Kaitlin McGaw: News

notforkidsonly Blog just selected Alphabet Rockers as "Best CD" in her Holiday List!
Lisa had this to say:
"Ahhh. A refreshing CD you'll not just tolerate -- you'll actually enjoy. Put this on and get the party started! (Wooooo! It's local, too!!) You will love this. (And thank me later.)"
Blog writer Lisa Hines has a bunch of great stuff reviewed on this site - check it out!

"We’ve looked high and low for the best toys, books, games, and gadgets for children in preschool through high school. Our panel of teachers, parents, curriculum specialists (and of course kids!) put hundreds of products through their paces to come up with a list of our favorites. We’re happy to report that Alphabet Rockers has been chosen for our Smart Stuff list—Education.com’s Essential Gift Guide."

Here's their 2 cents:
"Need a fresh album for your child's collection? Look no further. This CD was produced by School Time Music, a San Francisco record label founded by Harvard graduate and professional singer Kaitlin McGaw and drummer and music teacher Dawn Richardson. Songs such as "Seven Days a Week" and "The Money Song" do a great job of weaving curriculum into catchy lyrics and music with an R&B feel. And songs like "The New Kid in School" deal with the social aspects of student life. You and your child will be jammin' (and learnin') before you know it."
So everyone, get on the wagon and get ready to spin some turntables and rap along with the kids. It's seriously hot.

Review is also available at: Education.com

So it's nearing that special time of the year... my birthday! I'm turning 30, December 2. And it's nearly Thanksgiving, when even though I'll be 3000 miles from my family, I'll be giving thanks and reflecting on family, friends, health and well-being.

For my birthday, I'm hosting a party here in San Francisco on Saturday, December 1. I set up an evite but realized some people aren't in my address book. So welcome! If you want to come, email me at kaitlin@ kaitlinmcgaw.com. My theme is "Cabaret 30" - a cocktail hour and wee-lil-talent show of sorts. Why? Because I have all these creative friends, some of whom haven't been on stage yet or in awhile, and I wanted them to go for it!

It's apropos to have others take a leap with me. Last year I set all these crazy goals to accomplish by the time my last year of the 20s concluded. I put them out to the world, told my friends and so forth, and many if not all of them have been realized. CRAZY. I wanted to release my children's album "Alphabet Rockers" to national acclaim, to record an album with "The Simple Things," and to score at least 12 gigs with my cover band Suite Love Express. There were other parts around them, but you get the gist. Kind of wild at the time, but now it's all being realized, including The Simple Things recordings... I'll be finishing up the weekend before I turn 30! Alphabet Rockers is already on iTunes and CDBaby, and we're getting all this great response already, I'm thrilled.

Several people went out of their way to help me achieve little parts of this along the way - knowing what I hoped to accomplish, and hoping they could just add in a little bit of help. Sometimes it's just an introduction to someone who might like my kids music, or its been loaning me money (thanks mom and dad) or just being supportive of me as a singer. I've had to miss family weddings, dearest friends' birthdays and sadly a memorial this year. Distance is a thorn. Sometimes its' my gigs I can't back out of -- but friends have stood by me and understood that my heart is with them!

