Kate Ellis is a country-folk singer-songwriter who was born in Louisiana, raised in New York, and is currently based in London. Her new single declares citizenship to a beautiful auditory experience called “Wonderland”.
Instrumentally, the guitars are tasteful and mixed really well. Layers of marimba sounding bells and a subtle bass create a very welcoming sonic bed to the ears. Vocally, Kate’s voice is as gorgeous as it is nourishing. If sound was food, her voice is chicken soup for the soul. Kate is also refreshing and offers nostalgia in making music that used to capture mass audiences for decades but has slowly waned since the rise of digital music. Personally, I’ll take her chicken soup over the artificial auto-tune that permeates a lot of pop-music these days. The acoustic nature of country-folk was meant for a voice like Kate’s and her voice deserves to be heard on a large scale.
The songwriting is really well done, allowing the verses to patiently progress into an anthemic driven hook that makes you want to never leave “Wonderland”, prompting a highly likely repeat of the song when it does conclude. The verses paint poetic imagery of life fading in the cycle of life and its this contrast of the hook’s optimistic feel and the lyrics’ vulnerable honest expression of both loss and pain that create a hopeful melancholic experience that gives this tune an extra layer, never allowing “Wonderland” to fall on either extreme of happiness or sadness. In the end life is this very inevitable nuance and that’s perhaps what makes it a beautiful wonderland.
If you’re looking for an escape from your current playlists and enter an authentic and sincere folk sound with great song structure and writing, I highly suggest Kate Ellis’ “Wonderland” and to also dig into her catalogue.
Written by Jon Kagan
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