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Home , Emmylou Harris, Faith Hill discography, Jim Lauderdale, Nanci Griffith, Viktor Krauss

KIMBERLY M’CARVER

KIMBERLY! M’CARVER “Here’s acoustic folk- country in singer- songwriter style showcasing the sweetest clearest voice since Emmylou first fried you” Folk Roots • PH 281-224-3052 [email protected] ! !

accolades & stuff ! ! • HARD WALTZ (2013), co-produced with Scott Neubert, contains 11 originals from Kimberly, and in- cludes musicians Scott (, ), John Thomasson (), Jeff Taylor (, ), Eamon McLoughlin (GreenCards), Claire Lynch. •CROSS THE DANGER LINE, Kimberly’s first co-produced, received great reviews and included musi- cians Aubrey Haynie (), Viktor Krauss (), as well as Claire Lynch & . •Her releases, BREATHE THE MOONLIGHT & INHERITED ROAD, drew ex- cellent reviews, national nominations & charted on Americana. Players included . •Houston Press Music Awards nominations for Songwriter of the Year, Best Acoustic/Folk (6 yrs in a row), & critic’s pick for Best Female Vocalist. •Jeannie Kendall () recorded her song Serious Doubt, w/Alison Moorer, charting on Billboard. •Kimberly’s songs have also been featured on: Texas Home - Texas Monthly’s Guidebook to Texas cd; Texas Home - Texas Highways Magazine Under the Texas Sky cd; Texas Home - ’s Texas Song- writers cd (live); Silver-Wheeled Pony - Kerrville End of The Century cd; My Way Back Home to You - Introspective Journey, a cd of 15 female Rounder artists released by J. Jill; Alimentar Mi Alma - Rounder’s 30th anniver- sary cd The Singer-Songwriter Collection •TV appearances: Texas Music Cafe, Houston’s Weeknight Edition, & local documentaries. •Festivals/Venues include: Lincoln Center Outdoor Concert Series, Seattle’s Festival, Houston International Festival, Glasgow Scotland’s Big Country Festival, Kerrville Festivals, Birchmere, Bluebird Cafe, Swallow Hill, Mucky Duck, Iron Horse, Passim’s, The Ark, Anderson Fair, Gypsy Tea Room, Uncle Calvin’s, Opal Divine’s, Threadgills, Cactus Cafe, and many, many more!

[email protected] • ph 281-224-3052 • www.kimberlymcarver.com • Texas KIMBERLY M’CARVER HARD WALTZ If you want to play in ’s big leagues, then you need to do so in the reviews biggest league of them all, Texas … M’- Carver’s music is born of the best of Kimberly M’Carver’s Hard Waltz: Purist country songwriting: honest, personal tales never clogged with easy sentiment PH 281-224-3052 Country Songwriting, Brilliant Voice. Hous- or self-pity. The opens with a title • ton songwriter Kimberly M’Carver has a track that will convince you of M’Carv- voice that will very gently knock you out. It’s er’s prodigious talent; Celtic-flavored sort of a cross between and with a haunting accordion and whistle vintage , with all the nuance of accompaniment, it will linger with you long after the fade-out. “Devil or Fool” the former and the sweetness of the latter. was inspired by the vista she paid to her M’Carver can sing clear and pure as a coun- brother in prison. The album’s standout, try spring, or turn up the vibrato at the end “You Say That You’re Leaving” is a gen- of a phrase for an especially heartbroken edge uine tearjerker. We’ve all been there; we … fans of hard country will love this …The just need someone to tell it and sing it it Never Gets Easy, a straight-up, backbeat right. The album closes with a good ole title track opens the album with a lush bed of country song with some memorable lead gui- country waltz, “Another Goodbye,” leav- acoustic guitars and an accordion solo that hands tar, steel and fiddle work, ponders a frustrat- ing the listener grateful for their off to a penny whistle - it’s very Emmylou, with ing relationship where “the heat of your touch with M’Carver. One can only hope that a little Celtic edge. M’Carver picks up the pace turned everything else cold.” Redemption, the fame and regard due to her is finally ushered in by this stellar set of originals.