So I just want to name a few people who have inspired and helped me this year in my musical path. In no particular order:
My parents, Bridger, Macy, Dawn, Ray, Mike G, Meaghan Brusch, Josh Klipp, Suzanne Koga, Nick Phillips, Annie & Tim, Steve Krespel, Killian, Allison Haley, Maria Freda, Lauren Voce, Maire Soosaar, Beth Trifilo, Amanda Howell, Val Oca, Gentry Bronson, Matthew Trent, Jason Wyman, Aldo Rodriguez, Carmelo Larose, Angie & Todd, Zander Keig, Jonathan & Jimmy, Corinne, Alessandro & Thy, Sarah Aldinger, Ginger, Chris Gee, Pawel Kruk, Rebecca Fisher, Steve Taylor-Ramirez, Martin, Derek, Daniela, Brett Gajda, Scott McDowell, Eoin, Johnny Hayes, Jonathan James, Lynn and Allison, Paul Liszewski, Stef, Em, Louisy, Court, Reuben, Deb, Greg and Tara, Kev and V, Cat Manning, Renee & B, Paul O'bryan, Ariel & Channing, Mitchell, Erin, Adrienne, Orchid, Merl, Lainey, Lindsay Anglade, Sonja and Olin, John V, Jennifer, and Derek. I know this is weird. But whatever, it's my blog, I can write what I want. So thanks to people for believing in me! And, at a time of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful that George survived his motorcycle accident. and Lastly I just want to say how thankful I am for my grandfather Eddie. He's nearly 92. Still lives by himself and takes care of himself. He calls me now and asks me how the gigs are going... It's crazy to see how a few years can change your place in your own universe. Now instead of just asking how San Francisco is, it's also about me here as a singer. He's so beautiful. I cherish our time together, on the phone, talking about our separate paths in Connecticutt and San Francisco.

Gratitude is abundant today. :)

Hey check it out! Alphabet Rockers is my children's CD, and it just got put up on iTunes for sale. The songs are awesome - and we're getting a great response from families who are just now checking it out!

It's the new "School House Rock" and its perfect for a holiday gift or for rockin' a party. Seriously.

CDs are for sale at CD Baby too.

Turn it up loud and proud!
You can also add Alphabet Rockers as a Myspace friend here .

Check out our website! There are free curriculum downloads for teachers, coloring pages for kids (& adults) and more. We'll be posting up some photos from the "It's a (W)rap" party soon.

Saturday night was literally POURING. And I thought it might just be a SF thing, but when Jason calls me from Monterey and tells me it's raining down there, I'm thinking, this is going to be ugly. So, 1.5 hour drive becomes 2, and my knuckles literally turn white behind the wheel.
Needless to say made it to our Suite Love Express gig down in Monterey in one piece and we had a great time. And don't worry, I didn't take pictures while I was driving. That would still be mr ray.
There is always time to pimp for the camera before the show.
And sometimes a singer can take her hands at photos DURING the show.
The crowd was all over it, from the Fleetwood Mac opener to Journey closin' out! This picture is I believe after Neil Diamond?
And me and Ray... flossin'.
Needless to say we had a good time playing. I think we were all glad to be out of the rain and not on the road. We still had another near 2 hours driving home in the pouring rain once the party was done. But hey, all is fair in love and rock n' roll.

Red Devil, Tiburon, and Fisheye Cameras


Last weekend I was on the mic with Suite Love Express.... First it was Friday at Red Devil Lounge, which was a blast. Awesome crowd, with so many folks coming out at the early 9 o'clock hour! Shout outs to LJ, Stef and Roger, Jonathan, Jimmy, Beth, Lainey, Whitney, Bernadette + Francesca, Brian & Renee, Suzanne and Shane! So many more but those are the ones I caught :)

The show was rad. Love the new sound system there, and shout out to Sarah for her great job working it out. We were opening for the Cheeseballs, so we made sure we didn't play any of the songs in their repertoire, to keep it fresh and all that. So, we ended up with a nearly all RAWK set. Suite Child of Mine (according to Jason the stick man) tore the roof off. All his metal friends were all over it. Beth's point was that Kent's version of Rod Stewart's "Do ya think I'm sexy" was a keeper for the Suite Lovers. It's pretty hot. We rocked a little BEP (Black Eyed Peas) so we could spit some rhymes... Then there was the Jersey bride-to-be who demanded some good ol' Bon Jovi. Wanted Dead or Alive never rang through the band so hot! It was fantastic... Our little breakdown, dead quiet, and then a wall of guitars when the chorus kicks back in! So fun. And then of course we closed the night with Highway to Hell so people know where I'm comin from!! My favorite song to sing.

