Kaki King Sings/Strings

Can anyone who has heard this music really be a bad person? It might sound pretentious of Kaki King to present this very question as a song title on her new record Dreaming of Revenge. Or it might just sound like the truth.

The first ever press release I read about Kaki was in 2004, alongside her amazing sophomore (and first major label-fronted) effort Legs to Make Us Longer. It said something to the effect that she'd picked up her grandmother's warped old guitar at the tender age of 5 or 6 and, without lessons or ever having seen a guitar actually being played, taught herself to play. She didn't know that you're supposed to form "chords" with your left hand or even how she was supposed to hold the damned thing in the first place. The result of that process and those years between then and now is that Kaki King is one of the most unique and talented guitar players on the planet. Or maybe that's all rubbish. Or maybe it doesn't matter if it is or isn't.

Kaki sings a lot more now, a mostly welcome continuation that started in earnest with 2006's Until We Felt Red and sounds much more polished this time around. The subtle string harmonics, fret-slapping percussion, and dynamic song structures are still intact. The sublime soundtrack sensibility. The feeling of life that rides her fingers into the strings, vibrates down the neck and resonates through the body, quivering like a fish, hooked.

“There are some guitar players that are good and there are some guitar players that are really fucking good. And then there's Kaki King.” - Dave Grohl

Listen:
Life Being What it Is
Can Anyone Who Has Heard This Music Really Be a Bad Person?
[from Dreaming of Revenge|buy]