Flower-Powered Artist - November 2006

Sarah Sharp

In this day and age where there is a lack of appreciation for Jazz, emerges an indie artist who creatively infuses Jazz/Pop and a bit of Rock wrapped up in a witty, quirky and very imaginative lyric that is delivered in both conversational and sultry singing fashion. We are talking about Austin-based singer and songwriter,
Sarah Sharp.

Sarah graduated back in 97 from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, which earned her a Bachelor's degree in Professional Music. She wasted no time after graduation, as she quickly travelled to (by her professor's advice) and stayed as an illegal immigrant in London where she started playing live shows almost every night. Sarah used all the experience from playing live in various clubs and venues across London as a tool to hone her craft at songwriting.

Finally, after acquiring enough experience, Sarah decided to move back to the US and try her luck in the Austin music scene - to where she was critically acclaimed for her weekly Jazz gig and got voted as one of the top local Jazz musicians. She released an EP, titled Out Of Nowhere, in 2002 which received generous airplay in local Austin radio stations. Come 2004, she released her first full-length CD - Fourth Person - produced by renowned engineer/producer Dan Workman together with composer/arranger Kevin Ryan. What follows next is an extensive tour throughout the US and Europe promoting her full-length, which then received glowing reviews from critics citing her music as "smart pop." The album continued to gain enormous support and was released internationally on March 8th 2005 under Redeye Distribution.

Sarah was awarded both Best Pop and Best Jazz artist in 2005 at the Austin Music Awards. She has worked as a musical advisor and supervisor under various TV shows and side projects, one of which was her involvement in an Indie Film - Drop Dead Sexy which featured her song "Blame It On The Night" in the movie soundtrack. Later the same year, around November, Sarah played main performer in the legendary Cactus Cafe. The show was recorded and was recently released as a home-made CD, Live At Cactus Cafe.

Sarah is currently undergoing a hiatus to take care of family matters. A lot of materials are still being finished to make way for a new CD sometime in 2007. KGRL is proud to present this month's new Flower-Powered Artist, Sarah Sharp. Get to read and hear the KGRL exclusive interview with Sarah Sharp in the interview page. We also have reviews of Out Of Nowhere EP, Fourth Person CD, and Live At Cactus Cafe CD. Sarah provided us with a few exclusives: a live cover of Aretha Franklin's Dr. Feelgood and a couple of photos.

KGRL Sarah Sharp Interview

Sarah Sharp was kind enough to give KGRL an opportunity for an interview while being busy preparing for motherhood. Special thanks goes out to Andy and Sarah for making the audio recording part of the interview possible.

Listen to Sarah Sharp's responses in High Quality MP3 Stream using the player below:




Transcription excerpt from the interview:

KGRL: What inspired you to take up music as a profession?

Sarah Sharp: Let's see... As far as making music a profession, I think it was just luck and a series of events that started with me just knowing that I wanted to be a singer... And then it was time to go to school and I thought - well, I'll study music and I got a scholarship... And then it was like, oh wow, I got this degree and I gotta use it. The more that I pursued it, the more that I realized that I really wanted it... And that it could be a career.


-> READ the full transcript along with high/low quality mp3 of the Interview by Clicking Here! <-

KGRL Exclusive Sarah Sharp (Live Track) - Dr. Feelgood

KGRL proudly presents an exclusive Sarah Sharp track - featuring a cover of Aretha Franklin's Dr. Feelgood, recorded live at Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles on 02.10.06. The track features Buffalo Speedway (Andy Sharp) on guitars. The file is being streamed on-demand. Enjoy!



Use the player below to stream the exclusive track:



Dr. Feelgood (Live)

Out Of Nowhere EP Review

Sarah Sharp's first offering was a little 5-track EP titled Out Of Nowhere, which came out in 2002. The first song, Not Scared, is instantly recognizable as a result of her expertise in Jazz. This song is easily the classiest and most complex composition in the EP with the melody and guitar lines wonderfully flowing in familiar jazz runs. As the song title implies, she is not scared of bringing in her biggest influence in music - Jazz.

