of those golden low key fires that burns like the original Chanukah candles.  Practically a distaff Billy Joe Shaver, this is some of the meatiest songwriting this side of Townes Van Zandt.  If you love the genre, be sure to check this out, it’s a winner throughout.
- MIDWEST RECORD – CHICAGO, IL – JANUARY 31, 2012 – Chris Spector

Katy Boyd’s music is a small gift to a certain (usually neglected) breed of folk and country music lovers… It’s not the usual overdone, overblown Auto-Tune extravaganza that passes for a musical reflection of rural life on the radio these days. No, it’s a smaller, but not lesser, thing. It’s small in the way that the last glimpse of sun is small when it’s setting… small in the way that a fleck of gold in a pan whilst one is panning for gold is small. It’s small in that first star in the sky at night kind of way. It’s small in a pinpoint precision sort of way. OK, there’s nothing small about it — I just can’t find a better way to describe the personal touch that comes across in the songs on her recently released album, Paper Hearts.

It is an album full of songs that combine country and folk influences, and songs that tell stories with genuine feelings. Listening to Katy’s honest assessments on the subjects at hand (motherhood, life, emotional well-being, and the juggling of all it takes to keep one’s sanity trying to live decently in the 21st century), I couldn’t help but recall the purity and intimacy of Kate Wolf’s music. That’s a sure sign that Katy Boyd is an original in her own right.

The musicianship on the album is as pleasing as the acuteness of the observations in the lyrics. Featured players include: Justin Moses (banjo, fiddle, mandolin), Mark Fain (bass), Lynn Williams (drums), Fats Kaplin (hippy steel, accordion), Thomm Jutz (guitars, key, harmony vocals), with Katy Boyd adding acoustic guitar to her vocals.

It’s refreshing to hear the songwriting voice of authenticity, strumming her guitar and reminding us all of the beautiful ways that life that doesn’t always scan into a perfect rhyme — and embracing that glorious and noble notion with the chords that soothe.

Greg Victor (Parcbench Culture Editor) - Parcbench.com, Greg Victor (Parcbench Culture Editor)

"Katy has a great talent as a songwriter...The most powerful song in Mary Katherine Magdalena, a five minute mini-masterpiece set against the backdrop of Catholic priests in Ireland abusing young girls.... Katy Boyd like the singer Hank Topless should have been putting out albums at regular intervals through the years. What were Virgin records doing when they failed to put any Katy Boyd discs out? " - Country Music People, UK

Katy Boyd not only has a genuine way with an authentic blend of folk and country but also an almost startlingly perceptive hand with tersely evocative lyrics:

What is love, it is a passing cloud
Beautiful to look at, impossible to hold
But clouded love becomes a waterfalll
Raging torrent, to drown your soul

…a way of packing a lot of imagery into a handful of words, almost haiku—if, that is, Dogen and Basho were the cowboy boot wearin' sort—so much so that you could teach a poetry class on it all. Like Tom Waits, she takes a hard-line on everyday life, finding in it desire, pathos, nobility, and the innumerable perplexities of, God help us, being human.

Think you've heard enough of Blind Faith's Can't Find my My Way Home? Think again. Boyd turns it around so that you'll end up wondering if Steve Winwood hadn't originally written it for Emmylou Harris. There's a touch of Kim Carnes in Boyd's voice, and it comes out most nakedly here. Her band borrows from Ricky Skaggs' and Delbert McClinton's units, and these guys know exactly how to underwrite the singer's tones and emotions, especially Fats Kaplin's 'hippy steel', a divinely weepy sound that makes the soul rise more than a little as Boyd encants tales of heartache, illusions lost, and pensivity upon the conundrums of drawing breath while treading the Earth.

Paper Hearts is a moody affair, turning, as Boyd is so adept at, that normally flowery phrase on its head. The ghost of Janis Ian's high period floats through her work:

I ain't depressed now, I'm suicidal
Ain't felt this good in years
There ain't no stress, you just say goodnight all
Just keep waking up here

…and, like Ian's materials, the CD is surprisingly easy to listen to despite some unhedgingly morose wordsmithing. I think this disc is going to force its listeners to re-arrange a few of their pre-conceptions and look a little more closely at just how uncompromisingly art can elicit re-inspections of frames of reference and clichéd views about 'how things are'.
- Fame Reviews - Acousticmusic.com

Katy Boyd not only has a genuine way with an authentic blend of folk and country but also an almost startlingly perceptive hand with tersely evocative lyrics:

What is love, it is a passing cloud
Beautiful to look at, impossible to hold
But clouded love becomes a waterfalll
Raging torrent, to drown your soul

…a way of packing a lot of imagery into a handful of words, almost haiku—if, that is, Dogen and Basho were the cowboy boot wearin' sort—so much so that you could teach a poetry class on it all. Like Tom Waits, she takes a hard-line on everyday life, finding in it desire, pathos, nobility, and the innumerable perplexities of, God help us, being human.

