Penned by Charlene Kaye and Recorded with Long-Time Friend and Glee Favorite Darren Criss, The catchy Duet "Dress & Tie" is now available at iTunes. See Her Live Saturday, March 5 at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY; Monday, March 14 at Echo (formerly Jet Lounge) in Houston, TX; Sunday, April 24 at Don Hill's - 511 Greenwich St, NYC; Friday, May 27 at Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI; Saturday, May 28 at The Strutt in Kalamazoo, MI.
Meet an original. Meet Charlene Kaye. Charlene's music is a mash-up of generations and genres, seamlessly mixing powerful vocals with a blend of gentle folk, growling rock and driving rhythmic hooks. Charlene's eclectic style and delivery defies any single musical category, and that's the way she likes it.Amazingly, her new single, Dress & Tie -- recorded with long time friend and recently crowned Glee phenom, Darren Criss -- was one of Charlene's very first forays into songwriting.Charlene says, "Dress & Tie was one of the first songs I ever wrote and it'll always be very close to my heart. I originally wrote it when I was 18 about my first serious boyfriend, who I was totally smitten with." Not surprisingly, she threw the song out "with the bathwater" when the relationship ended, but when a cousin asked Charlene to play a favorite song of hers at his wedding, she dug deep and rescued the almost forgotten gem, reworked and finished it. We're all happy that she did.
Dress and Tie is the new single from Charlene who embarked on a truly fascinating musical and professional journey some time ago. When experiencing her music, the listener will hear old-school/classic soul, orchestral chamber pop, and dazzling rock and roll, all tied together with Charlene's mesmerizing, one-of-a-kind voice. Inspired by folk greats such as Nina Simone and Karen Carpenter as well as a host of current eclectic luminaries such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Belle and Sebastian, and Andrew Bird, Miss Kaye's music is a fitting of the times, while remaining unmistakably timeless.With her talented five-piece band, she continues to inspire and entertain audience after audience, be it in her current hometown of New York, in Austin, Texas at SXSW or at a rocking LA Roxy gig opening for Darren Criss. More on Charlene Kaye: Born in Hawaii, but also a former resident of Arizona, Hong Kong, Singapore, Michigan, and now New York, Charlene Kaye is the daughter of two church singers, a classically trained pianist, skilled multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and performer. Sunday morning gospel, classical, jazz, show tunes, Fats Waller and Carole King were the accompaniment to her home life.
The revolving door of instruments in Charlene's young life included lessons in clarinet, saxophone, classical piano, and violin until the age of 14, when she discovered punk music and traded in her lessons for a Fender "Stratocaster." Within months, she had learned virtually every song she knew on guitar, which prompted her to start secretly writing her own music. Rufus Wainwright, Michael Jackson, Sondre Lerche, the Beatles, Nina Simone, and Joni Mitchell became familiar voices on her stereo, nurturing her ardor for pop music and her lofty ambitions to become a sought-after songwriter. It would be years before Charlene has the confidence to reveal her own songs to anyone all the while going to college at University of Michigan and performing at open mics and local coffee houses around Ann Arbor.After a brief stint singing and playing keyboards in the ambient/experimental rock band Perhapsy, she recorded her debut album, Things I Will Need in the Past, in the spring and summer of 2008 with Jim Roll (Chris Bathgate, Frontier Ruckus). The album clearly demonstrated Charlene's budding talent as an arranger, composer and lyricist and made her a formidable presence in the U of M/Ann Arbor music scene as a potent songwriter and dynamic performer. The album is a deftly orchestrated work whose varied nature offers the magnitude of a symphony and the modesty of a haiku, any one song just as likely to be adorned by pizzicato strings and gritty guitars as it is by twinkling bells and castanets. Playful pop, mournful waltz's and wild-eyed tango are all deftly folded into Things' abundant embrace, underlying heartfelt lyrics exploring the depths of love's underbelly and the idea of time as a malleable entity. The album was met with rave reviews, described as "a grand blending of orchestral classicism and neo-folk pop anglings" (Real Detroit), "a full-fledged rumination on the nature of time and love" (Metro Times), and "a blending of perfect balance, showing strength in arrangement and ambiance" (Current). In November 2008, she was selected as Ann Arbor 107.1's "Artist to Watch" among dozens of other aspiring artists.
Charlene's sound continued to evolve as she made the move to New York after attending U of M. While her first record reveled in an orchestral chamber pop sound with a healthy dose of indie folk, her new EP, recorded with her new backing band, the Brilliant Eyes, has a punchier, more realized rock sound, complete with overdriven guitars, driving bass and drums, thumb piano, distorted Wurlitzer. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes, Belle & Sebastian, and Al Green were newfound influences, but the songs are still grounded by Charlene's smooth, clear alto and her confident songwriting and personality. The EP signifies an exciting shift in gears for Charlene and opens many possible doors for the direction her music will take next. She was named an "Artist on the Rise" by the Deli NYC and was featured on NBC New York and the Atlantic as well.
Charlene Kaye is indeed the kind of songwriter and performer whose work listeners will return to for years to come. Right now, she is assembling material for her sophomore album and gearing up with the band for festivals and shows this spring/summer.
