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Kaki King
Background information
Birth name	Katherine Elizabeth King
Also known as	Kaki
Born	August 24, 1979 (Age 28)
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Genre(s)	Post-rock Instrumental rock Experimental rock
Instrument(s)	Guitar (Electric and Acoustic) Lap Steel Drums Piano
Years active	2001 – present
Label(s)	Velour Records Sony Records
Website	Official site
Notable instrument(s)
Ovation Custom Adamas Acoustic Guitar

Kaki King (born August 24, 1979 as Katherine Elizabeth King) is an American guitar player and singer-songwriter from Atlanta, Georgia.

Early life

As a child, her father encouraged her to be involved in music, and although she was first introduced to the guitar at a young age, the drums were her first serious instrument. King played in bands in high school with classmate Morgan Jahnig, upright bassist of Old Crow Medicine Show. Upon graduating from the Westminster Schools in Atlanta, the two friends made their way to New York University. During her time there, King adopted the guitar again after years of neglect, and the 5'1" musician played a few occasional gigs, and busked in the New York subways.^[1][2]

Career

King's two earlier recordings Everybody Loves You (with Velour Records) in 2003 and Legs to Make Us Longer (with Sony Records) in 2004 featured more acoustic compositions, but her 2005 tours saw more use of electric guitars and loops. During some shows, she made it known that she had parted ways with major label Sony. For her third album ...Until We Felt Red, King made a conscious decision to depart from her previous musical direction,^[3] out of a desire to escape being pigeonholed as a solo instrumental artist. The album features King's vocals on more tracks than previous albums. With the prominence of electric guitar on the new record and the addition of a full band, the popular music website AV Club called the sound a “post-rock makeover”. Featuring production work by Tortoise's John McEntire, the album was released on August 8, 2006 on Velour Records.

King's official Italian webpage is hosted by Mechanism Records, who also redistributed her debut Everybody Loves You in Italy with some bonus tracks and different album artwork.^[4]

In a MySpace bulletin on July 5, 2006, King announced that she would play with a full band for the first time on her upcoming tour.

In 2007, she was featured as a guest guitarist on The Con, an album by Canadian indie-pop/rock band Tegan and Sara, released on July 24, 2007. She appears on the tracks “Knife Going In”, playing lap steel, and on “Floorplan”, playing guitars (Both songs were written by Sara Kiersten Quin).

She also featured on Northern State's 2007 album, Can I Keep This Pen? on the track "Fall Apart".

King has also appeared as a guest guitarist on the track “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners” from the Foo Fighters' studio album, entitled Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, released on September 25, 2007. On November 18th, 2007 she joined Grohl on stage to perform the track at the O2 arena in London. With fellow musicians like Serj Tankian and Jimmy Page in attendance, Grohl is quoted as saying: “There are some guitar players that are good and there are some guitar players that are really fucking good. And then there's Kaki King.”^[5]

On January 14th, 2008, she appeared at a Breakfast with the Foo Fighters hosted by Kevin and Bean from KROQ-FM, a commercial radio station located in Los Angeles, California. There she performed “Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners”. Grohl jokingly stated that he is "...molding her to take his place." She is touring with the Foo Fighters on the Australian leg of the Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace tour.

King also appears in the 2007 film, August Rush, performing as the main character's hands and playing his guitar parts. In addition, she contributed to the music for the 2007 film, Into the Wild, produced and directed by Sean Penn, playing “Frame” and “Doing the Wrong Thing”. Both songs are featured on her second album, Legs to Make Us Longer.

King has finished her new record, and in late 2007 wrote about it in her MySpace blog: “I finished the new album. Don't get your panties in a tangle, it won't be released until next year, but it's done. And it's amazing.” In a later blog and in a Billboard Magazine Interview ^[6] she told readers that the new album, Dreaming of Revenge, produced by Malcolm Burn, would be released on March 4, 2008.^[7] Recently, this date has been changed to March 11th, 2008.

