Reviews for Play Me Out
Reviews for Strange Religion
Reviews for Into the Fray
LURID, LYRICAL, LYNCHIAN SOUNDS FROM ECLECTIC NEW MEXICAN KRISTY HINDS
by Delarue, New York Music Daily
“This is when the road divides, this is when I’ll break your heart, this is where the violence starts…play me out,” she teases luridly in the ep’s title track. “Rich men in the white coats, and the shark teeth” don’t hold up too well here.
“She has a fearlessly populist sensibility.”
Delarue, New York Music Daily
Songwriter Kristy Hinds has played everything from 80s-inspired rock, to bossa nova and other tropical, often trippy sounds. Mentored as a gradeschooler by Bo Diddley – a fellow rancher in her native New Mexico – she began as a singer and percussionist, moved to guitar and most recently, ukulele. Lately she’s taken a surreal, absolutely Lynchian plunge into dub reggae. Just as auspiciously, she scored John Funkhouser – a rare triple threat on jazz piano, organ and bass – to join her on her latest short album Play Me Out, streaming at her music page.
On the second song, Feeling Good, Hinds rises out of murky mystery to stark, spare reggae with a sleek, slinky organ solo. Funkhouser’s creepy bass drone underneath is luscious. For the last song, Hinds reinvents Fleetwood Mac’s Gold Dust Woman at just about doublespeed, as straight-up backbeat rock – and, it’s cool to be able to actually understand the song’s lyrics for once! Funkhouser winds it up with a crashing, crescendoing piano solo.
Hinds also has a ton of music up at her Soundcloud page, a mix of rock, jazz and latin styles. And she has a fearlessly populist sensibility: check out Images in a Box, her snarky anti-corporate media broadside. Her next gig is at 5 PM on July 18 at Corrales Bistro Brewery, 4908 Corrales Rd. in Corrales, New Mexico.
A SMART, DARKLY LYRICAL CATCHY NEW ALBUM FROM KRISTY HINDS
by Delarue, New York Music Daily
Kristy Hinds is not a pretender. She is the real deal. The New Mexico chanteuse has a voice that can be sassy one moment, pillowy the next, with a sophisticated command of jazz phrasing and an irrepressible sense of humor. Which you pretty much need to have, if your axe is the ukulele. But as a songwriter, Hinds’ mini-movies are more serious and substantial, and tinged with noir menace, than you usually hear plinked out on that little instrument. Alongside other members of the uke demimonde, Bliss Blood is the obvious comparison. Hinds has a new short album, Strange Religion streaming at Soundcloud.
“As a songwriter, Hinds’ mini-movies are more serious and substantial, and tinged with noir menace.”
Delarue, New York Music Daily
The opening track, Miss Morocco is a catchy, slinky cha-cha with the kind of double entendres that Hinds has a knack for, i.e. this femme fatale and would-be starlet “killed him with a head shot.” Track two, She Told Someone, has a funky Rhodes piano bounce behind Hinds’ vengeful narrative about speaking truth to power after a grim Metoo moment: that’s Robert Muller at the keys, with Claudio Tolousse on guitar and Arnaldo Acosta on drums. Samantha Harris and Colin Deuble share bass duties on the record.
The closing diptych, Burn or Drown and Drive begins as a reggae tune: “A daily sacrifice is needed to keep the mice in bullets – my car outside is loaded,” Hinds relates.
While you’re at Hinds’ Soundcloud page, check out the live tracks: flying without a net, she’s arguably even more dynamic onstage than she is in the studio. Hinds’ next gig will be a weekly 9 PM Friday night residency at Old Town Farm Bike-in Coffee, 949 Montoya St NW in Albuquerque as soon as they reopen next month.
