Album Notes

Review: Kristi Martel - Brave Enough (Sealed Lip Records)
\"There\'s this thing Kristi Martel does with her voice. The first time I played \'Brave Enough,\' it shut me up and made me say, \'Damn!\' That\'s just her voice. As a pianist and songwriter, Martel does not shy from her feminism. She seems to shy from nothing. Her voice sometimes evokes Bjork\'s but it is more soulful, more post-punk Laura Nyro. She looks head-on at issues like feminine body image and self-esteem, sex, dying, the power of community, and the challenges and favor of intimacy. But as the liner notes wisely recommend, \'play this thing loud.\' \'Brave Enough\' is part groove diary, part social exegesis, and a whole lot of fun.\"
-- Cesca Waterfield, Expository Magazine

When Kristi Martel was three she sang to salt and pepper shakers atop tables in restaurants.

Her family encouraged her to do this.

Everyone in the restaurant would clap.

So she kept singing and making up harmonies and began piano lessons with a strong desire to be a famous musician.

Today, Kristi Martel\'s sweet presence, stunning vocals, intricate piano rhythms, and fearless songwriting endear audiences nationwide.

\"...love emanates from every note.\" - Vienna Teng

\"...a fine musician...Incomparable!\" - Utah Phillips

Featured on MTV/LOGO, NPR, WERS, and in Curve Magazine, and voted Rhode Island\'s Best Female Alt-Rock Vocalist, award-winning songwriter and avant-soul piano diva Kristi Martel grew up in New England and earned an ASCAP grant and two music degrees (Bard and Mills College) before beginning her touring and recording career. Her piano playing combines her love of blues dissonance and syncopation with her classical training. Her voice is at once sweet and bitter, able to leap and soar, whisper and rattle, expressive of any emotion she chooses and fluid throughout her multi-octave range. She is visionary in her lyrics and composition, writing her prayers for solace and quirky relationship narratives in the same breath.

Through Sealed Lip Records, Kristi has released six CDs. \"brave enough\" was Kristi\'s first full-length album. It features Littlebird\'s backing vocals on \"Fly\" and \"Through That Door,\" her fretless bass on \"Fly,\" and Frank Carter\'s gorgeous backing vocal on \"Give.\" The album was recorded in just two long days and mixed in the next two long days. We were stunned by its beauty. We danced to make it.

discography:
Ravengirl (LP 2006)
Quaint & Curious Ravendemos (LP 2005)
The Mule (LP 2004)
bound (single 2003)
brave enough (LP 2001)
give me a little... (EP 2000)