Chastity Brown

Chastity Brown doesn’t make music you’ve never heard before but her blend of soul, Blues & folk is delivered with a voice that just cannot be matched. Every song turns into a rollercoaster of emotional content and passion. Sublime, for once, is probably an understatement.

All the songs here are personal. She grew up playing in the gospel church of her childhood and you can hare influences of that passion and soul in her songs but she also developed her skills touring with the likes of Ani DiFranco and the result is a wonderful blend of styles that she suits to individual songs and themes.

At the heart of all the songs is her experience of life and of the activisim that she has grown into. She has had friendships and lovers, won and lost in the world and isn’t afraid to tell her tales. She also has no illusions about the world and her place in it:
“What I’ve realized is that the personal is political,” Brown said in a recent interview. “Just by me being a bi-racial, half-black, half-white woman living in America right now is political. Just being a person of color, a queer woman of color, for that matter, is freaking political. My focus, as far as this record, I guess it’s really been psychological. I’m really intrigued by the perseverance of the human spirit and the complexities and contradictions that we embody as human beings."
"Silhouette of Sirens is comprised of snapshots of memory, both lived and imagined. Not all of these tunes derive from this, which is why I say, ‘both lived and imagined.' Some are love/sex/relationship-inspired, which in my opinion make the pain one might experience more bearable. In James Baldwin’s essay, ‘The Artist Struggle for Integrity,' he says, 'I tell you my pain so that I might relieve you of yours.'"

So, to the music.
Listen to ‘My Stone’ for an example of the very best of Chastity Brown. Her vocal soars and pleads, the flute in the backing trilling to emphasis the prayer in her voice, a gorgeous cello leads into the close and you realise that you have been totally claimed by the passion in the song and now released. That it is followed by ‘Lies’ where the music spits with vitriol as she sings of the hurt and the hatred in her heart.
Lest you think it is all deep and dark she can also pop it up with a delicious bit of fluff in ‘Pouring Rain’

Production all through the album is superb and nothing seems to allowed to detract from either the song or the singer but it is anything but a sparse soundscape.

She is a musician of remarkable skills, both as a singer and a songwriter, and the resultant album is deep, strong and emotionally so powerful.

She is playing a few dates in June and I will make a point of getting out to at least one.
• Jun 8 Victoria Hall Menai Bridge, United Kingdom
• Jun 9 Saint George's Hall Bewdley, United Kingdom
• Jun 10 BARE In The Woods Festival Portarlington, Ireland
• Jun 11 Gullivers Manchester, United Kingdom
• Jun 13 The Borderline London, United Kingdom
• Jun 14 Bodega Nottingham, United Kingdom
• Jun 15 King Tuts Wah Wah Hut Glasgow, United Kingdom
Jun 16 The Cluny Newcastle, United Kingdom
• Jun 17 The Wee Gig @ Biggar Corn Exchange Biggar, United Kingdom
• Jun 18 The Hare & Hounds Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Jun 27 Vicar St. Dublin, Ireland
• Jun 29 Queen's Hall Edinburgh, United Kingdom