WORTH THE WAIT
Back Home
By Mel Minter
Gold lamé hotpants were not a typical part of the wardrobe for a young girl growing up in Bosque Farms back in the day. But singer/songwriter Kristy Hinds was not your typical Bosque Farms girl in at least one respect: thanks to an unlikely friendship between her horse-trading grandmother and Bo Diddley, who who was living in Los Lunas, nine-year-old Hinds soon found herself hanging out with the rock and roll legend’s two daughters and playing the tambourine in the family band. “I do have drumming talent, so he must have spied that,” says Hinds.
The experience opened up music as a career possibility for the youngster, who’d had piano lessons and had picked up a guitar along the way. “We were just doing these amazing things, and it just seemed like, ‘Well, that’s how life is. This is what we do. This could happen,’” she says. Happen it did. Her musical journey found its first success in the Northwest, and then, after a hiatus, it resumed in Albuquerque, where in February, she released an EP, Strange Religion, which has already garnered positive reviews. The EP’s three songs all feature Hinds’ signature sardonic sense of humor, her unflinching assessment of the zeitgeist, and her charming fearlessness.
At age 19, finding herself without much direction after several semesters in college, Hinds suddenly got “a bolt-out-of-the-blue lightning strike that told me I should go to Europe,” she says. “So I did that. I did a walkabout.” Visiting a cousin in Germany, she picked up his guitar and suddenly found herself with a mission: “I was going to go home and learn to play guitar,” she says.
“The EP’s three songs all feature Hinds’ signature sardonic sense of humor, her unflinching assessment of the zeitgeist, and her charming fearlessness.”
— Mel Minter, Albuquerque the Magazine
She started writing songs and attended the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles before settling in Portland, Oregon. Portland was fertile ground for Hinds, who had various bands and gigged regularly. “I made recordings along the way,” she says. “Then, I assembled them and put them out as a single CD”—1998’s very well received album, Into the Fray. She also hooked up with some South Americans and, in partnership with the late Chilean percussionist Luis Opazo, formed Via Brasil. “We played jazz with crazy beats,” says Hinds.
Hinds had a graphic design business that started doing very well at about the same time that she became pregnant with her daughter, Kai, so she put music on the back burner. A few years after Kai’s birth, Hinds found her New Mexico home calling. “It does take a village,” she says. So in 2004, they headed home.
A couple of years ago, Hinds dad passed away, and his passing awoke her musical muse. “That kind of kick-started something, I think,” she says. “A deep emotional seed broke open, and a lot of creativity has come from that.”
In her renewed focus on songwriting, she got some help from a ukulele, which had been lying around for a while. She finally taught herself to play it, and she discovered that “it’s easier to tease a melody” from just four strings. “There are not as many strings to get between you and the music,” she says.
Building a tune, whether on uke, guitar, or piano, gives Hinds the greatest satisfaction, but performing is not that far behind. So she found her way into the weekly jam session at Ben Michael’s Restaurant and found backing musicians for her EP. The EP’s reception has been validating for Hinds, and she’s writing more material. She has to, because she’s driven to comment by a “strong sense of justice” and the need to connect with others on a human level. “This is my point of view. I want to get that out and start the conversation,” she says, “because if people do sit down, they do find things in common, and they tend to like each other.” WWW.ABQTHEMAG.COM | APRIL 2020
Strange Religion
“We’ve been listening to the EP for days now, trying to get a complete understanding of a brief work that is filled to the brim with quirk, nuance and damn fine tuneage.”
