I had the privilege not only to sit down and chat over coffee a few weeks ago with Kat Edmonson, jazzy singer/songwriter born and bred in Texas, but I was also able to catch her show this past Saturday at The Elephant Room on Congress.

My friends and I waited nearly an hour to get into the venue and once we paid the cashier our cover and waltzed into the darkened, vintage bar with autographed dollar bills taped to the ceiling, we found that there were no empty seats. But the wait was well worth it, and let me tell you, there were no disappointed customers in the house.

Flash back to our Sunday afternoon interview. I recognized Kat when she walked down the steps onto the Mozart’s deck. She was petite, with hair in braids, working a t-shirt. Other than being a great musician, she might just be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met. We chatted about mutual friends for a few minutes and then got down to the nitty gritty.

Kat’s music career is taking off, and she owes a lot of credit to her loyal supporters, but even more to herself for staying focused and fueling her passion into her music and her label, Convivium Records. Her music is known not only in Austin, but has been featured on NPR, CNN, in a Steve Spielberg Showtime original and has a substantial following on YouTube. Kat’s album, Take to the Sky, was locally released in March 2009, but a national release date has not yet been set. Recently, major labels began approaching Kat about the album (yea!), which means the national release could take place this summer, or it could be pushed back.

Things, for Kat Edmonson, are definitely looking up. So I had to know, “How did you wind up here?”

It was actually Kat’s mother that introduced her to a world of great music. “My mom was a single parent and I was often entertained by the movies she would pop into the VCR. You know so there were these musicals, and they sang all this wonderful music, and I would copy them and mimic them.”

Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart and all the composers that created the Jazz standard repertoire were Kat’s first exposure to music. At the age of 9, Kat began composing her own music. She recalled, “My mom got me a microphone attached to a stereo and I would record myself. In fact, I remember once she took me to Office Max and we got a binder and put all my songs in it and we puff painted the front cover ‘Katherine’s songs’.”

Currently she is knee deep in marketing Take to the Sky as she has been responsible—with major help from Kevin Lovejoy—for every facet of marketing and producing the album as well as all her own booking. But you’ll hear no complaints from Kat. She is embracing all the possibilities and obstacles that come with new venues and new technology. “It’s a really exciting time for music, because musicians can pioneer their own ways to get their music out there. It’s really who can come up with the best ideas to market themselves. Musicians have to be great business minds as well. You have to wear a lot of hats. It’s like a whole new frontier.”

Austin has been fairly amendable to Kat’s ambitions as a musician. “I actually find Austin to be an incredibly supportive place for musicians.” While she agrees that it’s difficult to make it as a musician here, she doesn’t believe it’s more difficult than anywhere else. “You know some people make the excuse that there’s so much competition here, and blah, blah, blah, but I do believe that no matter what you do the cream will rise to the top. There’s so much competition around, but if you’re really doing something unique and you’re doing it with a lot of passion. People that work harder and work more are the ones that get farther.” She loves Austin because they support all things local—including artists—but she would like the city to embrace more of its up-and-coming musicians rather than just the local mainstays. As we discuss this she is quick to point out, “I think the answer is to change what I am doing before I look to other people to change.”

This mentality was certainly behind the development of her most well-known song, ‘Be the Change.’ Kat and Kevin Lovejoy, pianist and co-owner of her record label, wrote the song to increase social awareness based on a Ghandi quote. They just happened to complete ‘Be the Change’ around the 2008 Presidential election. “We just wanted to encourage people to vote, to get involved, to discourage apathy about it all. You know, whatever stance you hold, to just get out there. So we shot this really low budget video all over the city and made a montage of people holding up signs telling us what they would do if they were president.” Not only did the video rack up over 100,000 views on YouTube, but it also ended up on NPR and CNN. Schools all over the world starting calling Kat and asking her if they could add it to their curriculum proving that one individual can make a big change.

At the conclusion of Kat’s performance, I overheard a fellow fan say, “I can’t believe such a big voice can come out of someone so small.” But I say Kat Edmonson is no small person.

Find Kat Online: katedmonson.com
Youtube
Feature photo courtesy of Donald Winslow.

Anna and I waiting for Kat's show

Kat and I after the show