Biography

STORE FRONT

Kathleen Haskard : A 4th generation native Californian who divides her time between the rooftops of Southeast London and a MoHo in a canyon on the Pacific coast in the Santa Monica Mountains above Ventura County Line.......... SINGER, SONGWRITER, political activist and all round task force, Kathleen`s is a sussed and culturally aware musician who passionately believes in the HEALING power of music, people power and that the PERSONAL is most definitely political. Her critically acclaimed album DONT TELL is released on her own Howlin` Hound label and distributed by Proper in the UK. In the US it is a proud member of the Nine Mile Records stable and distributed by Burnside.

STOCK TAKE

She WOKE up and smelled the coffee at an early age and grew up to know her family tree boasted a Mexican folk hero and a RADICAL Irish partisan who was a VISIONARY foot soldier in the American labor movement. A political ACTIVIST since her teenage years in California, she worked for Tom Hayden's Campaign for Economic Democracy. In September 2002 Kathleen joined the STOP THE WAR campaign and was one of over 100 prominent UK writers, musicians, artists and actors signing an open letter to prime minister Tony Blair urging the British government to oppose US plans to invade Iraq. in 2006 Kathleen had the honour of singing backing vocals as part of the choir on Neil Young's album Living With War.
Bug Music (who have a writer roster that includes Johnny Cash, Steve Earle, Robyn Hitchcock, the estate of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Buddy & Julie Miller, Richard Thompson, to name a few) saw the songwriting jewels glinting in Kathleen’s eye and welcomed her deft touch, panoramic vision and signed her in 1998 to coincide with the release of her debut album.

Nashville based co-writers include; Stacey Earle, Sandy Stewart (Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks, Tina Turner, Belinda Carlisle, Bow Wow Wow). In Los Angeles her collaborators include Eric Lowen & Dan Navarro (The Bangles, Pat Benetar, The Temptations, The Four Tops).
Her cuts include a song on Stacey Earle's debut album, Simple Gearle. The song 'Losers Weep', features Steve Earle on backing vocals and 'My Own Way Of Doin' Things' on Lowen & Navarro’s, Scratch at the Door.

MOBILE DELIVERY ALWAYS AVAILABLE

Kathleen has tuned up and asked for more guitar in the monitors with Chuck Prophet, Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart, Lowen & Navarro, David Poe, Ed Harcourt, Jim White, Suzy Boguss, David Lindley, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, John Renbourn, Jeffrey Foucault, Clyde Stubblefield, Nick Harper & Glen Tilbrook, The Tiny and Robyn Hitchcock.

ALWAYS IN STOCK

Her debut album, Into The Deep, was released on the Howlin` Hound label, to huge critical acclaim in 1998. Our favourite review came from The Glasgow Women’s Library Quarterly Newsletter (a very discerning bunch).

WHAT`S NEW IN?

Her new album Don't Tell is a prowling/pounding melange of delicately carnal, driven, in the moment songs, carved from the inside looking out and delivered from the outside glaring straight into your eyeballs..................
Recorded in Bristol, London and Hyde Street Studios in San Fransisco, Don't Tell features five tunes penned solo by Kathleen along with a handful of co-writes with Chuck Prophet, Stacey Earle Toby Slater and Sandy Stewart. The San Fransisco crew of Prophet (Guitars/Bass), Paul Revelli (Drums), Danny Eisenberg (Hammond/Piano), Tom Heyman (Pedal Steel) and JJ Wiesler (Guitar) are joined by London’s Simon Alpin (Guitars/Bass) and Grand Drive`s Julian Wilson contributed organ and vocals.

"Prophet and Alpin have woken the guilty preacher, smoked his last cigarette and served him up a condemned mans breakfast whilst Kathleen`s songs challenge his congregation. These two men have produced an album of casual brilliance, letting the songs rise in the swirling swell of 21st century uncertainty. Kathleen`s lyrics have deep connections with the latent sexual and emotional paradoxes all around us. She is blessed with the lateral insight to pluck the beauty out of the brackish backwash. Relationship dynamics are turned inside out, meanings spun on their head, political warlord threads teased, de-lacquered and laid out naked in the street. Pregnant silences are decoded and given resonance.Roaring, yet fragile, strong, and with feeling, Kathleen is four dimensional, chameleon-like, politicised and leaves no carbon footprint."

Paul Hawkins

"When I hear your songs i feel like i'm standing in front of all womankind naked and exposed" ...... a man