Jazz-influenced Rock: Sonya Kitchell and KT Tunstall

Sonya Kitchell would rather people not focus on her age (16), so let’s settle that right now by saying that her debut album is five steps ahead of Joss Stone. If you thought the teenage soulstress Stone had a mature voice, listen to what Kitchell unleashes on her Words Come Back to Me. Unlike Stone, Kitchell’s debut is completely original work—original songs, original voice, and original sound.

Yes, when you listen to “Train,” you’ll be ready to make Norah Jones comparisons, but there’s this depth in Kitchell’s voice that makes her less of Jones’ cocktail party and more of Billie Holiday’s blues club. The piano of “Let Me Go” invites you a Jones comment, too, but Kitchell’s pulling at the strings of her acoustic guitar, humming out a much more soulful, bluesy end with a crack in her voice, a guttural growl just under the surface even when she’s getting airy like Jones.

The production of Jeff Krasno and Steve Addabbo lend just the right amount of strings and orchestration to give Words Came Back to Me equal parts of Rufus Wainwright, Beth Orton, Carole King, Rachel Yamagata, and acoustic Lenny Kravitz. “Think of You” lands right within that Orton, back-of-the-throat sound that grooves down some acoustic sidestreet.

The songs stay well-within a Jazz-influenced Rock feel with the way they follow a rock structure but allow themselves to be throw off of by bridges and fermatas such as the meanderings of “Simple Melody.” Because of those jazz leanings, Ani Difranco’s name should appear here as well as a touchpoint for what Kitchell is doing. There’s a Spring air with crisp wind, bright sun, and cautious eye on “Too Beautiful,” which only hints at a pop sound on the 5-bar chorus.

Thank you to Sonya Kitchell and Velour Music Group for the review copy.


For those of us who came of musical age under the tutelage of Michael Stipe (the early R.E.M. years), there are very long trenches dug by our heels as commercial success dragged us and our indie rock from the back corners of record shops, cramped clubs, and relative elitism. While I suppose we were always bothering our friends saying they were wasting their lives bobbing their heads to Paula Abdul (Phase I) and Guns ‘n’ Roses (Phase I), while I suppose we had missionary zeal for R.E.M., Meat Puppets, the Smiths, Sonic Youth, and others, we didn’t really want everyone to join us.

Because when they did join us after R.E.M. signed to a major, it meant that the arena for the Green Tour was filled with silly girls who knew nothing (I mean, NOTHING) about music and waved their cigarette lighters in the air to “Swan Swan Hummingbird.” My friends and I tried to blow out the offending lighters in the hands of the girls in the row ahead of us out of devotion to Stipe who—we were sure—disapproved of such a silly, wrong-headed, entertainment-over-substance kind of action.

How can I then today celebrate all of the ways that the wider media world is embracing K.T. Tunstall? Did I actually rejoice when I heard the “2-3-4” count off of “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” on a recent Desperate Housewives promo? Yes, I thought, “Oh, man, that’s cool. They’re using a KT Tunstall song.”

But then I quickly looked back at those heel trenches leading back to the Pre-Commercial Michael Stipe. I started to get mad, wondering how I could throw people off of the bandwagon before they sent that “Black Horse” up like some “Black Beauty” pop pastiche. The mantra rang in my head: “Once they co-opt one song, it won’t be long ‘til they co-opt the artist.”

So with my head still spinning on all of this, I cautiously offer my unabashed cavalcade of praise for KT Tunstall and her album, Eye to the Telescope. I know, I know, she’s gotten huge attention in the UK, and has been making a huge wave in the US that’s taken the shape of a thick stack of press releases. Yet, commercial success and major media attention doesn’t always predicate pop pap. In this case, lift up your heels and let commercial success lead you right to the most groove-talented singer to come around in awhile.

“Other Side of the World” and “Another Place to Fall” let the blues settle among the Britrock on the streets of England. “Under the Weather” has the ethereal quality of Charlotte Martin’s voice with the playfulness of Shawn Colvin. “Miniature Disasters” has the R&B of India.arie with organic acoustic guitar, swing-swagger drum set, and looped handclaps.

It’s all of that mix that makes Tunstall compellingly artistically unique. The groove rock of “Suddenly I See” lets loose something that we had only wished Sarah Maclahgan or Liz Phair could do; they just never had achieved something this fresh.

And besides background for a Desperate Housewivews promo, just what do you get with “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree”? It’s a Gospel, soul stomp akin to Toshi Reagon with Ani Difranco’s gumption. Then topping it off is a Joan Jett growl in Tunstall’s voice. This is a rock ‘n’ roll soul.

Thank you to KT Tunstall and Relentless Records for the review copy.