Kate Hinote Trio – Stowaways
The Kate Hinote Trio is based in Detroit and has a rich new set of songs available on their CD Stowaways. Lively fiddle and acoustic guitar and Kate’s versatile vocals combine in folk style songs that sometimes rock and sometimes pull you in to feel, and often do both. There are ten songs on the album – half of them were co-writes between Kate and Matthew Parmenter with David Johnson contributing to one, four were written by Matthew Parmenter solo. As a bonus track, the trio offers a version of Lennon & McCartney’s much loved “Eleanor Rigby” as the eleventh song.
The title track launches things with forward moving acoustic guitar and Kate’s vocals that might ring a bell that sounds like Joan Osborne’s sultry style. The violin carries the tune and the rhythm at various times and features prominently in the song’s fabric. Stowaways have to exist without anyone seeing, and this song pays homage to the difficulty of being one, and ultimately: “I asked you to be brave / And to trust me / As it must be / And we both know I’ll win in the end.”
In “Love Comes A Flower,” the folk rock pace and the “doo doo doo doo”s will get your toes tapping. “Slow Release” settles the energy back down and it’s a song of longing: “Lost in a slow release / Letting go I might not know where it ends / Where there’s no release / And I must make out I’m just a friend.” Secret lovers, undercover, struggling with the feeling they have to hide.
In “It’s My Toy” an air of defiance is adopted as the song rises and rides and then rises again. On “Call and Response,” the stowaways are experiencing some rocking of the boat: “Sometimes all it takes / Is to see what breaks / When there’s nothing left to save / Pray what’s breaking is a wave.” But it all ends sweetly with “if I had one more chance, I’d still choose love.”
“Happy Anniversary” is a song of sadness in a shadowy anniversary: “it makes me feel so bad, so sad, so mad.”
Stowaways is consistently pleasing sounding songs with acoustic guitar and violin entwining around Kate’s multifaceted vocal range. The album was aptly named for the idea thread that weaves through the album of forbidden love and its own set of challenges and heartaches. The trio shows they can rock and convey subtler vibes in turn and the result is a classy folk album.
Musicians on Stowaways are Kate Hinote on vocals; Matthew Parmenter on violin; and David Johnson on guitar.
The album was produced by Kate Hinote and Matthew Parmenter; engineered, mixed and mastered by Tony Hamera; and recorded at Tempermill Studios in Ferndale, MI.
Find the music here on BandCamp: https://katehinotetrio.bandcamp.com/album/stowaways