Think you've heard enough of Blind Faith's Can't Find my My Way Home? Think again. Boyd turns it around so that you'll end up wondering if Steve Winwood hadn't originally written it for Emmylou Harris. There's a touch of Kim Carnes in Boyd's voice, and it comes out most nakedly here. Her band borrows from Ricky Skaggs' and Delbert McClinton's units, and these guys know exactly how to underwrite the singer's tones and emotions, especially Fats Kaplin's 'hippy steel', a divinely weepy sound that makes the soul rise more than a little as Boyd encants tales of heartache, illusions lost, and pensivity upon the conundrums of drawing breath while treading the Earth.

Paper Hearts is a moody affair, turning, as Boyd is so adept at, that normally flowery phrase on its head. The ghost of Janis Ian's high period floats through her work:

I ain't depressed now, I'm suicidal
Ain't felt this good in years
There ain't no stress, you just say goodnight all
Just keep waking up here

…and, like Ian's materials, the CD is surprisingly easy to listen to despite some unhedgingly morose wordsmithing. I think this disc is going to force its listeners to re-arrange a few of their pre-conceptions and look a little more closely at just how uncompromisingly art can elicit re-inspections of frames of reference and clichéd views about 'how things are'.
- Fame Reviews - Acousticmusic.com

"....Her folk background shines through with her lyrics. She is a poet who is able to adapt episodes of her life to music. Her stories of love, loss, abuse, and traveling dominate the album. They tend to be meditative ballads and she probably would have been better served to include a few more up-tempo tunes. The lyrics tell wonderful, if sometimes slightly depressing stories. One saving grace is a couple of the songs' lyrics are filled with satire and are quite amusing.
The music is straight classic country with a steel guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo. A couple of the tracks even move in a bluegrass direction. Floating on top of it all is her twangy and soulful voice, which is a perfect fit for a country sound.
“Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels” is a song that tells the tale of traveling for love and constantly being rejected along the way. The message of continually falling in love despite the unhappy results is one that should resonate with just about anyone who has ever been in love. “Mama” tells the personal tale of the relationship with her own mother. The only non-original tune was a simple and beautiful cover of the Steve Winwood/Blind Faith classic, “Can’t Find My Way Home.”
My Favorite track was “Happy Single Mother’s Day,” which includes lyrics about selling her children on EBay. “I’m Not Depressed” is a witty song and perfect for the moody material that has preceded it.
Katy Boyd has created an album filled with imagery and humanity. So grab a bottle of wine, put some wood on the fire, and let the music take you away.


Read more: http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-katy-boyd-paper-hearts/#ixzz1nsc0zxhE - Seattle PI, reprinted on Blogcritics.org

She’s a gifted songwriter; I am not sure how much of the lyrics are autobiographical, but I would bet quite a few. Her poignant songs may be a bit on the personal side but they are also universal in their appeal dealing with divorce, runaway husbands, unwanted pregnancies, abandonment, depression, and yet, this disc is one that you want to play over and over.

The opening song, “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels,” is a traveling tale of love and loss moving around the country playing on tour. On the chorus she writes, “I got four bald tires, worn out brakes/Black cats and rattle snakes/Poison apples no I don’t complain/But shoot me if I ever start to fall in love again.”

She opens the next song, “Time Machine” with “I got excited when I found a love letter by my door/I read the pages a dozen times and I read ‘em all a dozen more/Words of love and devotion for all eternity/Would have been a bit better if that letter was addressed to me.” She has a great way of shaping her songs into little short stories that keep you listening and hoping for a pleasant outcome, but most times that never happens.

“Mama” could be an incredibly depressing song but, but the way Boyd tells it, you end up feeling for the mother and rooting for the daughter and you know, through all the pain she has felt, with all the gin that the mother drank and the TV dinners that the daughter ate, she will be okay because she has to be. The song opens, “I remember Mama crouched behind a door/Black coffee and a cigarette every morning on the kitchen floor/I made my own breakfast and my school lunch alone/Draggin’ a chair to get up on the counter, couldn’t reach it on my own.”

