What
makes singer/bassist, Rachel Loshak’s music & sound so special
is her sophisticated, orchestral approach to traditional pop music. Imagine
a string quartet stripped of its native instruments & handed electric
guitars & amplifiers. Melodic bass figures move like a boogied cello
weaving with her pure and bell-toned voice, all forming an accessible
foundation to the wide-eyed wonderment of her lyrics, which Loshak paints
in broad strokes with a graceful sadness.
Among the haunting, darker numbers from her release Mint (2003),
it’s the sparse, shadowy piano figures of Single Rose or
the depth of the chamber sounds of The Dreamer that make the
perfect pop lilt of Rain & Sweet as Sin stand out
in their tasteful sublimity. She also induces a near-tribal rouse on the
dub-tinged Never Look Back. Her new album Peach Pony
follows her songwriting to its next level, & brings the production,
as she works with Jason Crigler & Morgan Taylor, along with it.
Supporting her both onstage & on record are guitarist Jason Crigler
(Erin McKeown, Linda Thompson, Marshall Crenshaw), guitarist Morgan Taylor,
& drummer Dan Rieser (Norah Jones, Jesse Harris, Marcy Playground).
Rachel moved to New York City in the late Nineties from Suffolk, England
& honed her songwriting craft with her unique ‘bass and voice’
style. She now lives in New York permanently, using it as a base for her
touring and recording.
Rachel’s music can be experienced on each of her two full-length
albums: Firefly (2001) & her most recent release Mint.
She also is featured alongside Norah Jones & Jesse Harris on the Best
of the Living Room compilation released late 2002. Her newest record
Peach Pony, featuring a duet with Norah Jones, has just been
released in Denmark & South Korea, to wide critical acclaim. Rachel
has also worked recently with Moby, recording vocals with him for 2 tracks
for a future release, & performing a duet with him in January at a
Tsunami benefit concert in NYC. Rachel also performed in January to a
sold out crowd at Irving Plaza where she shared the stage with Norah at
a benefit concert (which she also organized!) for her guitarist, Jason
Crigler, who had been hospitalized since August 2004 with a brain injury.
