Sisters songwriter releases new CD

Katie Cavanaugh has a lifetime of songwriting to her credit. The Sisters songwriter has won significant recognition for her work; she’s a two-time Sisters Folk Festival songwriting contest finalist and a Folk Song of the Year winner with the Central Oregon Songwriters’ Association (COSA) in 2004.

Now Cavanaugh has distilled her catalogue down to 11 songs for the newly-released CD “Every Little Thing.”

Cavanaugh describes the creation of the CD as “an incredible journey.” She worked with Clay Smith at Soundsmith Studio in Bend. Smith, a multi-instrumentalist as well as a recording engineer, helped bring the arrangements and sounds Cavanaugh heard for songs to life.

She said she sought an “organic” feel to the songs and they remain based on Cavanaugh’s voice and rhythm guitar. But Smith added touches of keyboards and mandolin and Lucius Wheeler added some percussion, all in service of pulling the “feeling” out of the songs.

The songs themselves cover a wide span of time. Some are recent compositions and two are old songs that Cavanaugh breathed new life into for the recording.

“Each one individually is a story song,” she said. “My heart is to write the songs that tell the story, whether it’s historical or simply emotional.”

Cavanaugh places herself squarely in the tradition of the folk singer and troubadour. She and her husband Doug perform regularly in Sisters and they are gradually expanding their range to perform on the Northwest’s well-developed house concert circuit.

House concerts evoke a tradition going back to the minstrelry of the Middle Ages. Singers travel to private homes and perform for the family, friends and guests of the keeper of the home. The audiences are usually small — 30 people or so — but they are attentive and value song and story rather than flashy “entertainment.”

“It’s the perfect venue for the kind of music that I do,” Cavanaugh said.

The new CD will be an invaluable tool in finding such venues.

“That was part of its purpose — to open doors and sort of go before me,” she said.

Cavanaugh acknowledges that creating a “document” in the studio is very different from live performance — and its a difference she finds refreshing and exciting.

“I could be in the studio all the time,” she said. “I can’t wait to start on the next one.”

“Every Little Thing” is available at Paulina Springs Books, Bedouin and at Sunbuster Video. Cavanaugh has placed the CD online at CDbaby.com and plans to market it beyond the local area.

For more information on Katie Cavanaugh and her music, visit http://www.katiecavanaugh.com.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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