Album Notes

Music has taken Natalie everywhere from coffeehouses to Carnegie Hall. Having sung a wide range of styles from an early age, she’s never really fit into any category. The only thing that was truly constant was the music. She says, “If you had asked me as a kid, ‘who are you,’ I would have said ‘a piano player.’ But then I had an accident, and cut off a finger. In the process of sewing it back on and healing, I became a singer. I repeated back every melody I could hear. Eventually you get bored with the stuff you hear on the outside, and start singing the stuff you hear on the inside, and presto-chango, you are a songwriter.”

Originally from Colorado, Natalie started singing professionally at age 15, and in addition to the piano, she also plays guitar. “I have played and studied with some of the most amazing musicians on earth, and I am influenced by everything from Fred Astaire to Led Zeppelin and Alison Krauss. I believe that songs are polaroids of your feelings: emotional snapshots in time. So, it’s hard for me to describe my music because there are moments you feel a little more bluegrass than hard rock. There are moments you feel more ‘Faithless’ than ‘Lionel Ritchie’.”

As a result you can hear a range of influences in Natalie’s music, held constant by her voice, which has been described as ‘rich and mellow with sultry tones.’ She says, “Overall my music is indie, but the recipe is 1 part country, 1 part rock, 1 part jazz, and 1 part orchestra.”

Because her musical background is very wide, she has sung everything from country to jazz, and R&B to “new classical” music. Janssen states, “I am drawn to new music, all kinds, and all styles. And most of the time, all styles of music borrow colors and expression from each other anyway, so it is very natural for me to sing many things. I always have.”

Of her music she says, “It’s funny that I can usually express things through song long before I can speak them out loud. Songwriting has become my shadow, my therapy, my desire.”