As requested by a couple of fans, I have posted my recently recorded and CBC-broadcasted versions of my dad's songs, "Waltz of the Tennis Players" and "Dance Hall Girls" on iLike.com. You can stream them for free there, or check 'em out via iLike's Facebook application. Here's the url:

http://www.ilike.com/artist/Kaya+Fraser

Enjoy. And remember, if you see any CD re-releases of Fraser and DeBolt's two fantastic albums, DON'T BUY THEM. They are illegal bootlegs that have found their way onto the market and my Dad and Daisy have not seen a cent from their release. I hope that soon there will be a legal re-release, because the albums are beautiful. In the meantime, we'll all have to be patient (or use our eBay skills to get a hold of the rare vinyl versions).

Love,

Kaya

So, I think it's a pretty special thing when you perform someone else's song, and the songwriter tells you that your version is beautiful. This happened to me a couple of days ago, with regards to the cover I did last spring at The Yellow Door in Montreal, of Ron Sexsmith's "Gold in them Hills." It is a song with a special place in my heart, and I was thrilled when Mr. Sexsmith himself commended me on it recently. Though, as I pointed out to him, it's a song that is hard to make un-beautiful.

I think I'll post it again on MySpace, just for fun. Hope you all like it, too.

Love,

K.

...preparing to do a concert tomorrow night with my old choir, Concerto Della Donna. This group is very special to me, and its director, Iwan Edwards, is one of my musical mentors. He taught me much of what I know about performing--maybe everything that wasn't already in my blood. So I was thrilled to be asked to be a guest soloist at this benefit concert, which is raising money to let the choir go on tour. They are wonderful and deserve every penny. If you want to know more:

www.concertodelladonna.com

In other news, I wrote another song, again on the train, which is a very productive space for me, it seems. This one is about Richard Manuel. I'll see if I can get a kind soul to let me record it soon so you all can have a listen, if you like.

Love,

Kaya

Merci, mes amis et amies en France!

I just found out that I hit number 3 on the iTunes charts last week under the Folk category in France. Not too shabby for an indie such as myself, I think! Again, I'm sure that Deezer.com was a factor here, so I reiterate my thanks to them.

And thank you to all those who've been listening and (it seems) actually *purchasing* the music--it is deeply appreciated, and it motivates me to keep going in this business.

Love,

Kaya

Okay, I owe a *huge* thank you, accompanied by a hug and maybe a beer, to the people at Deezer.com, who were kind enough to post me on their homepage (right above another relatively unknown act called Portishead) a few days ago. Since then, I have garnered a small army of new fans, mostly in France, but many from elsewhere. I have popped up on a few people's blogs and am getting more hits on my various pages than ever before. Wow! This internet thing might just catch on, I think.

Anyway I'm flattered and a little overwhelmed by the response. Thank you to Deezer.com (especially my friends Smady and Footeuz) and to all you lovely people who have been listening to me in faraway countries!

I'm happy you can all listen to "Tremor and Slip" via streaming, but remember: if you do decide to buy a copy of the record, it helps me pay my bills and buy groceries!

Love and gratitude,

Kaya

As I enter my late-mid-twenties, I have to say I had the best birthday weekend I've had in years. The show on the 9th with John Allaire, Jonathan Davis and Alex Krakus was much, much fun. I love singing in that room at the London Music Club. One high point for me was the moment when, at the last minute, I decided to throw in a cover of The Band's "Tears of Rage"--a song which I cherish but which I haven't played in years. It's so much fun to pull out all the stops on a tune like that sometimes. Anyway, the evening evolved into a lovely post-show jam, and then a post-jam shawarma, and post-shawarma latenight jam. Why does music always feel so good to play at 3 in the morning, sitting on someone's livingroom floor?

Then I was (groggily) off to Montreal the next day, to see the family and prepare for my show with them. Sunday was practicing all day, because my dad and my brother were backing me up on bass and drums respectively, and we'd never done the "family band" thing before. So much fun! They did an admirable job, as did my mother on my set's finale, a rendition of my dad's beautiful song "Waltz of The Tennis Players." The night, which was ably kicked off by John Allaire and Ben Hammond, was a memorable one.

Then last night I swung by Toronto on my way home to catch Teitur's show at The Courthouse. A very interesting show--although I'm not entirely convinced about the acoustics in the venue. A bit boomy in the huge, high-ceilinged room--which used to be a big old-fashioned courtroom, so you can imagine the scale. Still, all three sets (the first by a member of Teitur's band, whose name I alas cannot recall but whose set was lovely, the second by the impressively-voiced Tina Dico) managed to pull off diverse musical inventiveness, without verging into pretentious hipster pastiche. A very gratifying night of music. But the show was really made, for me, by Teitur's charming and amusing between-song banter, and the repeated references to the CN Tower as "The Stick."

So now home for a little while. A new song came to me on the train (I wish I could just rent a train berth every time I feel the need for a new song, because it seems like a productive space for me, for some reason). So that's good. Lazy Dynamite and I practice tonight for a show at the end of the month in St.Thomas, as well as for the hell of it. That will be fun, as always, I'm sure. I sure will miss those guys when I leave town later this summer. *Sniff*

Much love,

K.

Back in London after a crazy four days or so, playing in Toronto and then Peterborough. While both shows had their upsides and downsides, I enjoyed them both thoroughly.

Toronto's show was at the really very cool venue The Supermarket; it was a songwriter-circle kind of deal with Lindsay Ferguson, Marc Charron and Coco Love Alcorn. All were a treat to listen to and jam with a little on stage. Hope to do some more collaboration with them in the future, should the fates allow. I'd also love to go back to The Supermarket--perhaps with a slightly bigger crowd in front of me!

Peterborough is a lovely little town (I'd never been before)--much more what I would think of as a typical college town than London, for example, and quite pretty to boot. But then again I'm probably just biased because I had such a terrific evening. The people at Showplace were SO organized and nice; even though I was not at all the biggest-deal performer there that night (!), they treated me like a professional, and even added in some friendliness. I'd happily go back there--it's a beautiful theatre too.

So, I played my bit before and during the intermission of the show in the lounge area, with tables and a bar. A few people seemed to take notice, which was nice. Then I went to listen to Ron's set, which was fantastic. Highlights for me were his rendition of "Brandy Alexander" (co-written with Feist, which I didn't realize) and the ever-heartrending "Gold In Them Hills." I missed my other favourite, "Tell Me Again," because he played it as an encore while I was downstairs packing my gear.

However, after the show, Ron--soft-spoken but very approachable--and I talked a bit, and then he ever so kindly invited me backstage to have a drink. Which I did, unhesitatingly. I had a lovely conversation with Don Kerr, who, aside from being a great drummer and apparently one of the nicest men on the planet, can also open beer bottles with a spoon handle: very cool. So, a highly memorable evening. Without getting too starry-eyed, one has to observe that it really isn't every day that you get to meet one of your ... what? Idols? Role models? Those aren't the right terms. Objects of very much admiration, let's say. I felt like I had a four-leaf clover in my pocket.

Glad to get back for some time with my little family, though...and then: Montreal!

Love,

K.