A S A CHILD, KRIS DELMHORST STUDIED CELLO and picked up other instruments, sang four-part harmony in the car with her family, devoured books, and filled notebooks full of poetry, showing a voracious appetite for life and art. But she was no dilettante: after earning a studio art degree, she lived and worked on a remote homestead farm in Maine, hitchhiked around Ireland while learning fiddle from old-timers, worked on a seagoing schooner, and led an outdoor education program for fifth graders on Cape Cod. Her original songs started coming in her early twenties, songs with pavement under their feet, dirt under their fingernails, and sometimes out of sight of land altogether.
Kris toured the country incessantly and released her music independently. She sold 25,000 copies of her first two releases, “Appetite” and “Five Stories,” on the foundation of strong performances and word-of-mouth alone. She’s toured the States and Europe with Dar Williams, Chris Smither, Catie Curtis, and Mary Gauthier. Along the way she garnered six Boston Music Award nominations, snagged first prize in the 2001 Telluride Troubadour Songwriter Competition, and secured her place in a stack of DJs’ top ten lists from coast to coast.
Between tours, Kris’s well-worn suitcase gets unpacked in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she planted musical roots in the vibrant Boston music community. This multi-faceted musician thrives on the range of opportunities to recombine and re-inspire — performing and recording as a supporting player on cello, fiddle, and voice, forming bands and side projects, and serving on the production team for two editions of “Respond” (award-winning compilations working to end domestic violence).
Her second studio album, “Five Stories,” features twelve songs that range from junkyard rockers to two-kleenex ballads, allowing Kris to flex her varied musical skills and enlist the talents of her many musical friends. Her latest recording, “Songs For A Hurricane,” trims back the range of instruments used in its predecessor, allowing the songs to breathe without losing the rich sonic textures of “Five Stories.” Come hear her intimate songs in an intimate setting.
$12
Combining alluring, rootsy melodies with the intimacy of the urban songwriter, Delmhorst is a significant new folk-pop voice.
Scott Alarik, The Boston Globe
[“Five Stories”] is definitely a record from the Boston crowd, which is a certain vibe, just like Austin or Nashville is. Great bunch of players who tend authentically toward folk and bluegrass, but beautiful pop elements also ring true throughout, and are excellently integrated. The lyrics of “Words Fail You” are so fine, and the touching harmony of the artist and Catie Curtis drive them inside the listener.
Frank Goodman, puremusic.com
Right from the opening “Waiting Under the Waves” it’s obvious that Delmhorst is an extraordinary singer with a big pure tone and a vibrato that’s especially wicked when she employs it to make the high end of her voice shiver. . . If you haven’t heard her in concert and you’re a fan of first-rate singer-songwriters based in folk music, you’ve been remiss. . .
Ted Drozdowski, The Boston Phoenix