It’s not all doom and gloom on this recording and I don’t mean to paint that kind of a picture, but Katy Boyd has such a knack to convey misery and sadness and yet can be somewhat uplifting at the same time. On “Happy Single Mother’s Day” she tries to get her kids to school on time and fails, the kids get in trouble and the teacher calls a social worker and then a preacher, and it goes along for a couple of more choruses all to the tune of an upbeat country song with tasty fiddle played by Justin Moses of Ricky Skaggs band.

Perhaps the most beautiful song on the album is “Colors.” With steel guitar background, Boyd writes “I am green, I am a rainbow/Keep on chasing to find a pot of gold/I am red, I am a bonfire/ Blazing desire, out of control” followed by the chorus, “What is love it is a passing cloud/Beautiful to look at, impossible to hold/But clouded love becomes a waterfall/Raging torrent, to drown your soul.” A brilliant piece of writing. Of course it is one thing to read the lyrics and yet another to listen with the musical accompaniment and realize the full power of both.

And then she follows up that gorgeous work with a tune titled “I’m Not Depressed.” A fun ditty about being able to turn her life around by reading Cosmo and getting her hair done that way they tell you in the magazine. Then there is stealing gold from a leprechaun, swimming with piranhas in the Amazon, and picking a fight with Hercules. It is all very clever word play.

The album closes with the upbeat and fun “Circus Folk,” an interesting tale of the various romances among, well, circus folk. Highlighted with a little bit of accordion played by Fats Kaplin, the song takes on a somewhat Cajun feel.

The production of the disc is by Thomm Jutz, who worked with singer-songwriter Nanci Griffiths in the past, is first rate. Jutz contributes guitars, keyboards and vocal harmony to the project. The drummer is Lynn Williams from Delbert McClinton’s band; both bassist Mark Fain and fiddle, mandolin and banjo player Justin Moses come from Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder band. Katy Boyd plays acoustic guitar and provides all the lead vocals.

A native of California, Katy grew up listening to American and Irish folk music, as well as Tchaikovsky. She met Joan Baez several times and from that she decided that she would teach herself to play guitar, and later, won a Northern California songwriting contest. A short courtship with Virgin Records took her to the UK, and although a deal never materialized, she stayed over there for many years.

She eventually gave up music and devoted herself to raising her children, but went back to playing full time in 2004, landing a record deal with a British label which released her debut album “Ain’t No Fairy Tale,” produced by Neil Brockbank who previously worked with British rocker Nick Lowe.
- Sonoma Valley Sun

She’s a gifted songwriter; I am not sure how much of the lyrics are autobiographical, but I would bet quite a few. Her poignant songs may be a bit on the personal side but they are also universal in their appeal dealing with divorce, runaway husbands, unwanted pregnancies, abandonment, depression, and yet, this disc is one that you want to play over and over.

The opening song, “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels,” is a traveling tale of love and loss moving around the country playing on tour. On the chorus she writes, “I got four bald tires, worn out brakes/Black cats and rattle snakes/Poison apples no I don’t complain/But shoot me if I ever start to fall in love again.”

She opens the next song, “Time Machine” with “I got excited when I found a love letter by my door/I read the pages a dozen times and I read ‘em all a dozen more/Words of love and devotion for all eternity/Would have been a bit better if that letter was addressed to me.” She has a great way of shaping her songs into little short stories that keep you listening and hoping for a pleasant outcome, but most times that never happens.

“Mama” could be an incredibly depressing song but, but the way Boyd tells it, you end up feeling for the mother and rooting for the daughter and you know, through all the pain she has felt, with all the gin that the mother drank and the TV dinners that the daughter ate, she will be okay because she has to be. The song opens, “I remember Mama crouched behind a door/Black coffee and a cigarette every morning on the kitchen floor/I made my own breakfast and my school lunch alone/Draggin’ a chair to get up on the counter, couldn’t reach it on my own.”

It’s not all doom and gloom on this recording and I don’t mean to paint that kind of a picture, but Katy Boyd has such a knack to convey misery and sadness and yet can be somewhat uplifting at the same time. On “Happy Single Mother’s Day” she tries to get her kids to school on time and fails, the kids get in trouble and the teacher calls a social worker and then a preacher, and it goes along for a couple of more choruses all to the tune of an upbeat country song with tasty fiddle played by Justin Moses of Ricky Skaggs band.