Now comes for the Ray cam.
Backstage Piano:
Jason Cole, on a Roll:
"The Sirens" (Aimee, Kaitlin & Sonja from the Cheeseballs)
I'm sure I'll dig up some photos from Jason's camera too to add in here.

Sunday we were off to the Corinthian Yacht Club up in Tiburon for Ross & Samantha's wedding. It couldn't have been a more beautiful day. Picture perfect, no fog, gorgeous view of the entire city and the bay... And warm! This venue is beautiful... definitely the right spot for a San Francisco wedding. Ross and Samantha are just this awesome couple, with great family and friends... Plus everyone at the venue too was fun to work with. It was one of those great show days. Here are some pix of us setting up:
That would be me on the deck.
Goofing off backstage
Kent played acoustic during the ceremony, and then we played during dinner and the reception. It was a nice change from Friday night, because for the first hour we got to do all these mellow songs - I felt like a jazz singer for a brief moment. Up there in a pretty dress singing pretty songs... After Dinner we got into one of the greatest dance sets. There are these two flower girls that seriously could Crump, hyphy dance.... What?! SO rad.
And that's how we roll.

In early September I got a call from my friend Gentry Bronson, somewhere from the road in Arizona. He wanted to see if I could put together a show with Michael McDermott, who was somewhere on the East Coast, himself, and The Simple Things in San Francisco. It sounded like such a great billing – for folks who love to listen at shows (more than party/dance) it would be a night of songwriters who get super emotional in their telling of stories. Sweet. So I started looking at venues, and decided that the Hotel Utah would be the perfect spot. A week feels like a month for people on the road, but a week later things were confirmed and we were good to go for our October 18 show.

Ray made up some great posters:

On the day of the show, I warmed up at home on my keyboard while Ray took pictures with his new camera. Then of course I got a little part of it in his foneart taken through my kaleidoscope:
We soon after left, and headed down to the Utah to check out the piano. It which was pretty much in tune. Joy joy joy! And all three artists on the bill were pianists. Gentry ended up choosing to play on his elec piano, Michael chose to use the Utah's piano, and we decided to use both the upright and Mike G's elec. Cuz Mike needs more keys, please!

Gentry's opening set was really beautiful. I hadn't seen him live yet and he's got a great stage presence, rockin vocals to go with the keys, and sweet little stories about the songs in between which always make you listen to the lyrics so carefully. I love that! It's like a little sneak peek. Then it was our turn at the stage. Mike G looked a little Tori Amos on one bench between two sets of 88 keys. Pretty cool. Ray set up under the pink light and I took center stage. We opened with "Flying Horses", followed by "Ferris Wheel" where everyone has to snap along with us. My favorite part of the set was performing Annie Lennox's "Cold" and then changing the vibe entirely going into "Eyes for Me" - our sitar-esque bass line/organ drone/simple vocal line song. The closing was pretty fun too, after all the emotion, to cut into our "What's Good For Me" song about (shhh... "action"). Man. Mike G got down on those keys people. So fun. And having our guest vocalists join us impromptu for "Just My Imagination" to close was an awesome addition.
Here are some photos, courtesy of Jason Cole. (Ginger Snap took a ton of photos too but due to the beautiful and precious world of FILM, they unfortunately didn't turn out! Next time we'll see his craftsmanship.)
After our set I met a ton of new folks, and Jennifer - love ya coming all the way from Sacramento. You're amazing. Then there was all these random crossovers. Brad who plays sax on my children's CD "Alphabet Rockers" is friends of Gentry... Jeri from Blame Sally is there with my friend Suzanne and plays in another band with Dawn Richardson (from Alphabet Rockers)... There were others too. Oh yea, my friend Lainey knows Mark from Suite Love Express, totally different paths in the city, and they all connect. Go figure.
Michael closed the evening, playing guitar, with a wooden plank with a pick-up for a kick drum, and on the piano. He's got this amazing voice and ability to share straight from the gut-renching space. Captivating.
All in all, good times were had, and here are some snaps of me and the great acts of the evening:
Gentry Bronson and I chillin' after the show.
Me and Michael, more chillin.

