Singer/songwriter and former Elephant Room regular, Kat Edmonson, seems to be doing quite well for herself as of late. After performing with a handful of music industry fixtures (Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett to name a couple,) her Sophomore album Way Down Low, released April 10th, has held the #1 spot for record sales at Waterloo Records for the first two weeks after its release, as per Waterloo’s website. And we all know that topping any music chart in Austin is, of course, no accident. Edmonson, who lists Nina Simone as one of her biggest musical influences, combines elements of saccharine pop with sophisticated jazz to create music that might easily be mistaken for a recording produced in the 1950s Peggy Lee / Doris Day era–an attribute that Edmonson seems quite aware of in a song on her new album called “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times.” Edmonson’s own brilliance, however, can be found in her astute, carefully concerted vocal nuances. Her sparsity in composition and arrangement brings to mind, at times, famous minimalists like Bill Callahan, and at others there is a strong resemblance to bossa nova queen Astrud Gilberto–heard especially clear on tunes like “This Was The One.” If you missed her recent shows in Austin, there is a new music video on NPR’s All Songs Considered blog to hold you over until the next one.
-Erin O’Keefe