Kassi Valazza does one exclusive NL show this summer: TOMORROW

Kassi Valazza has a viscous, light gold voice. It swirls around in your head like whiskey in a snifter; vaporous, and intoxicating. For most of Dear Dead Days pedal steel and electric guitar lope along at half time, the in pocket rhythm section booming from deep in the low end. Its frequencies penetrate your flesh. The songs reverberate off your bones. Her lyrics drip down the inside of your skull.

Kassi is a superb singer from Arizona who marries gracious warmth of west coast singers such as Linda Ronstadt and Grace Slick with the rusty mysteriousness of British folk legends like Sandy Denny and Shirley Collins. The wide-eyed curiosity in her voice evokes true folk singers, artists unafraid of putting their eccentricities into words, into songs.

Musicians with Southwest origins dependably bring a languorous relaxation --the slow pace a defense against the oppressive heat of the high desert --and a grim sense of gravitas, having walked among the bleached bones and arid landscapes. At times Valazza sings as if her lyrics are smoke she's exhaling.

Kassi Valazza will play Utrecht together with Vincent Neil Emmerson tomorrow:
13/08: Utrecht, NL - TivoliVredenburg