It has finally arrived!

Apr 14, 2009 by Joshua    5 Comments    Posted under: music, music feature

After weeks of waiting for the delivery of Kay Pettigrew’s self-titled album, the package has finally reached my mailbox! I was ecstatic when I saw the brown envelope crammed in that little cubbyhole, and I couldn’t wait to pop it in my computer and absorb the music.

I just wish it wasn’t over so soon.

Album: Kay Pettigrew

Artist: Kay Pettigrew

Genre: folk/blues/indie

The Noise: sweet acoustic and a voice full of soul

I first found out about Pettigrew from the circulating youtube video in which she plays a folksy acoustic version of Will Smith’s famous opening tune to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”. Curious, I checked out her MySpace page and instantly fell in love with the song “Lunatica”.

This Canadian (yeah, I know, another one) guitarist and singer has such a sweet and strong voice that sets my toes tapping, my head shaking, and my hands clapping. She has the blues and rhythm feel down pat, as heard in the first track, “Red Couch”. Her supporting musicians know their stuff, too, laying down driving yet whimsical percussion and solid bass backup.

Upbeat tracks like “Red Couch” and “Lunatica” are offset by easy, melancholy blues tunes. In “It Doesn’t Matter”, Pettigrew plays the broken-hearted lover lamenting to her lost partner, her voice a powerful force even at its most sorrowful.

She shifts the emotional spectrum once again with “Expropriation Blues”, an easy-going folk number that typifies the carefree attitude of the blues genre. It tells the tale of a vagabond heading to Mexico with her cat and someone else’s money. All the while, her voice dances above the meandering guitar twangs, catching the emotional tone of the situation just right.

Unfortunately, the ride is over not long after it starts. That is all for this album, save for a few more tracks (including the Will Smith cover and a “vintage” version of “Red Couch”). Despite being disheartened at the shortness of the album, though, I see it as a sign of things to come, and you can bet that I will be looking forward to any future releases that Pettigrew has to offer. This was a worthwhile purchase (it also came with another album from For the Love of… Records, the independent record company that produces Pettigrew’s CD, though it wasn’t really my cup of tea), and I’m happy to have supported such a wonderful and promising artist.

As always, here is a video for demonstration purposes. Here, she is singing Janis Joplin’s “Piece of My Heart” (originally sung by Erma Franklin), which was not on the album but demonstrates her musical ability just as well:

Speaking of supporting wonderful artists, I checked out independent game developer Tale of Tales’ Web site more thoroughly after they linked to my blog from theirs, and I learned that they had experienced trouble in the past getting their games on the market.

Apparently, they had previously worked on a game with the working title of “8″, but game publishers were not interested in it because it did not fit a particular genre, did not focus on appealing to hardcore gamers, and did not contain much violence, according to co-founder Michaël Samyn’s forum post proclaiming they had ceased development.

Their unique approach to game design, ignoring conventional standards like set goals and tried-and-true (read: cliché) storylines, puts emphasis instead on creativity and interactivity. To me, I think of it as the difference between the original console game from Card’s Ender’s Game and the intuitive world that Ender finds when he pushes against the norm and steps out of the bounds of convention.

If that analogy is lost on you, then I have two statements for you: First, I apologize, and second, read Ender’s Game.

So, as Samyn points out, if this concept of unique game design sounds appealing to you, the best thing you can do to support their efforts is to buy The Path. If they can get the attention of the gaming industry and show to publishers that there is a market for such games, Tale of Tales may have the chance to revisit its previous project and develop many more great titles.

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