Another Black Feather ~ Dayna Kurtz £12.99

Beautiful Yesterday ~ Dayna Kurtz  (1)  £14.49

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1. Fred Astaire	Listen
2. Love Gets in the Way	Listen
3. Somebody Leave a Light On	Listen
4. Postcards from Downtown	Listen
5. Miss Liberty	Listen
6. Last Good Taste	Listen
7. Monroe	Listen
8. Paterson	Listen
9. Just Like Jack	Listen
10. Justified

About the Artist
She would tell you that this new cd, titled "Postcards from Downtown," is her first studio record, though her fans may disagree. Circulating - and jealously hoarded - are one live CD and numerous cassettes, Dayna's recorded on the fly, sometimes adding the discarded fruits of too many demo and development deals for too many labels and producers among them Bob Power (D'Angelo, Me'shell N'degeOcello, Erykah Badu) and Craig Street (Cassandra Wilson, Joe Henry, kd lang). Much to her fans' dismay, she doesn't play much of the older material anymore. A cassette from the early 90's called "Footprints" recently fetched 40 bucks on e-bay. But she's moved onto other things.

Dayna's a self proclaimed "road dog" having spent the better part of the last 10 years running old cars into the ground touring solo, startling audiences into rapt silence at venues such as the Ark, Eddie's Attic, and the Iron Horse. She's toured as a support act with artists as varied as Chris Whitley, Richie Havens, Olu Dara, Richard Buckner, and Kelly Joe Phelps, as well as opened for countless others, including B.B. King, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Along the way, Dayna's been a featured artist on the nationally syndicated show, "World Cafe," been the subject of a feature story on NPR's "Morning Edition," been voted the female songwriter of the year by the National Academy of Songwriters in 1997, and been picked up by her current publishing company, Bug Music (Johnny Cash, Ryan Adams, Buddy Guy, Los Lobos, Wilco). When not on the highway, she lives in a silk mill in north Jersey, a sad old factory town called Paterson where she continues to draw inspiration.

"She writes riveting poetry, has a truly incredible voice, is a terrific guitarist, and simply dominates the room with her presence." - Music City Texas (Austin)

Vocally, Dayna Kurtz has few peers. She possesses the warmth and timing of an old jazz diva - Billie, or Nina Simone. But add the kind of dramatic command only a Tom Waits or a Marianne Faithfull possesses, and you may be getting closer. Truth is, she sounds and writes like no one else. And on top of it all, she's a helluva guitarist -weaving her vocals in and out of sometimes languid, sometimes starkly harsh guitar lines. Lately Dayna's come to favor adding slide guitar colors, and so much the better: her poetry has that much more to play against. Her live shows have become the stuff of legend - she's been known to bring loud crowded bars down to reverent silence by the end of her first song.

"...should she show up in your neighborhood for a live performance, by all means catch it. You won't be looking at your watch wondering if there's a polite way to make an exit.' - Music Reviews Quarterly

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews   3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Why isn't this album top of the charts?, 5 Jan 2004 By  spider8 - See all my reviews This review is from: Postcards from Downtown (Audio CD) I first heard Dayna Kurtz as a support act of Richie Havens in a smokey, dusty jazz venue in London. I really didn't expect a support act to be anything more than background noise in expectation of the great man himself. But, as soon as her voice lept out of the speakers, we all hushed up transfixed. Her style is notoriously without common label. There are elements of blues, jazz and soul that are toffee sauce though which one tastes her folk songs of love and loss. Her voice is quite breathtaking; powerful enough to fill the largest cavern and smooth enough to melt the daytime into evening. Her writing is as artistic as Leonard Cohen, as intellectual as Bob Dylan and as raw as the deep south blues. Her three minute songs leave one enlightened as to new and passionte emotions. How can one woman have survived such tumultuous bitter romance? Thankfully she did and she wrote it all down.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews