Album Notes

Kimrea's eclectic-pop-folk style has nuances of jazz, touches of blues, influences of bossanova, and pinches of punk. The strength of her voice carries us off on a melodic escape into the landscape of her songs. Her lyrics are beautifully crafted poetry, drawing from her amazing life journey. Her songwriting experience spans an impressive three decades. Her much-anticipated debut CD, Dream Dogs, released in April of 2001, samples from a vast library of original tunes, giving us a flavorful taste of things to come from this prolifically active songwriter. The journey for the love of writing, singing and playing music began in 1971 at age 13. By the time she was 17, Kimrea was performing solo gigs as a folk artist, doing the required covers and sneaking in an occasional original song from time to time. She played six nights a week in the ski country of Northern Michigan, between Traverse City and Kalamazoo. Her venues consisted of nightclubs, dinner clubs, coffee shops, bars and college campuses. In 1978, Kimrea bought a one-month rail pass and continued her journey in search for places where she could play her own music. Ultimately landing in San Francisco, she became a seasoned street musician. Her travels, that circled around the continent, via New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal, Cambridge and Boston, helped in the development of songwriting that is inspired by an infinite variety of styles and forms of music. In 1984, burnt from the hard life of a street musician, Kimrea disappeared from the music scene. She worked as a gardener, a secretary, a web developer, an artist and a preschool teacher, continuing to write her songs and testing them out at the local Mill Valley Sweetwater Open Mic . In 1999, encouraged by her friend, the late Rose Frager of the Record Plant, Kimrea decided to perform again. Doors opened, and Kimrea found herself at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley recording her first album. She has since captured the attention of the world-renowned producer, Narada Michael Walden who is interested in writing songs with her and producing her music . Today Kimrea can be heard live, performing at several local venues in the San Francisco Bay Area, solo and with her band, "Dream Dogs". Kimrea is an accomplished artist, known also for her watercolor "cafe paintings" of musicians.