ARTIST: Sonya Kitchell
TITLE: Words Came Back To Me
LABEL: Velour
GENRE: Rock
BITRATE: 187kbps avg
PLAYTIME: 0h 51min total
RELEASE DATE: 2006-04-04
RIP DATE: 2006-03-08

Track List

01. Let Me Go                       3:35
02. Train                           4:15
03. Can't Get You Out Of My Mind    4:09
04. Words                           4:02
05. Cold Day                        3:10
06. No Matter What                  3:58
07. Simple Melody                   3:26
08. Think Of You                    4:08
09. Too Beautiful                   4:56
10. Tinted Glass                    4:16
11. I'd Love You                    4:01
12. Jerry                           7:15

Release Notes:

Sonya Kitchell's rare gift may result from some fortuitous conspiracy of genetics
and environment, or it may be the manifestation of something more mystical -- but
there's certainly no denying her exceptional talent. Kitchell is an eloquent
songwriter, dazzling singer and old soul who just happens to be 16 years of age.

This budding artist's extraordinary gift lies not just in her songs and singing
but in the decisions she makes within both realms. To hear where Kitchell chooses
to go, one moment to the next, in any of these songs is to experience, all at
once, her taste, her preternatural musical savvy and her depth -- as in deep.
Once the novelty of this has worn off, the listener can simply soak up the myriad
pleasures and insights of Kitchell's debut album, Words Came Back to Me (to be
released April 4, 2006, by Velour and Starbucks Hear Music), because this
artist's achievements are without caveat -- Kitchell is the real deal, pure and
simple.

The album is an understated, largely acoustic affair, seamlessly melding elements
of jazz, R&B, folk and other roots forms in a song-serving, rather than
genre-adhering, way. There is undeniable warmth and wholesomeness to Kitchell's
dusky alto, but just as evident is a knowingness that is ageless and timeless.
From song to song, she manifests a warmth reminiscent of Carole King ("I'd Love
You"), the gossamer touch of Joni Mitchell ("Words"), the soulfulness of Van
Morrison ("Let Me Go"), the yearning of Al Green ("Can't Get You Out of My Mind")
and the structural sophistication of Burt Bacharach ("Tinted Glass"), and yet the
sound is all her own, unadorned, authentic and from the heart.

"My whole life I've been a sponge for everything around me," Kitchell says. "I
soak it up, and I want to take as much of it as I can and make it part of myself.
When I listen to something that I think is amazing, rather than think, 'I could
never do that,' I think, 'I want to do that, and I'm going to do that.'"

Sonya's experience with deeply felt self-expression dates back to the afternoon
of Sept. 11, 2001, when the twelve year old came home from school struggling to
cope with the enormity of what had happened that morning. She jotted down some
therapeutic writing in her journal, and as she wrote, a melody formed in her
head -- a song was born. She sang it for her mother and a local folk artist who
told her, "People need to hear this song, Sonya." At that moment, making music,
which had been "a thing I did," she says, became her vocation and passion.

It was then, too, that Kitchell came to see the act of songwriting "as a way of
processing what I'm going through. 'Train' is about things going really fast,
and wanting it to be fast and wanting it to slow down at the same time, and not
being able to make up my mind. 'Let Me Go' is about my parents and me coming
into my own as my own person. And then, a lot of the songs are about different
guys -- that's never been done before," she says with a wink.

Kitchell grew up in a hothouse atmosphere of creativity on forty picturesque
acres in rural western Massachusetts, where the family home has always been
flooded with music and art. Sonya's father is a top-selling poster artist with
a passion for world music, and her mom is a graphic designer whose tastes run
toward female singer/songwriters. For as long as she can remember, one of
Sonya's favorite pastimes is to tinker on the piano that sits in the living
room, which her grandfather, a classical pianist and Vietnam war correspondent,
brought back from Hong Kong.

The natural environment around Sonya's home is one of her major inspirations.
"A lot of my writing comes from where I live, which is in the country," she
says, "and it's spectacular at all times of the year. Whenever life is crazy
for me, I go for a walk in the woods near my house. It's like clearing my
palate, and then I can write and reflect. And a lot of times I write sitting on
my bed and looking out my window at the hills and the trees. It's just a really
amazing place to create art from."

Sonya's first performance came at the tender age of eight, when she sang during
a piano recital. In 1999, at the age of 10, she began studying voice with the
jazz singers Sheila Jordan and Rebecca Paris. Soon after she'd written her
September 11 song, Kitchell became the subject of a story in the local paper,
and she was asked to gather some young musicians for an appearance at a local
club, the Iron Horse. Over time, a formal group coalesced, the Sonya Kitchell
Band. Meanwhile, one of her compositions, "Romance," was awarded best jazz
vocal and best original song at the 2003 DownBeat Student Music Awards, and she
was one of 40 composers under 30 years old to be selected for a weeklong
workshop in jazz composition for the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program at the
Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

In 2004, Sonya was spotted by Velour, who began work as her manager and record
label. She recorded and released the EP Cold Day for Velour and began
performing live with her talented band, sharing bills with such artists as Taj
Mahal, Dar Williams and Susan Tedeschi. In 2005, she recorded her first
full-length album with co-producers Steve Addabbo (Shawn Colvin, Suzanne Vega)
and Jeff Krasno. As advance copies made the industry rounds, Words Came Back
To Me so impressed the principals of Starbucks Hear Music that Words will be
Hear Music's second-ever release on their Hear Music Debut CD series, making
the record available in all Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S
and Canada beginning April 4, 2006. The album will be available at traditional
music retail beginning April 4, 2006 as well.

When asked why adults relate so strongly to her songs, Sonya replies, "My dad
was an abstract painter, and when people look at art that is nothing but
washes of color, they see what they want to see, or what they need to see in
it. So I try to write in a way that people can take from it what they need to
take from it, and they can hear what they need to hear. So I think maybe
that's why it works. Besides, teenagers feel things so intensely, and maybe
people forget what it was like when they're past that point."

Does she have an ultimate career goal? "In the long run, I have high goals,"
Kitchell says. "If I could create even a fraction of the amazing body of work
of a Joni Mitchell or Carole King or the Beatles -- or last as long as U2. To
be able to support myself. And to have a family some day. I also want to be
politically active and make a difference. But really, what I've always wanted
is to write a lot of songs that stick around."