August March, Weekly Alibi
MUSIC INTERVIEW
SMOOTH STYLE OF SYNCOPATION
Kristy Hinds and her Strange Religion
By August March
Kristy Hinds sent Weekly Alibi an email. She sent that email to the music editor, August March. The electronic missive detailed her career as a musician who came up in New Mexico among some of the state’s most interesting and important musicians, her trip and success away from here on the Left Coast, as well as her recent return to the state to make some of the most richly complex and dreamily danceable Latinx-infused jazz-pop to ever come out of The Land of Enchantment. Read More …
Reviews for Into the Fray
“Now this is how pop music should sound — smart.“
Now this is how pop music should sound – smart. Singer-songwriter Kristy Hinds’ first solo CD, “Into the Fray” has a cool, hip sound that goes down easy. But her music is laced with punch and beauty. Imagine Sade singing late-period Joni Mitchell, or a feminine Donald Fagen. Smart pop has depth of feeling and individuality as well as the catchy hooks and simple grooves you need on the radio. And Hinds’ music is in the smart pop mainstream. Harmonic sophistication runs beneath the bright, smooth jazz-adult contemporary surfaces, supporting her 11 original tunes on a solid foundation. With a strong voice and smooth delivery, the Portland-based singer crafts clever phrases out of wry and insightful lyrics such as these from the title tune:
“Sometimes wonder why I simmer and seethe. Gasping for air while others breathe. Maybe I’m just a fish out of water. Maybe just another lamb lining up for the slaughter. I remember being handed a prescription to follow but the pill was too bitter, I could not swallow.”
“Into the Fray” – Kristy Hinds
Tastefully produced by Portland musicians Robert Brown, Ramsey Embick and Calvin Walker, the performances are enhanced by several top jazz players, including Peter Boe, Al Criado and Carlton Jackson. But they’re only helping to animate the singer’s personal vision. That vision has its roots in Hinds’ native New Mexico, where her first gig – at age 9 – was with Bo Diddley’s family band, in the company of the rock pioneer’s daughters. The girls were Hinds’ riding partners during Diddley’s brief sojourn as a deputy sheriff in the Southwest. The earthy adventure of that experience may still inform her work, because it’s both inventive and honest beneath its glossy exterior. All pop music should sound like this. — Lynn Darroch for The Oregonian, Portland, OR
“Far from the mainstream, exploring a runlet all her own, Kristy Hinds combines elements of folk, rock and jazz with erudite lyrics to create a unique style of music.“
Far from the mainstream, exploring a runlet all her own, Kristy Hinds combines elements of folk, rock and jazz with erudite lyrics to create a unique style of music. This collection of recordings, made over the past five years, while being a tad uneven at points, for obvious reasons, still emphasizes Kristy’s melodic inventiveness and originality – her lyrical depth. Nimble Robert Brown (AKA Robert Rude), Calvin Walker and jazz pianist Ramsey Embick shared the producers chair in helping to shape the individual songs, which range from feeling like Poe singing Dave Matthews songs to Flora Purim fronting Return to Forever doing late period Joni Mitchell. “Rodeo” is sort of a combination of the two, with Brown’s novel lap steel contours conforming neatly with John Sanders’ doughy Wurlitzer tones. Over a groove that sounds like Sheryl Crow meets Deodato, Kristy sings,
“Turning, twisting, try and unseat me/I stick like a burr, there’s no way to beat me/I was raised on the smell of sweat and leather/And I’m here for the rodeo.”
“Rodeo” – Kristy Hinds
The ballad “Castle in the Air” nicely captures the best aspects of Kristy’s wonderfully adventurous approach to melody and her educated songwriting style. Peter Boe’s scintillating piano solo ads the perfect touch of Floyd Cramer like sadness to the mix. One thread that runs through much of her poetry is a seeming familiarity with the greasy underbelly of the big corporate beast, hence a mighty distrust of its one-track mind and vociferous appetite. “Images in a Box” crystallizes her perceptions into a nightmarish vision. Over Calvin Walker’s soul-flavored dance beat. Brown accents Kristy’s slippery chord progression, as she scats a dark prophecy:
“Every time I open up a magazine, it’s the same thing. A message that cannot be missed./They say walk this way, hey talk this way/You should look like her. You should buy this./Well I don’t really need another smack in the brain with your slick corporate ad campaign/I don’t need an image. I imagine lots of stuff for free/And I don’t really know whatever it is the current market value of a soul is worth. But what I do know just might scare you./There’s a corporate plan to rule the earth.”
