Catie, once again, gets an ASCAP audio portrait…go listen!

Do you play the guitar?  How old were you?  What got you started?  Where did you get your first guitar?

If you bought your own CD copy of “Sweet Life”, you’ll see Catie’s story about how she was given her first guitar at 15 with the condition that she learn to play it.  That was a life-changing moment for her that has helped to bring us many years of enjoyment.  Now Catie is trying to help offer young folks a chance at the same, “My passion is to put guitars in the hands of aspiring young musicians. They can use it as a vehicle to create a life for themselves, if they so choose.”

Through Hope Equity and in partnership with ASCAP Foundation, Catie has started an endowment called Aspire in Inspire that will help develop ongoing funding to provide guitars to young musicians who can’t afford their own.  You can see the first 15 guitar recipients in the latest Hope Equity is currently highlighting Catie’s Investor story on their front page, why don’t you go read more about it…and maybe you’ll want to join her and donate to the endowment.

Stay tuned…Catie’s new CD “Sweet Life” is coming September 9, but you can pre-order it now! You can already see how her own website is introducing it and listen to a few clips on Compass Records page!

I’ve had the privileged of getting an early review copy, and let me tell ya, it’s a fun…and sweet one! It’s likely that those of you having been to any shows in the last couple of years have heard some of the songs as she introduced them in her shows, like ‘Lovely’ (her movie theme), ‘Are You Ready to Fly?’ (Teenagers jumping off the bridge), ‘Everything Waiting to Grow’ (Joshua Trees), ‘Sing’ (camp & spiders), ‘The Princess & the Mermaid’ (kids). Death Cab for Cutie fans might even recognize Catie’s cover of their “Soul Meets Body“.

I’ll give a more detailed review as it nears release…and we help introduce it here with a new look. For now, I’ll just say that there are several songs on there that are heart touchers, a couple that are just ‘Happy’, and everything in between. I don’t find it abundantly rockin’, but it’s certainly got a nice full band sound with lot’s of Nashville’s best filling it all in with her. Recorded in Nashville, but don’t think “country”…it’s still full of Catie’s “folk-rock goddess”-ness with her parental love shining through!

Hard to believe it’s been 3 years since “Long Night Moon”, but exciting to have a new Catie CD on the way! Check it out!

Celebrating Earth Day 2008 in New Hampshire! Catie, Vance Gilbert & Cliff Eberhardt will be headlining a songwriter in-the-round event for New Hampshire Public Radio on April 22 at the Colonial Theater in Keene, NH.

Catie has consistently supported a wide variety of worthy organizations and efforts through her career, both near home in New England and beyond. This sounds like a terrific way to cap off Earth Day with a musical celebration as well as supporting public radio. In addition to relevant favorites such as People Look Around, there’s the likelihood that Catie will also be presenting some of her newer songs that have been recently recorded for her upcoming CD, working title of “Sweet Life”…watch for more information about that as the August release date draws near!

Catie started her tour to promote the release of Long Night Moon. Check out tour dates (from catiecurtis.com) to see if she’s playing in your area, and discuss her gigs in our forum.