KRISTI MARTEL: Give Me a Little...

Kristi Martel

Give Me a Little...

© 2000 Sealed Lip Music (634479938528)

CD permanently out of stock. Sorry!

(About MP3 downloads at CD Baby)

The lyrics stun, the vocals astound, and the piano playing combines her love of blues dissonance and syncopation with her classical training on this handy little 4 song ep.

notes

Hallo Good People,
This album is no longer in print - it SOLD OUT! It's not up for reprint at the moment, but you can purchase the whole album or individual songs at all the usual digital download places for real cheap. Our favorite way for you to have this album is right here at CD Baby. Click the link to the left to get the whole thing and its album art too.

Enjoy!!! And if you want to know when this album DOES get reprinted, or if you want to know when I'm playing in your area or all about my OTHER fine albums, please sign the mailing list:
http://www.kmetal.net/mailinglist.html
Thanks! Be Peace y'all,
-Kristi

Review: Kristi Martel - Give Me a Little... (Sealed Lip Records)
Kristi Martel is a breed unto herself in the world of singer songwriters. She sounds like no one else. Unafraid of the quirks in her character, she mines her inner conflicts in an unembarrassing and daring way. Her musical vocabulary is wild and varied without ever being beyond control. The only thing wrong with this album is that it is too short. It is actually a 4 song CD that works to wet the appetite for this smart-hearted artist. -- Patrick Arena, Outvoice & PittsburghOUT

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

"Incomparable!" - Utah Phillips

"Damn!" - Cesca Waterfield

Featured on NPR (January 2007), in Curve Magazine (June 2007), and on WERS (November 2006), and Voted RI's Best Female Alt-Rock Vocalist in 2006 by Motif Magazine, avant-soul piano diva Kristi Martel grew up in New England and left in 1990 to earn an ASCAP grant and two music degrees (Bard and Mills College) in NY and CA before returning home to RI in 2003. The visionary soulsinger choreographed performance art and composed vocal music to tell stories about relationships, cultural identity, body image, and body memory before beginning her touring and recording career in 2000.

A finalist in many of the top international songwriting competitions, Kristi's 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 4-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. "give me a little..." was the first. It was recorded in two different home studios with two different engineers. It recorded her most popular songs at that time, including the ORIGINAL version of the acclaimed, "Give," aka "the brain virus," and some fans swear that this is still their favorite of Kristi's CDs.

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)

reviews

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  • In spite of it's brevity, this is a CD you will not soon forget.
    author: Taelor Richards

    Give Me a Little, though seemingly the effort of a much more accomplished artist, is the first release of Rhode Island singer-songwriter Kristi Martel. At just four tracks and sixteen minutes long this EP is short and intense; each song beautifully crafted leaving the listener wanting more. Martel shies away from the stripped down simplicity of many of her peers, preferring instead to fill her songs with rapid, insightful lyrics, innovative drumming and a constant rhythm of keys. She complements these with powerful, often layered vocals, demonstrating her skills in syncopation by harmonising her vocal tracks and employing up to three separate vocal melodies at a time. Though each track certainly has a complexity to it, this never gets in the way. Rather, Martel’s unconventional phrasings and wordy lyrics entice her listeners to further explore her music. Give Me a Little deals with issues such as troubled childhoods and farewelling (or expelling) lovers, but it is not an unhappy collection. ‘Give’ and ‘Rise’ are fast paced, upbeat tracks, while ‘Carrying Stories’ is calmly hopeful. Track four, ‘Comeback’, ends on a sad note, but a feeling of optimism is evident through the majority of the disc, and perhaps even the resolution of this final song is constructive. ‘Give’ in particular places emphasis on Kristi’s optimism, with it’s repetition of ‘I am stronger knowing you. I am stronger knowing me,’ and eventual evolution into ‘You are stronger knowing me. You are stronger knowing you.’ Though fleeting, the CD certainly leaves an impression. The EP is comprehensive and complete, in spite of its brevity, and its four tracks are so diverse in sound that they give the impression of a much lengthier and more polished disc. Kristi’s style is inventive and interesting, and this CD showcases it well. I give this CD five stars.

  • Cannot stop listening to this cd!!
    author: Melinda Marshall

    This cd pierced me so deeply! The words, the music, everything about it speaks to me and makes me thank goddess for kristi's amazing talent with words! The songs on this cd are like jewels dropped from heaven, and the song Comeback makes me weep and still come back to it for more! GET this cd and you WILL NOT regret it!

  • Kristi Martel - Give Me A Little
    author: Girlmedia.com - Geneva World

    While Oakland might boast rap, hip hop, and R&B stars, their real talent lies with a young singer/songwriter Kristi Martel. Her style couldn't be farther from the local urban scene, as she composes songs with a folk/jazz/contemporary influence, but this doesn't stop Kristi from being involved in local music pursuits. Kristi's confidence in her words sets her apart from many young musician wannabes, with hints of Ani Difranco and Jewel throughout her EP.

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