[email protected] with the catchy new grass tune Bliss Creek and with its resigned blend of country gospel and Robert Myers, Elmore Magazine then brings it down again with the sweet, sad Tex-Mex, takes a haunting look at dead0end waltz You Say That You’re Leaving (promises repair and alienation and draws inspiration bend, souls they grow thirsty and love stories from the suicide of M’Carvers first husband. It including mine, start with The Voice, several end,” she laments before the gorgeous blend of contrasts with the next track, There’s Always writers giving her an edge over Emmylou Harris fiddle and pedal steel kicks in on the chorus. Sorry, a make-up song set to electric highway let alone Nanci Griffith, then move on to her Teardrops and Wine sounds like it’s pretty self- rock with a sizzling, spiraling guitar lead. The intimate lyrics (a few to the red hair & green explanatory, but it’s not that simple, and the way album winds up with the gentle, -tinged eyes), this time all original, …a double whammy countrypolitan waltz Will You Show Me The that, if nothing else, shows how little influence With a timbre tailor-made for Stars - dedicated to M’Carver’s astrophysicist an entire regiment of music writers has on the hymns on Sunday and a quaver husband of the last 25 years - and the vivid, real world. John Conquest, 3rd Coast decidedly Parton-esque, Houston- picturesque post-breakup ballad Another Goodbye Music based Kimberly M’Carver’s vocals waltz, something that would There are enough well-crafted, real country tears are a match made in Country be proud to have written. M’Carver has several on Kimberly M’Carver’s new Hard Waltz to fill Heaven for her true-to-the-roots other purist to her credit and has toured the late-night dance floor at one of those old lyrics and melodies … Duane with Jim Lauderdale; if she ever makes it up to honky-tonk halls out on the edge of town … Verh, Roots Music Report NYC, you’ll hear about it here. delarue, New York Music Daily Kimberly has been at it a long time “Such a good writer, in the great tradi- and it tells, Hard Waltz is her best tion of artists like Nanci Griffith,” work to date! KPFT 90.1, Wide Routes and Branches, KRFC

Open Spaces, Roark Smith 88.9FM, Colorado ! Back in 1989, the intent of Music City was to M’Carver slides up to a note on the second cho- focus on Austin musicians but that didn’t even rus will give you chills. Rodeo Clown was in- last the first year because country folk singer- spired by M’Carver’s second cousin, who is the songwriter Kimberly M’Carver came in from Tom Geddie, Buddy Magazine genuine item - but the song casts the singer in the Houston, knocked me out with both her live show it’s a no frills, perfectly produced, largely acoustic role of someone who’s “always there to pick you and Breathe the Moonlight (Philo/Rounder set … absent of any pickup trucks, shotguns, or up when you’re knocked down.” It’s a neat twist. 1990) and claimed the cover of #11 … crossover-pop ambitions, Hard Waltz requires Devil or Fool, with it’s slow-burning, - M’Carver has cast a similar spell over so many little more than M’Carver’s pristine soprano to drenched slide guitar, makes a stark contrast, music writers, Texan, national and international, carry it home … Chris Gray, Houston taking its inspiration from M’Carver’s many all competing with each other to up the superla- Press trips to Sugar Land prison to visit her brother, tives … Most reviews of M’Carver’s albums, who was in for drugs and probation violation. It