This photo captures the whole weekend for me! Because sometimes a girl's gotta rock. And sometimes it happens to be with three awesome youngsters from canada. We had so much fun playing dress-up, singing songs about cupcakes (I can't believe they got me to sing it to the wedding...) and being silly... before I had to go back onstage to rock the Fergie/Etta James etc.

Weekend kicked off Friday night with a marathon four hour rehearsal night for my cover band, Suite Love Express. We piled into Lennon Studios around 6 p.m. on Friday, just as the rain paused (thankfully) and got ready to rock.

This is me being a dork with the killer amp in Lennon Studios.
We went through all four hours of music we had in store for the next day – we must have played what, 40 songs in rehearsal alone? Maybe not… I can't figure how we would have gotten through all that. But we rocked the Rod Stewart, Black Eyed Peas, Billy Idol… what else… it's a blur now but we rocked them all.

Next morning it was off to the venue, Golden Gate Club in the Presidio. We had a killer sound check (I know this sounds dumb but when you can already rock at 1 p.m. it's a good feeling!)

Then the bagpiper kicked it off ol'school.
And the suite lovers got silly:
Jason & Mark behind bars once again.
This crazy Kentie
a well-behaved bass player
Fergalicious me and jason
And here's my last picture for today. Let's just note that this was taken by Ray on bass during the end of Highway to Hell. How did he take a photo that is this cool and play bass is beyond me. The dude's got skillz.
Close to the end of the night someone requested Twist & Shout which was so fun – we never practiced the song but it is a 1 4 5 in C i believe, and the good ol' "ah.......Ah......AH....... AHHHHHHH So shake it baby!" man. So rad. Especially with Ray throwin in the La Bamba bass line. Gots to love the Suite Lovers. :")

Live music.

My gosh. I feel so lucky that in the past year I've seen prolific artists perform live - artists who have influenced my songwriting, performance and vocal stylings. First it was Rickie Lee Jones last year at the Art & Soul Festival in Oakland which I went to with Ray. She sings like a banchee, she's got so much control over her highs and lows - it's amazing.
Then this year we saw Erykah Badu at the Fillmore which was insane. Sold out. She ruled the stage. Vocals for days. One of those concerts where you get lost in it.
Later this month I will see Meshell Ndegeocello at the Independent - and artist whom I've been looking forward to seeing live for years, and for some reason always have a gig or am travelling when she comes to town. I missed Ann and Nancy Wilson when they came to the area - I was traveling - but that's another act I've got to see live. Honestly though I saw a recording of their live show that showed me volumes of why they are magnificent.

BUT.... HERE'S THE TOP MOMENT: LAST NIGHT.

Last night though was the pinnacle for me - to see Annie Lennox perform. This woman embraces so much of the songwriting and vocals that I cherish. In The Simple Things, I started performing "Cold" last year. This song has a line: "Dying is easy it's living that scares me to death... I could be so content hearing the sound of your breath." She's so bold, so raw. So last night I got tickets that turned out to be third row thanks to a beautiful angel in my life. Third row, as in we're literally onstage with her. With me are two vocal coaches that have made me who I am today - Dwayne Calizo and Raz Kennedy. Dwayne is really the one who encouraged me to write songs when I started studying voice with him when I moved to SF. He sat across from me strumming an Em on the guitar until I got the courage to open my heart up through the poetry and vocals I have. And three months later I was performing a song I wrote in his show at New College. Raz Kennedy is an angel I met while working at Blue Bear School of Music, who is now producing the vocals on The Simple Things album. His training has literally made me feel like I've physically grown.

