Kim Richey's Got a Hold of Me
One CD from 2007 that refuses to give up its place in my player is an album that is impossible to categorize. I find that’s often, these days, more and more of a good sign. In this case, it’s by a singer who’s never been locked into any one musical box, which I am also finding a good thing. The voice in question belongs to Kim Richey and Chinese Boxes is her first new studio release in some five years.
It’s always a delight seeing her sing live and also talking with her. She stopped in earlier this year at CMT to film Unplugged at Studio 330 so I got a chance to catch up on things. She’s been spending a lot of time in London, and you can hear that on the new CD. For one thing, it was produced by Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin, but also a musical force in his own right, with works by Kate Bush and, especially, the classical singer Hayley Westenra. The younger Martin has also co-produced, with his father, the Beatles’ Love project.
With Chinese Boxes, Martin and Richey achieved a pure-sounding sort of timeless, classic pop sound that evokes the purity of the Beatles’ mid-to-late career work. Richey writes with collaborators who match her musical vision, such as Mindy Smith and Joan Osborne. The title song, written by Richey with Swan Dive's Bill DeMain, is a charming allegory comparing a relationship to the intricate, nesting Chinese boxes. “Drift,” written by Richey and Smith, is an ethereal love song. But go and listen to some of Richey herself. I recommend you begin with her CMT Unplugged at Studio 330 session.
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Rick says:
Its great to see Kim Richey getting some well deserved recognition here on the CMT Blog, and from Chet Flippo no less. Kim is one of those supremely talented singer songwriters who was almost completely ignored by mainstream country radio and although she should have been as big as say a Mary Chapin Carpenter, instead she exists in truly undeserved obscurity these days.
I was blown away when I first heard Kim’s “Just My Luck” from her self-titled debut album back in 1996. She struck me as a female equivalent of John Mellencamp with that song. I rushed out to buy the CD and its remianed one of my Top 10 favorite albums of all time ever since then. Also released that year were Mandy Barnett’s self-titled debut and Jann Browne’s excellent “Count Me In”, which are two of my other favorite female country albums of the 1990’s. All of these gals deserved far more than being ignored by mainstream country radio since they didn’t sound like Shania, Martina, or Faith…..
Kim’s five releases have all been uniquely different and are so varied that her fans tend to have a single favorite depending on their personal tastes. I prefer her first two albums (the self-titled debut and “Bittersweet”) over the Brit-pop sound of # 3 “Glimmer” and # 5 “Chinese Boxes” as I prefer a more country sound. Kim’s # 4 “Rise” album strikes me as hippie-psychadelic folk rock that is both interesting and confounding at the same time.
Kim is a fantastic live performer and I highly recommend catching her act if she comes your way. I last saw her do an acoustic opening set for Joan Armatrading at the Sunset Blvd. House of Blues a few years back and hope to see her perform live again sometime soon…..
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