Kate McDonnell | Singer • Songwriter • Upside Down Guitar Player

biography

Kate McDonnell is a singer-songwriter and an upside-down and backwards guitarist. Fearless and funny on stage, she's been wowing audiences all her life with her heart-stopping voice and jaw-dropping guitar work. And her songwriting, as well as her recent co-writing with Anne Lindley, has won her a few significant awards.

Recent highlights of her career include:

2004: First-place win at the Susquehana Songwriting Contest with "Mercy" and "Softhearted Girl," both co-written with Anne Lindley
2004: First-place win at Plowshares Songwriting Competition with "Mercy" and "Softhearted Girl"
2003: Finalist, Mid-Atlantic Songwriting Contest, with "Lemon Marmalade," co-written with Anne Lindley
2002: First-place win at the Mountain Stage NewSong Festival songwriting competition, and subsequent
appearance on the international radio broadcast of Mountain Stag
2001: Performance at the Newport Folk Festival
1999: Performances on WXPN's World Cafe and at the Kennedy Center

Kate tours regularly in Europe and the U.S. and gets a healthy dose of airplay on folk and Americana radio formats. Whether her theme is love, politics or dogs, her songs unravel the human heart and strip the pretenses off the world we live in.

Kate's most recent CD is 2001's Don't Get Me Started. One month after release, the CD was picked up by the Swiss label Brambus Records and was on the top-five list for U.S. and international folk airplay, generating a wave of bookings and other trade attention.

Her earlier solo CDs, Next and Broken Bones (on Waterbug Records) continue to get airplay and are strong sellers with her audiences in the US and abroad. In the 1990s, she was voted #1 singer-songwriter in her hometown of New Haven, CT, appeared as a New Folk Finalist at the Kerrville Folk Festival and as a finalist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Showcase.

Village Voice, NYC: "Singer-songwriter-guitarist McDonnell doesn't seem to fear the label of being a folk artist. Promoting her third CD Don't Get Me Started, you get the feeling you may see others covering her tunes in the future, as she is a gifted writer in this genre."

Tom Paxton: "Kate McDonnell"s music has grace, intelligence, warmth, and more. Go see her!"

Stanley McGaughey, Café Lena: "Kate's lyrics are smart and insightful, her guitar playing ROCKS, and her uninhibited humor makes for a very fun show. Everyone who sees her loves her. We know you will, too!"

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