So here I am at the show of one of the artists I most admire in the universe, with two of my mentors and the beautiful Bob as well. Third Row. Every audience member received a flyer with "SING" on the front, addressing Annie's goal to offer global support for those with HIV. Read about it:
The emotion in the room - the appreciation for her spirit, talent and defiance - it was palpable. I knew I was going to be emotional, but she literally made me weep. She embraces each story of the song as if she has just discovered his core. Her version of the newest song, "Dark Road" - live - made tears just pour outside of me.
It's a dark road
and a dark way that leads to my house
and the word says
You're never gonna find me there oh no
I've got an open door
It didn't get there by itself
She has this independence - but this raw openness for love that comes through on stage. This is literally a part of who I am, and I felt like I was seeing a part of myself reflected on the stage in this iconic artist. It was a glorious evening - another milestone in my life I could only hope for. I wish I could have taken photos last night inside, but here's one I found online. This is how she performed Sweet Dreams and Sisters are Doing it for Themselves... at the keyboard.

Now I'll wait until the day I can see Aretha live. That will be amazing. I actually talked to her on the phone once - yup. I know. The Queen and I! It was for work, but hey she returned my call and asked for me. I'll never forget that moment either when my collague says, "Kaitlin, Aretha Franklin is on the phone for you." Nuts.

Well before I get into the recording session today, I want to just say how thankful I am to live in San Francisco – though it hurts sometimes to be so far away from family. Boston is my hometown and always will be my home – all my friends from high school I still love like family and my family is all still 'round them parts. It's been especially hard this past month being away from home, but I found solace in the water out here in San Francisco. I went through the Presidio and came across this small WWII memorial for lost soldiers, where I sat and watched the sunset over the Pacific. Here's a glimpse from my cell phone camera. It's not as good as Ray's pix as you'll see later, but it captures what gave me some peace.
Today we overdubbed for The Simple Things album. We already tracked 9 songs over Labor Day weekend, so now we were just adding a few touches to them and also tracking one new song. The song "What's Good For Me" is our sing-a-long dirty song that people just love…. And now we've tracked some stomps and claps from lovely Laura, Ray and Mike G… gonna be rockin.
Afterwards Mike rocked out on the melodica on a few other songs.
And then it was my turn at the helm, in the iso booth. We tested out a bunch of pre-amps and mics (for geeks, you would love this), for most people (tune out for a second). Now I know we ended up with Dan Alexander pre-amp, and the mic battle was between this new one and the good ol' Telefunken 251. Well, it's the "king" and it won. It's amazing on everyone's voice and I have to say I think it really captures my voice so well, with this warmth and deep quality that is unparalleled.

Here's the new mic, awesome bright sound that will be really killer for some other tracks.
And here's the king and I.
We started recording "The Moon is Torn" – the first song that Ray and I wrote together last summer. It's just bass and vocals and it's kind of all it needs (you can still hear the demo on my page until January when the album will be released). The song is very intense for us, it's about a friend who died in a motorcycle accident. As I've come to know, the pain never goes away, the person is always missing and the heart is never whole again. Thus the moon, torn between daylight and evening, lingering and in between. Listening to the song on playback made me cry, it's just so intense, and I feel thankful that the song exists.

After all that we needed a major break and chilled out, got goofy and tracked a few more songs before wrapping up the session. Scott is just amazing to work with so all yah's recording fools better holla at him for sessions, he's got the chops and the ears and the vibe to make a great recording. His mantra is all about get it right in the take, don't leave it to editing. YEA.

Here's me tracking "Trapped in this Hotel." No idea why I always wrap scarves around my head in the studio, but it's not the first time.
My old vocal coach said some of my songs reminded him of Rickie Lee Jones, so I started listening to her…and now I'm recording in the studio she recorded in multiple times. You never know…

Studio A
Iso booth. Love the logo :)
Labor Day weekend, Ray, Mike, and I went into Hyde Street Studio A with the talented Scott McDowell to do some damage. Me and Mike went to this place "Phil's Coffee" on the way over to the studio, by the ballpark. Have you tried it? Insane. Expensive though. Anyways, we show up at the studio where Ray and Scott have already set up mics and cables for recording their baby grand piano (newly tuned), the B3 organ, and the wurlitzer. A cozy lil iso booth is set up right off the studio so we can all be trackin in this same lovely spot.

