LONDON: BETSEY TROTWOOD

Monday 4th July, 2022

7:00pm

Event information

Black Cat Music presents... Karen Jonas: Virginia Country and Americana

Live at the Betsy Trotwood

Known for her stellar songwriting, sultry vocals, and compelling stage presence, Karen harkens back to her songwriting heroes Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan, with a sonic nod to modern greats like Gillian Welch and Jason Isbell. Karen is a two-time Wammie Award winner for Best Country Artist, Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest Winner, and Dale Watson’s Ameripolitan award nominee, and official showcasing artist at SXSW and Americanafest UK.

This summer sees Karen tour the UK including an appearence at the Maverick Festival

Her long-time collaboration with dazzling guitarist Tim Bray, joined by bassist/vocalist Seth Morrissey and drummer Seth Brown, has produced five full-length records, beginning with 2014’sinternationally-acclaimed Oklahoma Lottery. 2020’s much-lauded The Southwest Sky and Other Dreams is a gutting but “warmly nostalgic” (American Songwriter) masterpiece - proof of Karen’sability to weave creative depth into everyday stories. Covered by everyone from Rolling StoneGermany to Country Music People UK to American Songwriter, Karen’s investment in artistic excellence continues to pay off with her new release, Summer Songs.

Summer Songs is a collection of three KJ-penned songs and a show-stopping update of DonHenley’s The Boys of Summer. Thunder on the Battery paints a picture of a fierce thunderstorm with swooping pedal steel and bluesy guitar, while Summer’s Hard for Love sounds like sipping a glass of bourbon and watching the fireflies with gentle cross-stick and lush harmonies. Summer Moon is a sweet acoustic love song, tracked live-in-the-studio. Karen reflects on how writing hervastly personal autobiographical collection of poems, “Gumballs,” allowed her to find a more vulnerable place to embrace these gems from her old songwriting notebooks. “I began to hearflashes of these songs as I was writing my poetry collection, songs I started writing years ago. I reconnected with them and spent a lot of time reprocessing and editing. I was able to update them to my current songwriting sensibilities while maintaining the sweet vulnerability of the inspiration for these summer-themed tunes.””