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Kathleen Haskard .......A 4th generation native Californian who divides her time between the rooftops of Southeast London and a tipi in a canyon on the Pacific coast in the Santa Monica Mountains above Ventura County Line. .........SINGER, SONGWRITER, political activist and all round multi-task force, Kathleen has her new album out on July 23^rd 2007 DON'T TELL is released on her own Howlin.. Hound label and distributed by Proper Music.

A SUSSED and culturally aware musician who passionately believes in the HEALING power of music, latent people power and that the PERSONAL is most definetly political.

STOCK TAKE

She WOKE up and smelt the coffee at an early age and grew up to know her family tree boasted a mexican folk hero and a RADICAL Irish partisan who was a VISIONARY footsoldier embedded in the American labor movement.A political ACTIVIST since her teenage years in California, she worked for Tom Hayden's Campaign for Economic Democracy. In September 2002 Kathleen joined the STOP THE WAR campaign and was one of over 100 prominent UK writers, musicians, artists and actors signing an open letter to prime minister Tony Blair urging the British government to oppose US plans to invade Iraq. Last year Kathleen had the honour of singing backing vocals as part of the choir on the new Neil Young album Living With War.

Bug Music (who have a writer roster that includes Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Robyn Hitchcock, the estate of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy & Julie Miller, Richard Thompson, to name a few) saw the songwriting jewels glinting in Kathleen's  eye and welcomed her deft touch and panoramic vision and signed her as a BUG MUSIC SONGWRITER. Nashville based co-writers include; Stacey Earle, Sandy Stewart (, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner Belinda Carlisle, Bow Wow Wow). In Los Angeles her collaborators include Eric Lowen & Dan Navarro (The Bangles, Pat Benetar, The Temptations, The Four Tops).

Her cuts include a song on Stacey Earle's debut album, Simple Gearle. The song 'Losers Weep', features Steve Earle on backing vocals. There's also 'My Own Way Of Doin' Things' on Lowen & Navarro's, Scratch at the Door.

MOBILE DELIVERY ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Kathleen has tuned up and asked for more guitar in the monitors with Chuck Prophet, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Lowen & Navarro, David Poe,

Ed Harcourt, Suzy Boguss, David Lindley, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band,

John Renbourn, Clyde Stubblefield, Nick Harper & Glen Tilbrook,

The Tiny and Robyn Hitchcock.

She has also worn her songs on her sleeve at the Edinburgh Festival, Galway Arts Festival, Mexico's International Guitar Festival at Zihuatanejo and exercised her throat chakra singing at American festivals including Durango, SXSW, NXNW, the Folk Alliance and Texas Rock Fest.

ALWAYS IN STOCK

Her debut album, Into The Deep, was released on the indie label Howlin.. Hound, to huge critical acclaim in 1998. The most gratifying review came from The Glasgow Women's Library Quarterly Newsletter (a very discerning bunch).

WHAT..S NEW IN

Her new album Don't Tell is a prowling/pounding melange of delicately carnal, driven, in the moment songs, carved from the inside looking out and delivered from the outside glaring straight into your eyeballs..................

Recorded in Bristol, London and Hyde Street Studios in San Fransisco, Don't Tell features five tunes penned solo by Kathleen along with a handful of co-writes with Chuck Prophet, Stacey Earle Toby Slater and Sandy Stewart. The San Fransisco crew of Prophet (Guitars/Bass), Paul Revelli (Drums), Danny Eisenburg (Hammond/Piano), Tom Heyman (Pedal Steel) and JJ Weisler (Gtr) are joined by London's Simon Alpin (Guitars/Bass) and Grand Drive's Julian Wilson contributed organ and vocals.

Prophet and Alpin have woken the guilty preacher, smoked his last cigarette and served him up a condemned mans breakfast whilst Kathleen..s songs challenge his congregation. These two men have produced an album of casual brilliance, letting the songs rise in the swirling swell of 21st century uncertainty.

Kathleen..s lyrics have deep connections with the latent sexual and emotional paradoxes all around us. She is blessed with the lateral insight to pluck the beauty out of the brackish backwash. Relationship dynamics are turned inside out, meanings spun on their head,  political warlord threads teased,de-lacqered and laid out naked in the street. Pregnant silences are decoded and given resonance.

Roaring, yet fragile, strong, and with feeling, Kathleen..s bag is 4 (Yeah, you heard right, FOUR) dimensional, chameleon-like, politiscised and leaves no carbon footprint. 

Paul Hawkins

www.kathleenhaskard.com                                   

Kathleen Haskard

Don't Tell

Howlin' Hound Records

****1/2

Talented singer-songwriter produces superb release, covering many different styles influenced by growing up and living alongside the sun-drenched beaches of California

Any project that Simon Alpin and Chuck Prophet are involved with has always got a good head start and this second release from Kathleen Haskard really is superb. Vocally, think Dido but with a harder edge. Dark and mysterious, Kathleen describes her music as folk-rock noir. I just love it when the first track on any album grabs your attention and with Second Star Kathleen hits the nail right on the head; a blues-based song on the theme of relationships that benefits from the guitar work of Chuck Prophet—he really does squeeze noises out of his guitar that are totally unique. The perfect backdrop to Kathleen's breathy vocals, his playing lifts the song to a different level. Play Me the second track on the other hand is pure pop, but with an edge, still retaining a commercial feel this song could easily be on Radio 2 daytime play lists.  Kathleen does rock out though, and the title track Don't Tell is a real rocker, almost goth, reminiscent of Siouxsie and the Banshees both lyrically and in the song delivery.  Apart from the normal line up of guitar, bass and percussion there is also some superb Hammond B3 organ and harmonica featured, especially on the wondrous track Will Someone Explain, a bluesy gospel style of song that is perfection. 

Kathleen is a fourth generation Californian and splits her time between living in London and the Santa Monica mountains—at times the album has quite a British feel shown perfectly on Loser's Weep, a co-write with Stacey Earle—a soft gentle folk song showcasing Kathleen's perfectly clear vocal delivery, best described as British folk but with an American twist. This really is an album of many different musical styles encompassing rock, folk, country and blues, but all having an alternative edge.  If you fancy trying something a little different from the norm this comes highly recommend. JHS