Business Offer

Personal profile

"Cothron writes smart pensive tunes that have a slight jazzy feel...and her voice is remarkable on each and every track. This young lady is sultry, provocative. and uniquely cool in so many ways." - BabySue ____________________________________ The music of Kristen Cothron is born from a dark Southern psyche charred by half-burned cigarette ash then soaked in sweet tea. Kristen's musical career began early. She was onstage at 13, singing the standards, but at some point she dropped out of the jazz clubs, dropped out of Berklee College of Music, and was dropped onto the dim stages of the Nashville alternative scene, where her persona took shape, took a drag, slid into thigh-high boots, and then got fed-back and distorted through an amplifier. Kristen carries her jazz background the way a gunfighter carries a rosary. To Kristen, jazz is heritage. It is interwoven in her twisted roots, inseparable, but masked by the mysterious character that has grown out of it. 2006's Love Letters from a Fool marked the beginning of her on-going collaboration with producer Ben Strano and signaled that a strong, strange, and sexy iconoclast had arrived to destroy and rebuild the temple of the female singer-songwriters. Kristen builds further on this foundation with her latest, Show Me Where the Edge Is, a bold new work with Strano that showcases her expert songwriting alongside that of her strongest musical influence, Elvis Costello. Whether on the three Costello re-workings or her own originals, each of the 13 vocal takes is impeccable - Cothron is truly a singer's singer, equally at home nailing one-take vocals in the studio and entrancing live audiences. Producer Ben Strano says, "If I could only listen to (or record) one voice for the rest of my life... I'd want it to be Kristen. She sings so effortlessly that the barrier between what she sings and what she feels is non existent... a pure channel between emotion and voice that few if any can match. Normally a singer is hindered by what their voice will actually allow them to do. Kristen doesn't have this (seemingly mortal) problem." For Kristen, Show Me Where the Edge Is also marks a daring comeback and evolution. After a serious car wreck turned her world upside down in 2008, she faced an unprecedented period of musical inactivity and self-doubt. For someone who often gigged 7 nights a week, the prospect of wiping the calendar clean was debilitating. True to form, Cothron came back swinging, building a new band around her and her trademark Telecaster, and pushing her art further than ever. With her renewed focus, she was able to turn the dark experience into the fire that fueled much of the writing for the new record. From "Edge" "To Edge" this is the work of someone who has seen the edge and declared no surrender... _____________________________________________ "Tougher than Fiona Apple, edgier than Norah Jones, Cothron combines cabaret and indie rock as well as anyone since Elvis Costello." - The Memphis Playbook "With an amber, sultry tone and an expanded vocal range that she uses with dynamic subtlety, Cothron applies late-night jazz chops to contemporary adult pop. She's the rare young talent who cares more about expressing a mood and a story than simply showing off her voice. While her relaxed, come-hither purr pulls listeners in, it's the depth of the songs and how well she puts them across that brings people back time and again." - The Nashville Scene "...Cothron plays the role of the steely and unattainable temptress, and artfully so with a seductive-almost-racy style that maintains an air of class and sophistication...Cothron isn't the first contemporary to take on jazz pop, but hers is genuine, not meant to be kitschy and probably the most authentic of its kind I've heard..." - Boro Pulse "Effortlessly mixing genres in such a masterful and subtle way is just one of the many reasons Kristen Cothron is a true talent in a sea of artists striving to be heard.Overlooking this album would be a crime, so do yourself a favor and give it a listen today." - Indie Music Reviewer "...blending Fiona Apple minor key blues-jazz-isms with trilling Gwen Stefani flourishes at the higher register of her range. Her command of her instrument (voice) is impressive as the notes roll across our eardrums effortlessly. She's a guitarist too, not merely model-caliber window dressing propped up by true musicians." - Classic Rock Music Blog "Cothron's songs sound both modern and relevant to her genre, as they're pushing it forward, while concurrently coming across as though Billie Holiday would have been at home singing them within her domain of smoky jazz clubs that populated American cities of the 1930's, 40's, and 50's." - WordKraft

Company profile