Perhaps the most beautiful song on the album is “Colors.” With steel guitar background, Boyd writes “I am green, I am a rainbow/Keep on chasing to find a pot of gold/I am red, I am a bonfire/ Blazing desire, out of control” followed by the chorus, “What is love it is a passing cloud/Beautiful to look at, impossible to hold/But clouded love becomes a waterfall/Raging torrent, to drown your soul.” A brilliant piece of writing. Of course it is one thing to read the lyrics and yet another to listen with the musical accompaniment and realize the full power of both.

And then she follows up that gorgeous work with a tune titled “I’m Not Depressed.” A fun ditty about being able to turn her life around by reading Cosmo and getting her hair done that way they tell you in the magazine. Then there is stealing gold from a leprechaun, swimming with piranhas in the Amazon, and picking a fight with Hercules. It is all very clever word play.

The album closes with the upbeat and fun “Circus Folk,” an interesting tale of the various romances among, well, circus folk. Highlighted with a little bit of accordion played by Fats Kaplin, the song takes on a somewhat Cajun feel.

The production of the disc is by Thomm Jutz, who worked with singer-songwriter Nanci Griffiths in the past, is first rate. Jutz contributes guitars, keyboards and vocal harmony to the project. The drummer is Lynn Williams from Delbert McClinton’s band; both bassist Mark Fain and fiddle, mandolin and banjo player Justin Moses come from Ricky Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder band. Katy Boyd plays acoustic guitar and provides all the lead vocals.

A native of California, Katy grew up listening to American and Irish folk music, as well as Tchaikovsky. She met Joan Baez several times and from that she decided that she would teach herself to play guitar, and later, won a Northern California songwriting contest. A short courtship with Virgin Records took her to the UK, and although a deal never materialized, she stayed over there for many years.

She eventually gave up music and devoted herself to raising her children, but went back to playing full time in 2004, landing a record deal with a British label which released her debut album “Ain’t No Fairy Tale,” produced by Neil Brockbank who previously worked with British rocker Nick Lowe.
- Sonoma Valley Sun

Paper Hearts, the second album from California singer/songwriter Katy Boyd, is the sort of soft country/folk enjoyable on rainy afternoons when you want to relax and can’t go outside. It’s slow, personal music perfect for coffeehouses or small, intimate gatherings when you’re serving tea or wine.
The short collection is nine original tunes and Boyd’s cover of “Can't Find My Way Home,” a bluegrass take on a Steve Winwood Blind Faith contribution. Throughout the release, producer Thomm Jutz provided guitars, keyboards and harmony vocals along with Nashville stalwarts Justin Moses (banjo, mandolin, fiddle), Mark Fein (bass), Fats Kaplin (steel guitar, accordion) and Lynn Williams (drums). As all but one of the selections are mellow, slow-paced introspections or story songs, the musical settings are spare, laid-back, and tasteful background for Boyd’s mature voice and comforting melodies.
The album opens with the gentle, folksy traveling song, “Jigs & Reels & Ferris Wheels” which sets the tone for the rest of the performance. Personal insights begin with the clever “Time Machine” in which Boyd sings, if she had such a device, she’s warn Jesus about Judas, Juliet about Romeo, and “I wouldn’t marry you.” “Colors” is almost the album’s centerpiece with the singer telling us she’s a rainbow, free, full of colors like yellow, white, and green that illustrate the palate of her poetic personality. On the other hand, in the witty “I'm Not Depressed, Boyd says she’s suicidal but feeling the best she ever has. “Borderline” is perhaps the collection’s most contrived effort at songwriting, with all the clichés about being on the line pulled out for a woman somewhere in the place between whiskey and wine.
Looking outward, Boyd sketches a portrait of her “Mama” who “never intended to hurt no one, but it just worked out that way.” “Mary Katherine Magdalena” is a shamed Catholic girl who doesn’t understand why what’s good for a man isn’t good for a girl. “Happy Single Mothers Day” is very old-fashioned country in which a footloose mother considers putting “the kids up on EBay” and promising delivery the next day. The only really up-tempo number, “Circus Folk,” concludes the album. It’s full of images of circus acts that are metaphors for a colorful family and a tightrope act akin to “falling in love with you.”
Katy Boyd has been winning songwriting contests and earning high marks for her festival appearances. Word has it, she has another release scheduled for 2012 with many of the same players on Paper hearts along with a new musical partner, Marty Atkinson. So expect that duet collection in the coming months. In the meantime, Paper hearts is for those who need some warm, low-key songs to brighten up a gloomy day.
- BookPleasures.com Dr. Wesley Britton of Bookpleasures.com

“Katy is an exceptionally good songwriter with a facility for matching pointed, witty lyrics with strong melodies that allow Benny plenty of room to cut loose…The album rocks along in splendidly entertaining fashion and works on every level: great songs, excellent playing and boundless energy.”