Needless to say, the session was amazing. We worked about 10 or 11 hours I want to say... and tracked 8 songs. Crazy. Mike was literally going nuts on the piano. the dude has skills like a maestro. It's amazing seeing how pianists play so differently on a real piano versus a keyboard. In our rehearsals its always the Korg triton, which for you keyboard dorks out there, you would have loved how it became the butt of the jokes for a while. (As in, "man that sounded great Mike, maybe we should try that again on the Triton and see if we get a better tone").

That's me, players!
Mike G on the B-3. Crazy dude.
Scott is amazing to work with - he's got great ears, and that's just an understatement. The next day we went back in for another full 10 hours, mostly overdubs with Mike G just about melting into nothing after all the work we made him do. But the last hour and half, we had just a few little overdubs left, and I got this feeling.... we needed to track one more song. Why? because when is the next chance we're going to be able to rent out this gorgeous studio with a baby grand? We're always performing and working and it's hard to get a chunk of time like this. So we're exhausted, and the guys look at me like I'm a nutbag. and then we start tracking "What's Good For Me" - this Jill Scott/Erykah Badu-ish song that I wrote about not gittin' what u want, (if you know what i mean, and i think u do.) And let me just say that Mike and Ray are amazing, the song is ridiculous and just plain rad. After all this, we're basically falling apart and I drive Mike home, return to the studio for some delightful "finger snappin" recordings, and then listen to Scott do a rough mix. Honestly, a rough mix usually is just spotty. The music sounds crazy good - this engineer made every track the best it could be - ProTools will not be flexin to make this music sing.
Scott rockin' the Neve
Me & the scarf. A duo made in a studio.

Sunday morning I got an early start and went and picked up Ray for our first video shoot for The Simple Things. We chose to do "It's Still Light Out," which is still one of our favorite songs. Filmmaker/photographer Jonathan James and Joe come to set up their equipment and film Ray and I performing the song. Luckily my house has all this golden tone to it, as well as deep rich colors of dark wood around the windows. It's very 70s, actually. Since that's my decade, I guess I like the throwback to growing up in that time. We performed the song several times and then took a break for them to go off and do other shoots and for us to wait til dusk.

But it was one of those precious days where somehow we still had more to come. Ray and I went out to lunch and came back to my house, only to find inspiration to write a new song. I had been writing a poem to my friend Chris as he packed up to move to NYC. He and I began our journey as songwriters together - each of us was doing it on our own 6 years ago, but we encouraged each other to just make it come to life. Last summer we hosted a house concert at his musicians co-op house which brought around 125 people, and it was the first full show I had done of my original songs. Needless to say that night was one of the best nights of my life, where I never had to look back to enjoy the present moment and note of each song. So I miss Chris already. I wrote him a poem about the fog, and about not being ready to say goodbye. Ray and I sit down in our "video shoot" instrumenation set up, and we started to play with an old instrumental song we had started last fall. Before I knew it, we finished this song that is beautiful, and I think it will really touch those who are not ready to say goodbye to a loved one, whether they be moving, leaving, or dying. One thing I love about writing with Ray versus pop song writers is he reminds me to keep things simple, to let the song breathe, to not force it.

After this, we met up with the filmmakers again in downtown San Francisco, in North Beach, just before dusk. It was one of those beautiful nights where the city buildings start turning gray and pink before your eyes. And we just walked around the steep steps of the SF hills, between New Orleans style terraces and Victorian doorways, through Washington Square Park, dreaming.

We'll be recording at Hyde Street Studios in just two weeks, and the video should be out this fall.

Liam Mayclem, CBS 5 picks Reubenesque in "Liam's List" - as top entertainment for the weekend.
"The songs take flight when joined by sultry and sassy vocalist Kaitlin McGaw, who brings dimension and womanly curves to the male angst of the lyrics and melodies."