Menlo Park, CA (Top40 Charts/ Mark Pucci Media) Since its release in late 2011, singer/songwriter Katy Boyd has drawn rave reviews and strong radio airplay both in the U.S. and her adopted home, England, for Paper Hearts, a collection of poignant stories that are personal in their origins, but universal in their appeal. Paper Hearts was produced by Thomm Jutz (Nanci Griffiths) and recorded in Nashville, utilizing a backing band of notable musicians including Justin Moses (banjo, mandolin, fiddle) and Mark Fein (bass), both of Ricky Skaggs' band, as well as Fats Kaplin (steel, accordion) and Lynn Williams (drums) of Delbert McClinton's band. Thomm Jutz adds guitars, keyboards and harmony vocals.
Katy Boyd continues to play regular shows every other
Thursday night at Fins Coffee in
Santa Cruz, California, and has additional dates booked on March 16 at the HopMonk Tavern in Sonoma and on March 30 at the Cinnabar Winery in Saratoga. She will also perform at the upcoming Folk
Music Alliance in
Memphis in February 22-26.
Paper Hearts has already been lauded in the UK, where BBC Radio's
David White described her tunes as having "…very, very witty lyrics…these songs are filled with wonderful stories about people, and sometimes biting observations on society…The album is filled with little gems and I think it's one to be enjoyed for quite a while!" Back home, Paul Freeman in the San Jose Mercury News called her sound, "Americana music that's not just catchy, but meaningful."
The new CD includes nine original songs as well as a hauntingly beautiful cover of the Steve Winwood/Blind Faith classic, "Can't Find My Way Home." Katy has a talent to take bits and pieces of her personal life and turn them into touching songs and stories. Whether it's a personal story about an abusive parent, or a hysterical tale of raising four kids as a single mother, Katy's tunes have the ability to enrapture an audience.
A native Californian now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Katy Boyd grew up listening to American and Irish folk music, as well as Tchaikovsky. After a few chance meetings with folk music legend Joan Baez, Katy taught herself to play guitar and later won a Northern California songwriting contest. A short courtship with Virgin Records brought her to the UK, and although a deal never happened, she stayed in England for many years.
Katy eventually gave up playing music for some time and devoted herself to raising her children, but found the time to continue to make films and work on sailboats, two of her other passions. She went back to playing music full-time in 2004 and landed a small record deal with a British label, which resulted in her debut album, Ain't No Fairy Tale, produced by Neil Brockbank (Nick Lowe). That album resonated in the top 50 of the
Roots Music Report folk chart several times during the summer of 2010.
In 2011, Katy was invited to perform at the Belfast Nashville Songwriters Festival, where she met Thomm Jutz, producer and long-time guitar player for Nanci Griffiths. This meeting was the catalyst for her to come to Nashville and record Paper Hearts.
Besides the Belfast Nashville event, she's toured in
Europe and the U.S., playing such other prestigious European festivals as Glastonbury, Bath, Brighton Fringe, Trowbridge and the European World of Bluegrass Festival.
In 2011, Katy began a musical partnership with singer/songwriter Marty Atkinson (Cactus Choir), which resulted in them recording an album of duets produced by Thomm Jutz, which is expected to be released in 2012. Also recorded in Nashville, the new duets album features several of the same players who appeared on Paper Hearts.