[email protected] • ph 281-224-3052 • www.kimberlymcarver.com • Texas KIMBERLY M’CARVER CROSS THE DANGER LINE “The Houstonite’s soprano could have been developed by NASA; light & delicate as gos- reviews! samer, strong & flexible as tita- ! nium, a marvelously nuanced Anyone who’s ever experienced the country folk instrument that, for all its gen- of Houston singer-songwriter Kimberly M’- tleness and elegance, effortless- Carver knows that she believes in symbolism. ly dominates the proceedings. This isn’t just good separations For her, train whistles are synonymous with in the recording, she does it live loneliness, and a city like “Santa Fe” drowns as well. M’Carver could well with spirituality ... On the cover of her latest have achieved commercial suc- album, “Cross The Danger Line,” she has cess simply as a diva, but she’s stunning long hair the color of a red fox and also a remarkable songwriter, whose folk-country has a simi- green eyes. In person her stare is even more pene- lar dichotomy, combining trating ... one realizes how thin the line is be- poignant vulnerability with cool tween stardom and the search for it. A listen to self-assurance.” “Cross The Danger Line” makes one wonder Only M’Carver’s may be an even purer voice Third Coast Music why some promoter hasn’t helped her cross it ... than Harris’, a voice with wider range and Austin TX Combining a mix of Nanci Griffith country-folk uncannily perfect pitch and tone ... M’Carver modernism and blue-collar has a Hall of Fame voice, one of those rare • PH 281-224-3052 [email protected] strength, M’Carver has forged a collection of vocal instruments most artists would kill to songs and performances that most country artists have ... Not only is M’Carver’s voice in ex- Texas” or whatever their latest fraudulent false- would love to call their own Houston Chron- cellent form on her first release in seven years, advertising buzz-phrase is. Or else it proves that icle Cross The Danger Line, her songwriting just the County Health Examiner needs to offer free M’Carver is another of Houston’s buried keeps reaching new heights. The fact that her hearing aids to the obviously impaired radio treasures ... If at some date in the future some “Death and Texas” isn’t being heard across the programmers in town. Come on, people, listen up. industrious independent filmmaker decides to do radio dial in Houston is another sign that the We’ve got a winner here right in our midst and the Emmylou Harris story, don’t be surprised if district attorney needs to investigate some of these her name isn’t Shania or Martina or Faith! Kimberly M’Carver stars as Ms. Harris ... local programmers who keep claiming they play

“The Songs of Texas” or “The Sounds of Rockzillaworld

Willie ever did, but there’s a literary quality to “M’Carver is such a sweet, heart- M’Carver’s work that elevates it above the pork grabbing singer, Cross The Danger rinds and pickup trucks. Line is simply one of the finest Traverse City Record-Eagle Americana albums of 2001.” ... a sitting-on-the-beach-house-porch-in-a- Boston Herald breezy-sunset ambience ... M’Carver’s voice ! covers the same full-throated range that Emmy- Only M’Carver’s voice is as sweet and magical lou Harris’s does, but has a sweeter, more as your first kiss. Her music delicately lingers in “dulcet” tone, and here she applies it lovingly ... the air with a comforting and intimate familiari- She shows clearly with Danger Line that she no ty. A tender rustic artist with a classic style. longer needs label help in putting out first-rate Songwriter’s Monthly ... with a clear passionate voice often compared to stuff. Houston Press Emmylou Harris and knack for punchy sellf- Think the clear voice of Dolly Parton ... mocking lyrics that recalls the best of Loretta and the big-eye flowing-hair mystique of Stevie Lynn, she still has the soulful looks and acoustic Nicks, ... and you have the aura of Houston matrix of the classic folk performer... Take the singer-songwriter M’Carver ...the former lyrics to Fix’n Paint, a song built around the Rounder artist releases three covers and seven image of a battered barroom chair, that came to originals that oscillate nicely between a pristine M’Carver in a dream. It’s a bleak tune that bluegrass and an edgy Texas sound. Country Standard Time speaks about morning-after disillusionment ... When it comes to country-folk few can com- it’s as world weary as anything Waylon or pete with M’Carver ... when one listens to the

[email protected] • ph 281-224-3052 • www.kimberlymcarver.com • Texas KIMBERLY M’CARVER

