Kate Walsh - A Little Respect

Earlier we posted the first of two tracks we’re streaming from today that consist of nothing but a female vocal, a piano and something quite moving created out of simplicity. Here’s the second.

Until very recently, when we were invited to DJ at parties or the occasional festival we nearly always brought along a big box of cheese. We were the gorgonzola of DJ’s. Nothing was untouchable – from The Nolans I’m In The Mood For Dancing to Mmm Bop by Hanson, we cut large slices and made people chew on it. However, as any dietician will tell you, consuming too much cheese is not good for you and so a process of metamorphosis was required before we became lactose intolerant. Now, there’s just a small grating of parmesan left on top of our choices of tunes – but when we do drop an 80’s synth ‘classic’ we find that A Little Respect by Erasure always gets a huge reaction – and we don’t mean emptying the dance floor. The reason why A Little Respect connects with people is quite simply it’s a great song.

Kate Walsh, the only unsigned artist to have an I Tunes no.1 album in the US and the UK knows this - it’s one of the songs that she has decided to record for her new album - Peppermint Radio, a collection of cover versions. Kate has chosen a remarkable set of songs - not always ‘classics’ but ones which have meaning for Kate herself. Tracks such as Monochrome by The Sundays and Subterranean Homesick Alien by Radiohead sit alongside Move Any Mountain by pop-ravers The Shamen and Unbelievable by Forest of Dean indie dance gang EMF. It’s quite an assortment, but they are all in their own way quite brilliant tracks.

For A Little Respect, Kate delivers a poignantly touching and intimate version of the Erasure hit. It’s time to take a couple of minutes away from life and enjoy its autumnal feel.

Kate Walsh is out on tour in the UK this November, and we thoroughly recommend that you catch this lovely songstress and enjoy her confessional moments of beauty.

KATE WALSH::Single -A Little Respect by GoodSeedPR

Kate Walsh @ Brighton Hanbury Ballroom

“This is a song about a boy I met once but nothing much came of it,” starts Kate Walsh as she glides gracefully into her opening song The Baker. This sums up Walsh perfectly. Her sweet sounding tales of personal relationships that didn’t work out are painfully open and honest. Frankly if we were dating her it wouldn’t surprise us if she took out her notebook every now and then to jot something down about how she felt, saving it up for a later song.

The Brighton based singer songwriter’s formula of easy on the ear acoustic guitar and confiding lyrics such as “I left you for another man, and he doesn’t deserve me” seem to have found a place in the heart of her audience though. The Hanbury Ballroom crowd listens in perfect silence; the only noise to be heard is the clink of glasses from the bar at the back. The sound is crystalline in its delicacy but also warm and full, with the sounds of cello, glockenspiel and piano adding depth. Variation is also added to the set with Kate playing a cover version of Erasure’s Little Respect, the lyrics seeming to have a deeper poignancy when stripped of its synth pop edges, even if a blast of sudden feedback halfway through sends Walsh into a fit of giggles. Later on Kate takes to the piano again to perform a classical interlude of a Debussy piece with her cellist. It shows what a fine musician she is and the ovation at the end seems to last forever.

However, the staple diet of Kate Walsh is soft acoustic guitar lullabies of the broken heart. Songs such as Tonight, about one night stands and tracks such as The Greatest Love and June Last Year from her new album Light and Dark are absorbing and beautiful, the kind of thing that given the right setting can almost move you to tears, particularly when her vocals are accompanied by guest vocals from Turin Brakes for two songs. If introspective girlish acoustic singer songwriters are your thing, then Kate Walsh comes highly recommended.