Kate Reid

about

"[Kate] is really a vibrant talent. She is a welcome island of wit and charm in a sea of whining, instrospective cack!" --Tim Readman, reviewer for Penguin Eggs Kate Reid is a whip smart wordsmith with a knack for candid story-telling and songwriting that is charged with humour and social-political commentary. A straight shooter but definitely not straight, she is as charming as she is in-your-face and is one of the most original, incisive and entertaining songwriters to appear on the scene in a long time. Raised on a farm in south central Ontario, Kate taught herself to play guitar when she was a teenager, using a chord book by The Eagles that was lying around the house and she learned harmonica by listening to Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold”. Other earlier influences included Bob Dylan and John Denver. Later on, she discovered Joni Mitchell’s album, ‘Blue’: “That album taught me how to use my voice. I think I listened to that album almost non-stop for a year when I was 22.” About the same time, she was discovering neo-folk activists/singer-songwriters Tracy Chapman, Ani DiFranco, Indigo Girls and Ferron when something woke up inside of her. That was the music she had been waiting to hear her whole life. Kate recalls, “I couldn’t believe someone could sing a song like “Blood in the Boardroom” or “Girl on a Road” and I remember thinking ‘I want to do that.’”

 Kate sings sometimes almost in spoken word style, musings about identity, love and queer life with an irreverent, oft