Dave Bones’ tasty trombone solo enlivens the jazzy/soul mien of Brown’s precise guitar interplay with Sanders’ electric piano. “Shoot the Moon” combines Al Criado’s fat bass and drummer Carlton Jackson’s perpetual superlative artistry with guitarist Michael Gargano’s reggae flavored upstroke interactions with Peter Boe’s subtle, flutey marimba synth patch. Over this dynamically spacious landscape, Kristy weaves a quizzical tale –
“Strange to come across your name on a dirty yellow page. I found it at my grandmother’s house/You were only 22 when that page when that page was printed new. I imagine you had a headstrong attitude./It was Mountain States Telephone then. Annoyance calls – page 10. Covering all of Bernalillo County.”
Gargano’s plucky solo lends the finishing gloss to a strangely compelling song. Kristy Hinds’ command of language, verbal and musical, affords her a supremely rich means for expression. For some, the melange may be too rich. And it’s possible that she may get carries away at times, where more of a rock sensibility might help to stabilize her mercurial tastes. But when she hits it right, which is more than half the time, Kristy Hinds devises some of the most complexly futuristic pop ever perpetrated upon this neck of the universe. — S.P. Clark for Two Louies
“Portland-based Kristy Hinds has released an eleven song CD entitled Into the Fray. The resourceful Ms. Hinds fuses Latin, jazz and pop for a sound that defies labeling.”
— Rockrgrl, Seattle, WA
With the increasing number of wannabe divas out there exorcising old boyfriends left and right, I hope that someone as sincere and straightforwardly bright as Portland’s Kristy Hinds doesn’t get lost in the shuffle. She neither melts down into emotional puddles, not comes across as a cheesy sexpot (actually, I’ve never seen her play live so her wardrobe is a mystery to me), but simply as a woman with things on her mind. The music on her debut album is a flexible cross between light jazz and swinging bongo pop, with Hinds making decidedly arch observations. Her lyrics effortlessly coat radio-smart arrangements, casting several quizzical looks at a world which seems to grow less coherent as time passes. In “Castle in the Air” she notes that
“…nothing will last/I’ve been busy spinning a web/But I spun it too tight.”
The uncertainty Hinds faces in songs like this one and “Images in a Box” are countered by a graceful romanticism on “Passionate Plea” and “Love Like You’ve Never,” though even during the latter love song, there are some dark clouds on the horizon
“Affection and fear/That’s what I’m finding here”.
Eagerly is a sure winner -sleek and sexy like a torchy James Bond title song. The ensemble musicianship is impeccable, befitting some of Portland’s more esteemed jazzbos (drummers Calvin Walker and Carlton Jackson, and keyboardists Ramsey Embick and Peter Boe are all bandleaders in their own right). VH-1? Adult-contemporary? Whatever. Kristy Hinds has the combination to crack any safe. — John Chandler for The Rocket, Portland, OR
“The resourceful Ms. Hinds fuses Latin, jazz and pop for a sound that defies labeling.“
The delightfully distinctive sounds of this singer aren’t available in Portland clubs that often, but Hinds has produced one of the most personal and polished CDs to come from the local scene in years. Her blending of jazz, pop and blues begs for comparisons to Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen. Instead of endless variations on self-indulgent topics, Hinds points out the absurdities around us with the wide-eyed wonder of a preschooler and the deliberation of a graduate student.