The second track is a ballad about getting out of what sounded like a hairy relationship, titled After You're Gone. Sarah delivers the song in a sweet but non-sugary type voice that presents a sharp contrast to what the song is about. If you don't listen closely to the lyrics you might find that this sounds like a love song, but it's really the other way around. Skillful acoustic guitar playing serves to complement this beautiful track.

Out Of Nowhere, the title track, is a slow heartfelt ballad that is again threading on Sarah's musical influence. While most would think the song Mom's High is all about Sarah's mom getting stoned, the song - in fact - is mostly about her mom's need for medication to regulate mood due to a severe case of bipolar disorder. This song is one of the quirkiest in the bunch and in a good way. Vocally, this is one of her early compositions that carries her certain style in song delivery - flawless transition between conversational-form to jazz-singing.

The EP abruptly ends with the last track, Magician - the lyrics of which is a fantastic metaphorical piece. This song not only puts the emphasis in Sarah's singing ability, but in song-writing and lyrical-creation ability as well. It effectively closes the EP, with the intention of leaving everyone wanting for more of Sarah Sharp. Admittedly, the EP does not show much of an identity for Sarah but what it does is show the raw talent that she possesses.

Out Of Nowhere - Out Of Print! You can request the songs in the flowerbox though :).

Tracklist:

Not Scared
After You're Gone
Out Of Nowhere
Mom's High
Magician

Fourth Person CD Review

Fourth Person, released in 2004, is the first full-length CD by Sarah Sharp. The album was produced by Dan Workman (ZZ Top, Destiny’s Child and Beyonce) and Kevin Ryan (co-author of 'Recording the Beatles'). The CD was recorded in a matter of months over at Dan Workman's Sugar Hill Studio in Houston. The effort and team that was put into the making of this CD is nothing short of phenomenal, but how good are the recorded materials?

The album starts out with the song Run, which was inspired by the American horror flick - Scream (where Drew Barrymore got killed in the beginning). The song managed to succeed in delivering the idea both lyrically and melody-wise - capturing the tension and uneasy feeling through the haunting background music accentuated with dark humor infused lyrics. While we're at it, let me take this opportunity to recommend viewing the wonderful "Run" music/video animation created by Andy Sharp, Sarah's husband - a.k.a. Buffalo Speedway on stage (Sarah's guitarist).

The next track is the perfect antithesis to the former, aptly titled Coffee Shop Song - inspired by late night coffee shop escapades. Within the happy feel-good tune, Sarah enclosed a tale constructed from pieces of observations of four different individuals as they go along doing their thing in the coffee shop. It's Too Late is a slow ballad that gives a brooding feeling, tackling a familiar theme of leaving behind a love gone astray. Time Capsule is one of the top slow ballads in the album that will leave you captivated with the way Sarah soulfully delivers this melancholic poetry.

Then we come to discuss about our three best picks in the album, namely: Can't We Just Love, Blame It On The Night and Finally. Can't We Just Love is such an amazing lovely lively tune in terms of both singing and musical accompaniment. From the prelude track that shows the playful side of Sarah and the boys to the actual song - it just reeks of musical style, quality and class all over it. From the way Sarah sensually delivers the verse to the playful chorus, down to the jazzy instrumental keyboard/synth-guitar solo - it's just totally amazing. Thanks to the guitar skills of Buffalo Speedway (Andy Sharp), this song almost reaches perfection.

Blame It On The Night is a bossa nova influenced track that is sure to make the Brazilian music genre creators Antonio Carlos Jobim and João Gilberto proud. This is the same track that was featured in the Texan Indie Film - Drop Dead Sexy that starred Jason Lee and Crispin Glover. This track easily stands out from the rest of the album due to the difference in musical influence - and that's not a bad thing.

