Where i'm from...
Kristi Martel is the only child of a single-parent French Canadian Catholic working class New England family, a family who thinks art and radical feminism are anything but ethical or practical or even real. She started making up harmonies to songs when she was three years old and started piano lessons at seven. Two degrees (Bard and Mills College) and 20 years later she's still at it -- composing, performing, recording, and teaching music. She writes spectral vocal work, books, performance art, and bluesy "alternative" songs exploring relationships, identity, memory and gender using tape, text, dance, piano and voice. Kristi’s piano playing combines her love of blues dissonance and syncopation with her classical training. Her voice is at once sweet and bitter, able to leap and sore, whisper and rattle, expressive of any emotion she chooses and fluid throughout her 4-octave range. To describe Kristi's January 2000 performance, Rita Felciano, San Francisco Report wrote, "An excellent singer, she chanted, warbled, improvised, throwing off multiphonics with the greatest of ease." Kristi is visionary in her lyrics and composition, writing her prayers for personal solace and quirky narratives critiquing various relationships in the same breath.

In 1994 Kristi won the ASCAP Foundation Grant for Young Composers for her two-voice piece, When Outside Gets Inside Through the Skin. With that grant she moved to NYC and created her publishing/music production company Sealed Lip Music. SLM's primary goals are to open mouths and to blur the boundaries we’ve created in these united states via the vehicles of performance and music education. She has performed her work on both coasts in experimental, dance and folkrock venues solo and in collaboration with many extraordinary gear geeks, dancers and musicians, including Fred Frith, Pauline Oliveros, Bob Boster, Dawn Frank, A. L. Dentel, and the all-women a cappella group, Making Waves. She has shared stages with such amazing artists as Margie Adam, Gwen Avery, Alix Dobkin, Rebecca Riots, Esther, and Allette Brooks. Kristi’s first CD (EP), give me a little... was released in October 2000 on her own label, Sealed Lip Records. Kristi is also planning to publish her book about making performance art.

Kristi is conductor of Arrowsmith Academy’s high school a cappella choir (Berkeley, CA). She also teaches piano and voice privately at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts in Richmond, CA and at Sealed Lip Music in Oakland, CA. She can be reached at kristi@kmetal.net.

You know, what otherpeople have to say about Kristi Martel:

"...Stylistically reminiscent of Joni Mitchell in her phrasing, lyrical content and vocal sculpting, she delves into identity, memory, gender issues and relationships...Lyrically, her songs paint varied pictures of a modern-day soul on the edge. She delves into issues with parents, wonders why loneliness is everywhere and what might be an antidote, spits out anger against games and miscommunication in a failing relationship, spiritedly kicks a lover out of her bed and her life, and proclaims her own strength...she paints a picture of a rocky childhood, which laid foundation for her own artist-activist stance..."
Half Moon Bay Review -- Stacy Trevenon, January 31, 2001

Give Me A Little
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1. Rise
2. Carrying Stories
3. Give
4. Comeback

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Debbie's first class singing has been impressing audiences for many years. An experienced vocalist and instrumentalist, she has spent her life dedicated to music. A proficient clarinetist from an early age encouraged her to pursue a musical career and in July 1998 she graduated with a Music degree from the University of Sussex. During her 3 year degree course she also studied part-time at the Guildhall School of Music in London which aided her musical development.

Since graduating 18 months ago Debbie has been working as a professional singer / guitarist in a duo and has recently completed worldwide contracts. Debbie's genuine passion for music, her talent and dedication prove that she is capable of succeeding in this competitive field.

A mini-album showcasing the beautiful voice of Debbie Kent. Five warmly personal self-penned tunes illustrate her rich musical background and experience, as well as the natural purity of her songwriting

So Far Away
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1. The Way I Feel (4:57)
2. All That I Can Do (5:59)
3. Let You Go (4:33)
4. Find A Solution (2:35)
5. Can't You See (6:09)

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Rene was probably learning music in utero, having both a mother and a father who were musicians. Many of her earliest memories are of her parents' practice sessions and performances. As a young child, she began singing in church choirs and was included, on occasion, in her parents' performances. It wasn't long before she picked up the flute , then the saxophone, eventually trading in both for the guitar.

As a teenager, she was influenced by such folk greats as Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, Joan Baez (and the other J's of that era) among others. While in college she was introduced to Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, and with that developed an interest in traditional music of Ireland and the UK. While teaching in upstate NY, she began her solo career performing outside of Woodstock and opening for such acts as Papa John Creech , Amy & Leslie and The New Riders of the Purple Sage.

In Portland, Oregon, she is making a name for herself at local pubs such as Biddy McGraw's, Kelly's Olympian, McMinnemin's and Kell's Irish Pub as well as Northwest folk and Irish festivals. She continues working on creating her own distinctive interpretations of traditional and contemporary Scottish, English and Irish music. Her new CD, Boudicca, showcases a wide selection of these songs. From slow ballads preformed solo all the way to screeching, rock style works with a full electric band, the words & stories in these songs are the centerpiece around which all revolves.

Rene has the unique ability to perform in a variety of "incarnations". She is seen solo at small venues, as a duo or trio in others and with a full band at still others. What ever the show makeup may be, -Rene's voice consistently stands out as being soaring and lyrical and full of spirited playfulness. And while -Rene studied formally growing up, what becomes clear in her performances is that her heartfelt music is full of life because her entire life has been infused with music.

Boudicca
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1. Blackwaterside
2. Three Drunken Maidens
3. Land Of The Leal
4. Queen Around The Heather
5. Ae Fond Kiss
6. Are Ya Sleeping Maggie
7. Old Maid In Garrett
8. Both Sides Of The Tweed
9. Newerytown
10. She Moved Through The Fair

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http://www.renecorbin.com

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