— Dan DePrez for Willamette Week, Portland, OR
“She neither melts down into emotional puddles, not comes across as a cheesy sexpot … but simply as a woman with things on her mind.“
Want to show your parents that Portland’s musical scope isn’t all g-rock and alt-country? Have them listen to Kristy Hinds. Hinds is a Portland guitarist/jazz vocalist who has crafted Into the Fray’s eleven upbeat, poetic tunes over the past decade and enlisted assistance from a slew of area talent to bring her visions to life. To say that this debut is well produced is understatement; each track, every instrument is distinct and the balance of their interplay is without flaw. “Under Control” bounces along via south of the border accents and Hinds’ nimble voice before the title track drifts along with its heady resolve. Hinds’ vocal style has garnered comparisons to Sade and Basia but those peggings undermine her ample helpings of pep, humor and wry outlook best exemplified in the light cha-cha-cha of “Images in a Box.” “Eagerly” highlights Hinds’ penchant for molding intricate ballads and the album ends with the airy light gallop of “Passionate Plea.” Hinds is a talent and Into the Fray is a quality piece of work, even if it is swimming against the tide. — Scott Lewis for Anodyne, Portland, OR
“Instead of endless variations on self-indulgent topics, Hinds points out the absurdities around us with the wide-eyed wonder of a preschooler and the deliberation of a graduate student. “
— Dan DePrez for Willamette Week, Portland, OR
What do Jeanette Katt, Lisa Germano and Wendy Maharry have in common? All are singer-songwriters whose music doesn’t fit into the average “modern folk” take, and all are still laboring in various degrees of obscurity after releasing dynamic albums on major labels. The good news is that Portlander Kristy Hinds has released an album as ambitious and polished as the works of these women. The bad news is that it might suffer the same fate. Hinds, a graphic artist by day (not surprisingly, her CD has some of the best art on any local release in years), also operates under the handicap of not having a club following. It’s doubtful that the typical lounge-singer situation would benefit the originals on Into the Fray, but at least it would give Hinds some name recognition. Not that she needs it. Her songs are pleasantly quirky, varied and free of the self-indulgence that haunts most songwriters when they commit their work to tape. Tracks such as “100% Humidity” and “Castle in the Air” flow more like haikus than pop songs. When Hinds does tackle the love thing in a song, it’s with bare knuckles and a strong heart, as in “Under Control”:
“For no other reason than we’re alive and we’re alone here tonight, show me the man behind the lines./We’ve got fragile egos and reputations at stake. You show me yours, I’ll show you mine.”
Except for what sounds like a pitch problem on “Passionate Plea,” the production on Into the Fray is first-rate. As a vocalist, Hinds comes across as both smart and genially goofy, begging comparisons to Kate Bush or Bjork as much as to Joni Mitchell or Bonnie Raitt. At a time when Portland musicians are trying their best to stand out from the pack, it’s invigorating to see a local songwriter who’s not afraid of sounding like herself. — Dan DePrez for Willamette Week, Portland, OR
“Hinds is a talent and Into the Fray is a quality piece of work, even if it is swimming against the tide.”
Portlander Kristy Hinds has a voice that jumps with energy, clean and bright, which makes a nice complement to the polished pop-jazz tunes she has written for her new CD “Into the Fray.” Hinds’ songs can sound like a slow Sade bossa one minute and a complex Steely Dan fusion the next. — Kyle O’Brien for The Oregonian, Portland, OR
From the packaging to the production to the songwriting to the exquisite Basia-like vocals, “Into the Fray” emerges triumphant. An absolutely gorgeous debut! Kristy Hinds deserves national notice for her savvy and sophisticated radio-ready jazz-pop. — Lisa Lepine for Lisa Lepine Promotions, Portland, OR
“Kristy Hinds has a voice that jumps with energy, clean and bright …”
On “Into the Fray”, Hinds demonstrates a strong songwriting flair. She melds Latin-influenced rhythms, chordal structures worthy of Steely Dan, and a silky smooth vocal style reminiscent of Basia or Sade, into a rich jazzy-pop. Hinds enlisted some of Portland’s finest musicians to perform on her debut including Peter Boe, Carlton Jackson and co-producers Calvin Walker, Robert “Rude” Brown, and Ramsey Embick. — Music Millenium, Portland, OR
A great CD crossed my desk recently. Kristy Hinds’ “Into the Fray” is a long-time coming labor of love that definitely was worth the wait. It’s a beautiful collection of eleven tunes written and sung by Kristy herself. It’s hard to categorize her sound as it’s so unique. Each tune has a style of its own. It’s definitely in regular rotation on my list. — Bonnie Carter for Positively Entertainment, Portland, OR