On March 4, 2008, iTunes released a full version of 'Dreaming of Revenge' featuring the bonus track "I Need A Girl Who Knows How To Read A Map.'

King is a featured artist for Adamas and Ovation guitars. Adamas guitars' composite tops are well suited for her tap-style playing, as King herself noted on the DVD "Unique Voices - 40 Years of Ovation Guitars". The soundholes on her Adamas guitar are adorned with a cloudlike pattern inlay that King designed herself.

In an interview in the April 1, 2008 issue of Blast Magazine, King says she hopes she can be known more for her music and not just as a "good female guitarist."

“Ultimately, I’d rather be known as like, ‘Oh yeah, that sounds like Kaki King,’ rather than ‘Oh, she’s pretty good for a girl.’”^[8]

Personal life

According to a recent article in The Advocate, and other LGBT publications, she is an open lesbian.^[9]

Trivia

King has appeared in several Gardasil commercials to promote the first vaccine for cervical cancer.

She had laser eye surgery in early 2008, to correct her eyesight, which, once -7.5 is now nearly 20/20.^[10]

March 29, 2008 King couldn't find her slide guitar on stage and referenced her eye surgery as the reason she couldn't see. ^[11]

Composed a song for a kid named "Conner" (Conner O'Neill) on the spot at World Cafe Live April 11th, 2008.

Awards and nominations

In February 2006, King was named as a “Guitar God” by Rolling Stone Magazine, becoming the first ever female to make this list in the history of the publication.^{citation needed}

On December 13, 2007, Kaki King was nominated for a Best Original Score Golden Globe Award for the music she played in the film Into the Wild. She was nominated for the award along with Eddie Vedder and Michael Brook, who also contributed music to the film.^{citation needed}

Style and techniques

King's style combines fret-tapping with slap bass techniques, using the guitar for percussional beats, as well as sound layering and looping, which creates a percussive and complex sound. Her playing style evokes Michael Hedges and Preston Reed,^[12] the latter of whom she explicitly cites as an influence.^[13] Although she shares both similar playing techniques and a last name with guitarist Justin King, the two are not related.

Discography

• Everybody Loves You (2003)
• Legs to Make Us Longer (2004)
• ...Until We Felt Red (2006)
• Day Sleeper (Australian tour EP) (2007)
• Dreaming of Revenge (2008)

See also

• Don Ross
• Erik Mongrain
• Stanley Jordan
• Andy Mckee
• Tapping

External links

• Official Kaki King website
• Kaki King MySpace page
• Unofficial Kaki King Forum - join today!
• Live photos in Paris
• Interview with Kaki King in London, 2007
• Kaki King "Bone Chaos In The Castle" acoustic performance video for The Tripwire
• Interview with Kaki King Blast Magazine

References

1. ^ New York Public Radio interview, April 18, 2007 (access to video)
2. ^ Trucks, Rob. "Kaki King's Busker Therapy", The Village Voice, 2008-03-18. Retrieved on 2008-03-25. 
3. ^ Kaki King, the princess of acoustic fingerstyle guitar, heads off in a new direction, by Derk Richardson, September 21, 2006
4. ^ Italian Kaki King website
5. ^ Foo Fighters team up with Kaki King in London, NME magazine, November 18, 2007
6. ^ Kaki King Exacts 'Revenge' On New Album, by Jonathan Cohen, November 20, 2007
7. ^ Kaki King Album, Dreaming Of Revenge, Set for March, Modern Guitars Magazine, November 28, 2007
8. ^ http://blastmagazine.com/2008/04/kaki-kings-dream-world/
9. ^ Interview with Kaki King by Chicago Pride, August 16, 2006
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ [Kaki King show, Walnut Room, Denver CO]
12. ^ Kaki King biography by Marisa Brown, All Music Guide
13. ^ Interview with Kaki King on NPR (access to audio and video)