(Scroll Down)
"With a girl like me, you know you won't get bored," sings KJ Denhert on the title track of her CD, Girl Like Me. Those who have experienced KJ live would certainly agree. Her sense of joy onstage is infectious, bringing honesty and charisma to her talents as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. As an experienced bandleader, she plays without a net, always taking you on a fun ride. KJ has taken the rhythm, wit and passion of her performances, and wrapped them up in lush arrangements and sparkling production to create her signature CD Girl Like Me. Two notable releases, The Songwriters Notebook and Another Year Gone By, Live followed on her independent label Mother Cyclone Records.
KJ calls her music Urban Folk and Jazz, though it is rooted in Funk and R & B. "The jazz," she explains, "comes from people's perceptions of my guitar voicing and the structure of the tunes themselves-using extended solos and players working off of each other. Urban reflects my childhood, growing up in NYC, and folk, I really adored James Taylor, my first guitar influence." Her lyrics tread the familiar grounds of romance, hope and despair, but in uniquely inspiring ways, as in Little Mary "Little Mary don't you be afraid there are a million of us feeling this way."
Since 1998, KJ and her band The NY Unit, a group of musicians with rock-solid credentials, maintain a regular standing room only gig at The 55 Bar in NY's West Village. KJ has also performed in such legendary rooms as The Bitter End, The Bottom Line, Fez and The Living Room. She has opened for Roberta Flack, Kenny Rankin, Tuck & Patti, Phil Roy, GQ and Loudon Wainwright. She appeared at The Bottom Line's prestigious Nightbird series, and headlined for a 6-day stint at the Blue Note in Las Vegas. For seven years, she toured the US, Asia and Europe shredding it up as a lead electric guitarist in a period she describes as "seven years in spandex'!
In August 2005, KJ's performance of her inspirational theme Little Mary, earned her the top prize among the five winners of the 2005 Mountain Stage New Song Festival resulting in an appearance on the prestigious Mountain Stage Radio program, broadcast internationally by PRI. KJ has been honored with consecutive Independent Music Award nominations as Singer/Songwriter of the year in 2004 for "My Love is Complete" from her release the Songwriter's Notebook and for the song "Violet", from Girl Like Me in 2003. At the 2003 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, audiences voted KJ into the top four of the Emerging Artist Showcase. "Red July" from her 2001 Live CD was nominated for Just Plain Folks' best female singer-songwriter award. KJ is garnering staunch media support, in print (New York Times, Westchester Weekly, Acoustic Guitar Magazine), Performing Songwriter Magazine heralded KJ's Girl Like Me in their Top12 DIY section (July/Aug '05). Radio stations around the US, Australia, Canada and Italy are spinning tunes from Girl Like Me and the Songwriters Notebook. Internet support grows exponentially each year.
KJ lends her support to many charitable organizations, with a special interest in Women's health, AIDS and cancer research. She appears annually in the PNW Women's Resource Center benefit concert and has played many live "on-site" concerts for hospitalized HIV patients through LifeBeat, Inc. Her music appears on compilation CDs, including The Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Album and Brooklyn Above Ground, in support of World Hunger Year.
KJ resides in Westchester, NY and states her goals are simple. As an independent record label owner and founder of Mother Cyclone Records, she says, "I want to grow my label and just keep writing". In 2003 she walked away from a successful corporate career to launch Urban Folk and Jazz. By 2005 there are two new CDs, The Songwriter's Notebook, guitar & vocal duets recorded with acclaimed songwriter and guitarist Adam Falcon and Another Year Gone By Live, recorded with her band of nearly nine years. Girl Like Me was released in Japan in July 2005 and has made the HMV Japan Jazz Vocal charts appearing in the top 10 new recordings!
KJ is motivated to provide her musicians a decent living that includes healthcare, an arduous goal for a label of its size. You'll find KJ and the band forging their way into new places, like The Four Corners Folk West Festival held in Colorado in September 2005 or opening the 2005 Cape Cod Jazz festival in July. She dedicates her life mostly to music and explains her passion, "I get to do what I really love. I've lived the truth of the slow build as a marketing strategy. I work hard to put out the best material I can, whether we're playing live or in the studio. It is a very exciting time for a Girl Like Me"
