Kylie Price is a New Zealand Country Folk artist and after gaining early recognition in Australia with a brace of awards, is developing wider recognition with an OE in England in more recent times.
She was born and raised in Dunedin. That Southland area is the home of Country music in NZ, and many local artists have gone on from there to bigger success. Always they succeed by establishing themselves in Australia, UK or America.
Other local artists which have gone on in this fashion include Jackie Bristow who is cult singer-songwriter based in Nashville now, and Matt Joe Gow who is gaining a good reputation in Melbourne with Country Americana.
There is also Jenny Mitchell, Kaylee Bell, Jamie McDell, Kerryn Fields amongst this group. Of course, Keith Urban was born in Whangarei.
Over the last few years, she has been living in England, getting attention by sheer hard work. Some London shows have been sell-outs.
London is a music mecca for artists and fans alike. There is a feeling that it is not a place particularly friendly for Country music. But this is not her experience.
She did do a sell-out show at the Camden Chapel. Camden is one of the centres of music in London, and when I wasn’t working, I haunted the place.
She had a guest spot on Nashville Sounds in the Round, as a singer-songwriter, at Birmingham Symphony Hall.
In The Crowd is the first single released, of songs she has been working on in England.
Co-written and produced by Duncan Brookfield, who gives the song plenty of space to quietly occupy the whole environment.
Spare acoustic guitar, with drums surrounded by a cavernous echo.
Price sings with a strong Country Folk style which sounds close to pitch perfect. She can easily float on the high notes.
Her first few EPs, Wanderer/Wonderer (2014) and Bones (2017), have many of the influences of the albums she grew up with, Blues and Country. More Nashville than older Roots country.
She has a distinctive Folk style and there are certainly some influences from Joni Mitchell, with her lyrics.
The current single pulls toward an Indie Pop style.
The song is written about raw naked emotion, but it has a peace to it which echoes the best of Country and Blues. Music being about transcending pain and suffering.
You broke my heart so easy/ The damage you damaged me with.
She sings sweetly, but the story hints at domestic violence. Why do people hang in with people who abuse them? The love-hate relationship is very hard to break.
Still look for you in the crowd. Price can look at her own faults honestly. She is singing from the point of view of a better relationship that has been her rescue. Why she can acknowledge the hold her abuser had. Somewhere her guitars got burnt.
A test of a great Country song. How would George Jones have done this? Dripping with pain as he changes the You to I.
Like all good artists, she draws from a wide palette of genres and styles.
Her work in England looks set to bear good fruit and we look forward to a forthcoming album in 2024.
Rev. Orange Peel
