kristenenglenz

[kristenenglenz]

So, Um, You Wanna See My Blog?

Remember when blogging was new? It was the OG Facebook wall. A semi-risque concept of sharing one's thoughts with countless strangers. Like most blogs, and other things we put online, this could be a horrible idea.

I want to practice writing more frequently. Being slightly externally motivated, my private "dear diary" graveyard of half-filled-out journals doesn't seem to cut it. So I'm going to put pieces of my mind here, where you, dear internet, might or might not (schrodinger's cat style), see them.

There's a good chance, like my hand-written journals, I'll be back in a year for the annual entry. Either way, talk to you, or maybe just me, soon.

[kristenenglenz]

The first episode of my show Caterwauling With Kristen (CWK) is out today! CWK is a show on birds, the sounds they make, and the people who love them. #birds #birding

[kristenenglenz]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” (Live, 2019)

If you’re anything like Sound Bites - and besides having impeccable taste in music, here’s hoping (for your sake) you’re not - the dearth of live-music experiences is one of the biggest regrets of 2020.

As the year began, the blog was hoping to catch Kristen Englenz as she promoted her full-length debut, ingénue. With that a seeming impossibility for the foreseeable future, her just-released live video of “Pray for Rain” - the LP’s standout track - landed like a balm.

As on the album, this version features the Blind Boys of Alabama on essential backing vocals. Englenz’s voice is more authentic on stage than in the studio, giving her deep, searching lyrics even more resonance.

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me/or have they already cried out salt to the sea/pray for rain or pray move on, she sings, with the Blind Boys chiming in on the last line.

Jimmy Carter does his wailing thing on the outro and though this live rendition skips the a cappella coda that graces the record, this unexpected little gift is a charmer. Sound Bites’ll be purchasing tickets to Englenz’s next (first?) Ohio date - whenever that might be.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” (Live, 2019) - A

9/15/20

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Song Review: Kristen Englenz - “Shelf Life”

Kristen Englenz is ostensibly singing about a doll on “Shelf Life.”

But the subject could just as easily be an abandoned pet, a jilted lover or Englenz herself.

That’s the beauty of the elastic, country-leaning number: despite its seeming clarity, it’s vague enough to apply to many things.

“It’s for the forgotten, the discarded, those lost, the marginalized,” the singer said in a statement. “In today’s world with so much isolation and separation, it’s hope for unity.”

It’s also one of Englenz’s best, most original, tracks to date.

A surprising leftover from Englenz’s full-length debut, ingénue, “Shelf Life” takes its time in revealing its depth.

Again helmed by former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer, the recording benefits from low-fi, slightly wobbly production that puts the focus on Englenz’s voice and lyrics.

Oh to have the time to sit there forever and wait for you/oh to never die, to sit there satisfied on loving you/oh a doll’s life/oh shelf life, she sings as the music fades.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz - “Shelf Life” - A-

6/24/20

[kristenenglenz]

✨Shelf Life • 6/19/20 • The final recording from the “ingénue” sessions✨

[kristenenglenz]

Album Review: Kristen Englenz - ingénue

Debut albums often go one of two ways.

They can be a career apogee as the artist uses up her best material saved over years of writing. Or they can be the harbinger of a musician to watch as she finds her sound and grows on subsequent releases.

Kristen Englenz’s ingénue is likely the latter - a solid debut full of songs that continue playing in your head long after the stereo is off.

The full-length LP is produced by former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer and follows her 2016 EP Extent of Play. It finds Englenz channeling Tigerlily-era Natalie Merchant on “Got Me with Goodbye;” two sides of Alanis Morissette on the angry “Rebound” and the tender “Good Enough;” Tori Amos on “Striking the Same Chord (At the Right Time);” and Fiona Apple on “Globe in My Room.”

While much of ingénue reveals Englenz’s influences, the haunting, existential “Pray for Rain,” featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama, hints at what might be her stylistic core. While the Blind Boys’ presence is delightful, it’s the songwriting, not just the guests, that make this moody meditation not only the LP’s brightest light, but among the best tracks to emerge in 2020 thus far.

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore?/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go?/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me?/or have they already cried out salt to the sea?, Englenz sings before the gospel group joins on the chorus.

Englenz is a woman of many voices, employing a breathy whisper on “Georgia Peach” and snarling on “Rebound.” And ingénue’s nine tracks are the sound of that woman searching for what will ultimately be her signature.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz - ingénue - B

2/28/20

[kristenenglenz]

My debut full-length album “ingénue” comes out today! 💗💗💗 Thank you to everyone who has made this possible.

[kristenenglenz]

Rebound Music Video Out Now!

💔🔥🤘

[kristenenglenz]

My new single “Rebound” is out today! This one has given me so much catharsis and release from anger and hurt. I hope it does the same for you!

[kristenenglenz]

Song Review: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain”

Kristen Englenz has a bunch of questions on her mind:

Do the waves miss the sea when they reach the shore?/does the tide feel a little low when the moon’s compelled to go?/are the rivers and the creeks a little purer than me?/or have they already cried out salt to the sea?, she sings on “Pray for Rain,” her new single featuring Blind Boys of Alabama and previewing the Feb, 28, 2020, release of her debut LP.

With wobbly, ’90s production courtesy of former Wilco drummer Ken Coomer; a low-key, atmospheric arrangement loaded with existential queries; and the Blind Boys’ harmonies on the chorus and the a cappella coda, the single from ingénue begs for repeated listens as it slowly reveals its many layers.

It’s as mysterious as the questions it poses. And nearly as impossible to fully digest; in fact, Sound Bites barely made it through his initial spin, fully absorbing the song only upon revisiting it the next day, when “Pray for Rain” hit him like a train.

Grade card: Kristen Englenz feat. Blind Boys of Alabama - “Pray for Rain” - A

11/27/19

[kristenenglenz]

“Pray For Rain” now out!

[kristenenglenz]

Pre-save "Pray For Rain" featuring Blind Boys of Alabama to be the first to hear the new single when it drops. 

[kristenenglenz]

Hi! Kristen here with some news from Music City Nashville. My debut full-length album produced by drummer extraordinaire Ken Coomer is coming out in early 2020, but you can get a first listen with my premier single, “Got Me With Goodbye” on Spotify now. Thank you for listening and please follow me so you can be the first to hear the album when it drops. 💙

[kristenenglenz]

So excited to share the new music video for my premiere single “Got Me With Goodbye”!

[kristenenglenz]

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.

Albert Einstein

[kristenenglenz]

I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.

Albert Einstein