- Dain Jefferies Rock n Reel Magazine (print only)

“Katy’s songs full of comedy and compelling tales make the audience laugh as easily as move everyone to a far away land… Katy’s vocals were honest and passionate and Benny’s angelical fiddle transported us in every song to the very same place where the story took place… a complete delight to listen to…”
B.Quintanilla
- SOCAL

"I saw these two play at the Bluebird Cafe last Sunday night and was completely blown away by them. Katy's songwriting is first rate, the songs were powerful and very clever. The fiddler was absolutely amazing, and really knew how to play! Together they had great stage chemistry, and I can't wait to see them again. "
Ian P, Philidelphia PA
- NowPlayingNashville.com

Katy Boyd and Benny Wain are a great example of the exciting wave of acts fusing folk and Americana to great effect in the UK.

With big guitar and rolling fiddle underpinning Katy's honest voice they deliver an album full of toe tapping songs. Both exemplary musicians with a combined spark that makes their Anglo-American fusion a delight to listen to. - Spiral Earth, July 2010

Katy Boyd’s an ex pat West Coast singer-songwriter, Benny Wain’s a Dorchester based electric red fiddle player and together they’ve been creating quite a buzz with their blend of folk, bluegrass, Americana and Celtic fiddling. Boyd handles all the vocal duties with a voice that betrays a Southern twang while Wain makes the strings dance and legs twitch on songs that display a keen sense of wit alongside social observations and emotional poignancy.

Opening track, Gravity, a girls together tale of a meeting between a teacher and a former pupil in which the latter discovers she’s dating the former’s ex-husband, borrows from the classic country cheatin’ song tradition and, at times, reminds me of Bobbie Gentry and Jeannie C Riley.

That Southern flavour percolates throughout, at times giving Boyd a hint of a deeper voiced Parton, especially when the musical mood turns to the backwoods colours of the jaunty Hey Grandpa, bouncy old school country pop Don’t Send Me Flowers and the more reflective Dad’s Song, three numbers that offer family snapshots and childhood memories that may or may not be autobiographical.

Other than the latter and the lovely Slow Dancing with its images of cardboard floors and paper dresses, the songs are all uptempo, allowing Wain plenty of opportunity to bend the elbow and scrape the strings, demonstrating why he’s held in such high esteem in folk and bluegrass circles alike on both sides of the Atlantic.

Flexing her wit, Doctor Doctor takes a poke at celebrity and the tabloid circus, cleverly using media satire to get away with lines about Paris Hilton being a harlot, tramp, nymphomaniac bitch with no concept of a job, which obviously isn’t the case. Humour bites too on Cinderella, a feminist spin on the fairy tale that advises her to refuse the footwear and seek independence while closing tempo switching Be An American sees the album off with a socio-political satirical bite about the United States of Self Deluding Blind Arrogance.

It may not be a fairy tale, but on this reckoning the pair’s career can certainly look forward to happy ever afters. - Mike Davies July 2010 Net Rhythms

“’Doctor Doctor’ is a clever number that pokes fun at Sarah Palin, Paris Hilton and the media. ‘Cinderella’ punctures the Prince Charming myth. Amid compelling storytelling, Boyd invests very personal sentiments in her songs.” – Palo Alto Daily News April 2010 - Palo Alto Daily News

"...very, very witty lyrics.... these songs are filled with wonderful stories about people, and sometimes biting observations on society. And lovely tunes, Gravity ... there's just something about it, it's just such a nice catchy tune. The album is filled with little gems and I think it's one to be enjoyed for quite a while!" David White, BBC Radio Cornwall - BBC

“Americana music that's not just catchy, but meaningful”

Paul Freeman, San Jose Mercury News (April 2010).

- San Jose Mercury News

"Really enjoyed the Centre Stage on Thursday. You are even better live than on the album because your personality comes out and gives the place a good atmosphere."

- John Baron, DJ Bay Country, Nashville Showcase (May 2010)