“Waterford crystal? As both singer and songwriter, M’- Carver’s silky combination of delicacy and strength rather inspires flowery metaphor ... she somehow creates a still, serene space round her gentle, elegant vocals and the frag- ile poetry of her songs, floating effortlessly clear of her instrumental accompaniment, and this is true in live per- formances as well as on record.” Music City News Austin TX

woman - and Inherited Road shows an artist The pairing of Philo and M’Carver pro- who knows where she’s from, who has a strong duced the Breathe the Moonlight debut, which sense of where she’s going, and a willingness to drew a round of raves for the Emmylou-like go the distance to seek what will ultimately be a clarity of M’Carver’s pipes and the sympathetic voice that’s distincly hers. CD Review realism of her songs - qualities abundantly rep- A startling debut effort ... a refreshing, unpol- resented on M’Carver’s follow-up, Inherited luted collection of downhome, touching tales ... Road. M’Carver’s got one hell of a way with

• PH 281-224-3052 [email protected] an album of solid songs. All of M’Carver’s words, and if a picture is worth a thousand of yarns sound like real stories about real people. ‘em, these tunes are closer to portraits than sto- first three songs, ... he or she knows that M’- The album’s poignant opener, Silver-Wheeled ries. Houston Press Carver has hit upon the right approach: ... su- Pony, guarantees to make even the most jaded of Superb debut album ... at once lilting and perb song choices topped by her expressive voice, heart soften up inside. The Austin Chroni- saddening, Breathe the Moonlight is a radiant confident and comfortable ... She avoids the clich- cle collection that bears - even demands - repeated es of the genre ... Both Santa Fe and Sweetest It’s clear the evocative mood setting work of listening and rewards the same with hauntingly fellow Texans such as , Surrender have the feeling of classics. All Mu- nuanced performances ... Ft. Worth Star- and rubbed off on her ... It’s Telegram sic Guide clear she has Texas and its environs in her soul. expresses power and angst and weaves a story ! The songs here contain elements of the border line much as Harry Chapin once did. Burling- INHERITED ROAD & gumbo that is Texas music ... She’s more than ton County Times, Willingboro NJ ! able to allow listeners to feel the emotions in her Her presentation is so in-touch with the BREATHE THE MOONLIGHT songs without wallowing in bathos. M’Carver meaning of her songs, I’d wager that listeners writes about love, dreams and longing in precise, who do not understand the English language will cool language and makes all those states palpable be able to feel the mood of each track nevertheless

reviews with her intimate soprano. Inherited Road gives ... Breathe the Moonlight is an impressive first

you a slice of M’Carver’s Texas. Houston album in all respects. Dirty Linen M’Carver’s Inherited Road is so full of that Post Texas border country-folk flavor that one should M’Carver returns with a veritable tour de qualify for frequent flyer miles to that region after force of melody and magic. The Waiting was just a few listens ... This Cold Night and Blue “If there’s one thing Texas song- truly worthwhile. Welcome home. Brum Beat, Norther serve up that perfect blend of country- writers learn, it’s how to tell a Great Britain good story. On her second album, meets-bluegrass. Gavin Report Americana M’Carver proves she’s learned Chart that lesson well with a low-key set Texas produces rowdy honky-tonkers, of tunes that could easily be straight-up traditionalists, and spinners of tales. adapted into a trilogy of one-act M’Carver falls squarely into the arms of the plays ... M’Carver’s lyrics are si- multaneously conversational and latter, writing about moments so clearly that you poetic - an irresistible blend - and feel like you’ve been transported across time and her wounded soprano is the per- space ... M’Carver’s musical spirit soars on the fect instrument for spinning these wings of bluegrass-inflected folkabilly ... she yarns ... like any good artist, M’- breathes an intimacy that suggests , Carver aims for the heart, not the charts, and she consistently hits gives vocal interpretations worthy of vintage her mark.” Dolly Parton, and provides just a touch of the ! border romance that has set Tish Hinojosa apart ! New Country from the crowd. But M’Carver is her own TN

[email protected] • ph 281-224-3052 • www.kimberlymcarver.com • Texas