Tracy K
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Bio
Tracy K possesses the charisma, talent, stage presence and versatility instinctive of great performers. Whether it's blues, swing, jazz, roots or folk, vintage or contemporary, lead or harmony vocals or harmonica for a wide variety of projects, Tracy K has earned her valued reputation as a respected musician. She keeps busy on a wide variety of musical projects locally, and likes to tour as a four piece band or acoustic duo. Her music has taken her from Canada to the Caribbean as a stand-alone attraction and on playbills with other greats. Well known on the Canadian Blues scene, Tracy K’s talents have earned multiple awards and she is notably Canada's first female to be named 'Harmonica Player of the Year'.
About
.....“the real treat is Tracy K's voice - well controlled, and gritty as a whisky-soaked hobnail"(Jeremy Loomes, Edmonton Sun, 2007). Tracy K grew up in the tiny prairie town of Beausejour, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She was raised on sixtie’s radio and sibling record collections, while childhood piano lessons and playing around on her brother’s guitar awakened the songwriter within. As her musical interests developed with the British Invasion and psychedlic era, blues became her foundation. Citing Sonny Terry as her first harmonica influence, Tracy K started blowin’ harp while backpacking Europe in 1982 on an old harmonica given to her by a Canadian soldier in Germany - a lifelong passion was born. Back in Winnipeg, she attempted a teaching degree in music and art, but was diverted by her musical calling. Tracy K spent the rest of the decade in Toronto, gaining experience in the studios and on the stages of the bustling “Queen West” indy music scene. Motherhood prompted a move back to the prairies in 1991 for an eight year maternity leave where she raised three children. In 1998 she began her solo musical journey, devoting and dividing her life to her children and developing her career. In 2004, Tracy K moved to Thunder Bay, Ontario, and recorded her second album. “Her songs are very well written, a seamless blend of blues, country and rock - not a surprise, perhaps, given the Thunder Bay / Winnipeg focus.” - John Valenteyn, Maple Blues Magazine, 2007.
Well known on the Canadian Blues scene, Tracy K’s talents have earned multiple awards and she is notably Canada's first female to be named 'Harmonica Player of the Year'. Her original "Right Hand Band" (a four piece high-energy blues and roots-rock project fortified by the rarity of a female delivering show stopping amplified blues harp) formed in 2000 was nominated as “Best Electric Act” in 2006 by Winnipegblues.com and have appeared in two Hollywood movies. Tracy K was selected to showcase at the 2008 Toronto Blues Summit with this band who deliver her originals and choice covers of Chicago, Texas and West Coast flavor colored with jazz and early rock influences. Recently Tracy K has stepped out with her guitarist from this band in duo form with their unique repertoire of jazz/blues/swing. Tony is a truly gifted guitarist compared to Lenny Breau and Chet Atkins. Accolades are pouring in for the duo as their bookings increase.
Tracy K also performs acoustic real folk-blues with duo partner Jamie “Snakeman” Steinhoff on slide, dobro, and fingerstyle guitar. He lends his gritty baritone to the mix with great song choices from the 1920s onward. They were solicited for a private performance in the Carribean as well as co-written and performed an epigrammatic tribute song, “This Axe is Your Axe” for CBC’s Jowi Taylor’s Six String Nation Guitar tour. The duo has shared workshop stages and concert billings with the likes of John Sebastian, Bill Bourne, Tim Williams, and Matt Anderson to name a few. They were notably well received at their 2008 Ontario Contact showcase which has spawned tour dates.
Tracy K’s duo and her Right Hand Band were both recorded live in Ottawa by CBC Canada Live in 2008. A few of Tracy K’s many personal thrills include being the first female featured at the Toronto Blues Society’s Harmonica Workshop; performing at their prestigious Women’s Blues Revue; writing a song for a movie; writing a song based on the novel “Icefields” for CBC’s “Canada Reads, Ontario Rocks” 2008 radio concert; opening for harmonica legend James Cotton and sharing a playbill with one of her first female blues influences, the great Koko Taylor. Her fans keep hearing her on the radio, sometimes live, sometimes from one of her cds, and they tell her about it. They think she's famous - she thinks she's blessed.
AWARDS
2007 Ontario Independent Music Award for BEST BLUES
2007 International Songwriting Competition Award Recipient in BLUES and PERFORMANCE
2007 Toronto Blues Society Talent Search First Runner Up
2006 WinnipegBlues.com HARMONICA PLAYER of the Year
2006 WinnipegBlues.com FEMALE VOCALIST of the Year
2006 Winnipegblues.com ELECTRIC ACT of the Year Nominee
DISCOGRAPHY
Album “Old, New, Borrowed & Blues” ©2007
3 Singles for “Prairie Fire Project”, Canadian Diabetes,
2003 Single “Rock This House” ©2002, licensed to Zernick Von-Sertner Films, L.A.
Album “Welcome to my Fantasy”©2000
"Tracy K does a killer job on harp, something of a rarity for female performers in the genre. She has found a maturity where her lyrics match her vocals." (Calvin Daniels, Yorkton This Week, 2007)
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