Katy Mae

Katy Mae is an NYC trio who sound like everything you loved about Crazy Horse, Gram Parsons, the Replacements, etc... The songs on their debut LP, The Sweetheart Deal, produced by veteran John Agnello (Chavez, Dino Jr, Jay Farrar) are remarkably memorable classic rock fare. The band are on tour as we write this, but they'll be back in NYC in no time. Please check em out.
- The Deli
"Successful bands form their sound by forging their influences into their own sharp weapon. Katy Mae's distinctive alt-country sound blends Reckoning-era REM with the rock sensibilities of the Replacements and the Who into a friggin' chainsaw."
-Ryan Humm | Splendid
Following up last years, critically praised, “The Lightning and the Sun –EP”, Katy Mae return with their debut Full Length album, “The Sweetheart Deal”. Recorded by the illustrious John Agnello (Hold Steady, Walkmen, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth) at Water Music Studios in NJ, with engineering assistance from Scott Norton (Son Volt) and a brief cameo from TJ Doherty (Wilco). This 11 track barnburner finds an upbeat Katy Mae, building upon the sprawling edifice of American rock music, with a sonically rich and diverse selection of songs, sure to rekindle a time and place when bands created albums to be listened to from start to finish. Playing like a sonic travelogue through a landscape of heartache and visceral joy, the band has created songs that seem to revel in the simplistic stomp of traditional rock n roll; Trouble Is, Sister Mercy, Ballad of Villainy , Turn Down the Lights, and yet unravel to reveal a very literate, and rugged cinematic arc; The Cigarette Song, Great American Incognitum The road trip continues with the usual bewilderment of newness and displaced familiarity that comes with each glance out the window. Stopgaps of plaintive beauty, Someday and Painkillers, juxtaposed with exhilaration and uncertainty, Sweetheart Deal and Nowhere to Go, and the enveloping restlessness of arrival, Pigtails and Ponyrides. From the passenger seat you can see as far as the sun will take you. If you close your eyes you can see farther still, wrapped in the immediacy of the moment. The subtle textures of piano, Hammond organ, banjo, and vocal harmonies, highlight each bend in the road and color the sky. “If we waited for the light, then we’d never be alive…” This marriage of traditional songwriting and dramatic sensibility is that indefinable element that is the charm of Katy Mae’s music and it is this “charm” that places “The Sweetheart Deal” along the likes of Tom Petty’s Damn the Torpedoes, Counting Crows, August and Everything After ,The Replacements’ Tim, My Morning Jacket’s It Still Moves or R.E.M.’s Reckoning, The imagination and diversity of Katy Mae truly come to fruition on stage, where their mixed bag of musicality has lent itself to a wide range of artists as diverse as Jesse Malin, The Heartless Bastards, The Drams, Bottle Rockets, Buddy Miller, Marshall Crenshaw, and Traci Bonham. Call it alt-country, roots rock, songwriter centered, or whatever the most convenient term of the day is, but don’t pigeonhole Katy Mae exclusively to any one. Borrowing their name from the Lightnin’ Hopkins song “Katie Mae Blues”, Katy Mae encompasses all the elements and diversity essential to any great band. As such, it is difficult to reduce this band to a verbal sales pitch when the whole is grounded in fearlessness and honesty, and a singular desire to create and perform their own brand of powerful music. .

Harkening back a few years to the alt. country era when the Bottle Rockets and 6-String Drag reigned supreme, Katy Mae make electric-twanging bar rock for failed lovers. The Brooklyn, NY trio rip through opening tracks "The Brightest Star" and "Whirlwind" with the blue-collar fury of West Coast rootsters Radio Nationals while "Safe and Sound" employs some Still Feel Gone-style rhythm changes and "Foghorn" borrows early REM strumming. Every song equal parts beer-guzzler and tear-jerker.
BRIAN J. BARR | Harp
I remember when I got my first taste of "alternative music" back in the late eighties. Turned onto tapes by R.E.M., The Pixies and Hoodoo Gurus. I loved the feeling of something completely different. That feeling returned when I received "The Lightning & The Sun" by Brooklyn's Katy Mae. Honest and hard working with songwriting from a place deep within the heart. Each track barrels through a whirlwind of rhythms and a wall of guitar that may just open a few minds to a new experience in this sometimes-uneventful world of music. Often with a western feel, Katy Mae may very well be your new favorite band! R.I.Y.L.: old R.E.M., Hoodoo Gurus, Pavement
- Monk
Katy Mae is beginning where many bands peak. It'll be interesting to see where they will go from here. A very solid debut.
- www.itsnotthebandihateitstheirfans.com
Albums and EPs available at: Itunes | Emusic | Rhapsody and your local record store