Finally, we come to one of the tracks that truly identifies Sarah Sharp. The song Finally is really a rare gem. Once in a while you get to hear a sort of new musical style. One where you will always identify that particular style to a very specific artist/s, and with this song - Finally - Sarah certainly achieved a defined style. The humor-infused cleverly-written lyrics and conversational/jazz-singing type of delivery makes this song genuinely top-notch.

The rest of the songs in the album can generate a Buzz Factor once you Encounter these tunes in your record player. Just try to Be Still as you Surrender to the melody... You might just end up listening Too Close.

While the album has a lot of ok and good songs, it ultimately boils down to the excellent tracks that include: Can't We Just Love, Finally, Coffee Shop Song, and Blame It On The Night - that makes this album worth more than just another CD in your collection. Be sure to check out the video footage included in the Enhanced CD version of Fourth Person posted on Sarah's myspace page - Making of Fourth Person Documentary - filmed by co-producer Kevin Ryan.

Fourth Person CD - Buy It Now (Click Here)!

Tracklist:

Run
Coffee Shop Song
It's Too Late
Encounter
Time Capsule
Buzz Factor
Too Close
Can't We Just Love?
Surrender
Finally
Be Still
Blame It On The Night

Live At The Cactus Cafe CD Review

Recorded in November 2005 at the legendary Cactus Cafe, Live At The Cactus Cafe showcases Sarah Sharp in a full night of music with an acoustic set-up. This is the first show Sarah ever had as a major headliner in Cactus Cafe. The recording is as good as it gets, thanks to Carlos Sosa. Each song is presented with a commentary track where Sarah more or less gives a background about the songs. The inclusion of the commentary tracks makes listening to the CD a bit more intimate and gives you the feeling of being one with the crowd.

The set list is an impressive collection of songs throughout the span of Sarah's career so far. The highlights include:

Little More Care - A great song that carries Sarah's conversational/singing style. This song is a result of bar napkin song-writing over at Saxon Pub in Austin TX.

Magician - One of the best songs from Out Of Nowhere EP. Flawless falsetto and matching vibrato after the bridge part. Amazing live piece!

Blame It On The Night - From the intro up to the last note Sarah belts, this song gives the chills. The studio CD version from Fourth Person, as much as we love it, pales in comparison to this live version. Buffalo Speedway sure can shred the hell out of that acoustic guitar - LOVE the solo. Simply breathtaking.

After You're Gone - Glad that Sarah still plays songs off her already out of print EP - Out Of Nowhere. Great job on the falsetto again after the bridge part.

Coffee Shop Song - Can't say we love one version (Fourth Person) over the other (Acoustic Live). Just happy to hear this one live. Great song!

Mom's High - It's a joy to listen to this one in Out Of Nowhere EP, the acoustic live definitely gives this song a new dimension. We're leaning towards liking the acoustic live version more. Another show of guitar excellence - and the crowd responds to it as well.

Finally - A real gem! It's so good to hear this one live and acoustic. One can imagine how hard this song is to sing live - Sarah sure does make it sound easy though. Once again, great piece of guitar work. Gotta love the outro solo!

Let's get this straight; Sarah's strength lies in live performances. As we always say, an artist's talent or lack thereof is best seen in live performances. With that said, it is safe to say that this live CD will have you wishing you were there to see her perform live. Even the slow songs, which are underappreciated in the studio CD, resonate. Definitely one of the best live CDs we've heard in a long time - great songs, fantastic back-up band (Buffalo Speedway is great), and of course wonderful singing. The only real gripe, and a very minor one, about this CD is that we wish Sarah played the song Can't We Just Love? Oh well, you can't always get what you want.

Live At The Cactus Cafe - Buy It Now (Click Here)!

Tracklist:

Little More Care
Magician
Blame It On The Night
After You're Gone
Be Still
Feeling Good
Coffee Shop Song
Don't Say It
It's Too Late
Mom's High
Finally

Exclusive Sarah Sharp Photos

by: Todd Wolfson

by: Jeff Fasano