In just one year, Karen Lovely has shot onto the blues scene like Stack O' Lee's .44, capturing the 2nd Place Band Prize at the 2010 International Blues Challenge followed by 2011 BMA Nominations for Best Contemporary Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Female Artist. The title track of her sophomore release "Still The Rain" also received a 2011 BMA Nomination for Best Song. Backed by her stellar band, this singer delivers a blistering mix of contemporary and classic blues, R&B and Memphis soul.
Karen Lovely
Karen Lovely started singing the blues professionally in September 2007 and released her debut record "Lucky Girl" in November 2008. Since then, she & her band have delivered stand out performances that have garnered awards, critical acclaim and standing ovations at festivals and venues throughout the US and Canada.
Lovely possesses an unusually strong and supple voice, secure in its phrasing and intonation. The power in her singing grows from her intimate understanding of the emotions belonging to the characters existing in the intelligent songs she elects to interpret. She mixes discipline and
spontaneity with growing authority, and invests even the most forlorn of blues with a life affirming vibrancy.
“I love belting it out, it’s like flying,” Lovely says, “but I’m finding I have much more to offer as a vocalist by exploring subtle nuances and using my lower register. Dennis Walker and Alan Mirikitani gave me material that mandated digging down a little deeper. They write songs that really speak to my heart.”
"Lovely’s style begins from sources within such classic blues singers as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. And, like Janis Joplin before her, she has translated those influences into an utterly gripping contemporary style of her own...stunning musicality." Don Heckman, International