Karen Savoca On The River Road CD

Taking her lyrics from her upstate New York surroundings and her voice from the heavens, Karen Savoca uses her mind, her eyes, and her voice to relate and share the beauties of life. Along with right-hand man Pete Heitzman and Tom "T-Bone" Wolk (Hall and Oates, the Saturday Night Live Band), Savoca uses her chameleonic voice to connect with her music and with all who have the pleasure of hearing it. On what has been called the most important album of the year, Savoca takes the helm, mixing her voice with an astounding array of other instruments that ranges from clavinet to keyboards to conga, from marimba to mandolin, while Heitzman and Wolk provide deep waves of rhythm for her to sail on. The result is a sound that has garnered Musician Magazine's Best Unsigned Band award, an honor that Savoca is none too anxious to shake. Though "Till My Heart" opens much like Hootie and the Blowfish's "Hold My Hand" and despite the Raitt-y blues truck of "This Train," Savoca prefers grass roots to the weeds of big music, and does all she can to keep her sound original and fresh. Touring coffeehouses, clubs, and festivals, sharing her visions with intimate and immediate audiences, Savoca also shuns over-production. In fact, though listeners may swear they hear effects in the mix, aside from a few multi-tracked layers of vocal velvet, the only hyper-produced segment of River Road is a small mysterious break in "Eight Tons of B-flat." Mixing the lyrical folk of "Light a Candle" with the musical bounce of "Lucky Your Mine" and the award-winning "Language of Love" (which may not even be the best song), Karen Savoca and the Mind's Eye create an album that is free and light with a simple beauty that is undeniable. ~ Matthew Robinson

Karen Savoca's mom was the featured vocalist on a nightly TV show in Fresno, California. When her family moved east to northern New Jersey, she met a young builder, choosing marriage and motherhood over a singing career. It was no surprise that her little girl was always dancing and singing. At ten, Karen bought her first album on a whim... it was Life, by Sly and The Family Stone. For years Karen's folks drove every weekend from NJ to their camp in the mountains of upstate NY, toggling between country and city... early training for a life on the road. When Karen was thirteen they built a log home and settled there. Friends were astonished at her ability to learn the lyrics to any song in one listening. Although she wanted to play the drums, she got piano lessons instead. The piano was next to the TV, so she would jump up to play during commercials and half-times. She bought herself a guitar with the birthday money she'd saved, and when no one was around she started composing. Living on a mountain offered plenty of solitude for the little poet, and she wrote privately for many years, all the while performing at school, county fairs and coffeehouses. Never doubting that she would live a life of music, she attended Crouse College at Syracuse University, but Karen had always sung in her own voice, and the curriculum was operatic and restrictive... she switched her major to Elementary Ed where she developed passionate views about teaching young children. During that time she honed her singing style with several groups in clubs on and off campus. While he was visiting home from Atlanta, Karen met guitarist Pete Heitzman in a mystical encounter. He'd gone to a club to catch an old friend's band, and Karen was their new singer. They jammed all night... powerful chemistry evident right from the start. Pete joined the band the next day, and the two have been together ever since. Karen and Pete moved to New York City for four years... gigged, worked strange temp jobs, wrote songs, and saved enough to assemble a studio... and returned to the relative peace of Syracuse. By now the response to Karen's songs was so positive that they formed an all original, improvisation-laced band with the best jazz and funk players in the area. T