“The balladry of Seattle singer/songwriter Katie Kuffel contains the sort of lived-in elegance that makes you feel you’ve been wearing her music all your life without even realizing it.” Douglas Martin, KEXP
FOR RELEASE MARCH 4
SEATTLE (February 10, 2020) – Seattle singer-songwriter Katie Kuffel announces the release of “Love Language” on March 4. Rich, earthy harmonies and textural horns conduct an orchestral openness, wrapping the listener in a celebratory embrace after the trials of a relationship’s struggle. “Love Language” is off the album, Alligator, due out March 19.
Each part of “Love Language” embodies the challenges within a relationship: communication, fighting, reconciliation. The song expresses love’s risks and foibles while also persevering with the knowledge that it’s worth it.
Kuffel says, “I have a lot of big feelings. And I am not always great at identifying them or expressing them, which has led to some awful fights between me and past and current partners. I’m easily bruised, and when I’m hurt, I tend to expect the worst intentions in another, which is actually very cruel. I wrote this song after one such argument. There’s a very fragile window of opportunity, a beautiful opportunity, where after confrontation, both parties have to choose to be tender to one another and remind each other that this is okay. That we still care. That this is how we get stronger.”
Kuffel expresses an empowering depth and self-awareness throughout her album. Topics on Alligator range from intergenerational trauma viewed through kid glasses, a song about how a volcano would experience time, seasonal depression, and about her disability. No matter the scale of her theme, Katie finds the universal thread to captivate her listener, reminding us we’re all human, and to embrace the messiness inherent in being alive during this turbulent, modern era.
Alligator Track Listing
- 1999
- Carillon
- Love Language
- Reminders
- Honey
- Ships
- Passerine
- Veil of Isis
- Wintertide
- Mt. St. Helens
About Katie Kuffel
Kuffel has had a fair bit of classical training, but her real musical education occurred in the opportunity to sit in and play with a plethora of diverse musicians. She’d play the cello and sing with her dad’s group of friends (all drinking beer and playing bluegrass on the porch). Kuffel would sit in and jam with a Gypsy Jazz group at the farmers market. While in Japan and San Francisco, she learned the basics of Koto music. Then there was the Peruvian doomgrass band she played with when she first moved back to Seattle. She accompanied speakers and slam poets in live, improvised events.
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Praise for Katie Kuffel
“The balladry of Seattle singer/songwriter Katie Kuffel contains the sort of lived-in elegance that makes you feel you’ve been wearing her music all your life without even realizing it.” – Douglas Martin, KEXP
“Full of heart, vulnerability, and smoldering soul, Katie Kuffel’s stunning ‘Love Language’ showcases the Seattle singer/songwriter’s full talents as she reckons in the depths of connection and romance.” – Mitch Mosk, Atwood
