by Andrew Tuckman, JamBandFriendly.com, Sept. 20, 2010

For months I had been hearing the name Kate Gaffney around the San Francisco jam scene. I had missed her set at High Sierra this year and the many shows at The Connecticut Yankee but knew I had to seek out a performance quickly before Kate started attracting bigger crowds.

By: Dennis Cook, JamBase.com, Jan 1, 2010

The stripped back, exposed opening minute of The Coachman (TiredWired Productions) rapidly crawls under your skin with a sharply drawn emotional tenor and singer with the sort of voice that reminds one why Auto-Tune will never replace a skipping, beautiful, inviting set of pipes like Kate Gaffney possesses and puts to work on one of the most readily winning, easy to enjoy singer-songwriter slanted albums in a blue moon.

Part of what makes The Coachman work so well is the way Gaffney taps into the same reservoirs as the best Bonnie Raitt, Aimee Mann and other touchstones but never sounds precisely like anyone else. She's got the timbre down to resonate on their frequency but she's gifted enough to skirt emulation. And she's a got a soulful lilt that gives her music lovely hips, which she sways compellingly with primo collaborators like Jackie Greene, Greg Leisz, Andrew Lipke and Steve Kimock. There's the touch of pros here and a sound that recalls the heyday of '70s FM radio with a thoughtful assembly of ingredients and fine instinct for catchy turns of phrase and melodies, including a subtle one-drop, reggae vibe burbling under the surface of tunes like "Fallen For The Road." Toss in choice covers of Greene's "The Ballad of Sleepy John" and Woody Guthrie's "Philadelphia Lawyer" and you can add good taste to Gaffney's virtues.

Gaffney has been making waves in the San Francisco live scene, befriending some of the best players around, and it's not hard to understand why they want to dig their fingers into this material. The 18-minutes-but-you'd-never- know-it flow of the title cut alone suggests there's cool places for these songs to wander on stages. There's a lot to work with here and a terrifically talented musician steering things. Maybe it's high time we all got out to one of Gaffney's "Kitchen Sink Sessions" at the Connecticut Yankee in SF. In the meantime, The Coachman will satisfy the urge for good music, pure and simple.

JamBase | Giving It A Whirl
Go See Live Music!

The Philadelphia Inquirer – Sunday 11/23/08
Regional ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
By Nicole Pensiero

We dig her On her dynamite new CD, The Coachman, local fave Kate Gaffney gets into swamp grooves, power pop
flourishes, country laments, and good bluesy folk.

It’s the place where she discovered her Muse and to where she’s since returned, but Sacramento, Calif.-based
artist Kate Gaffney will be home for Thanksgiving, with a holiday gift of her own.

Gaffney, formerly of Chalfont, will be at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia Friday night to celebrate the release
of her latest album “The Coachman.” Produced by Barrie Maguire (Natalie Merchant, The Wallflowers,
Amos Lee), the album is her second full-length disc, and in addition to her originals, features co-writes
with multi-instrumentalist Jackie Greene and Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter and musician Andrew
Lipke. Blending jam-band and Americana sensibilities with her soulful songwriting, it showcases Gaffney’s
knack for witty and honest lyrics rooted in the unpretentious folk traditions of the ’60s and ’70s.

She takes the Tin Angel stage, 20 S. Second St., at 10:30 p.m. Friday with Lipke and fellow Philadelphia
artist Chris Kasper as special guests. Before then, you can also catch Gaffney at noon Wednesday on WXPN
(88.5 FM), for an in-studio chat with host Helen Leicht.

By Rachel Leibrock - rleibrock@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Sunday, October 12, 2008
Story appeared in TICKET section, Page EXPLORE6


Kate Gaffney couldn't quite put her finger on it: What kind of music does she play exactly? The Sacramento-based singer found herself being asked that questions a million times over, but the answer was far from simple. It was country, yes, she reasoned, but a hybrid of rock, folk, swing, jazz and blues, too.

Then, just a few days ago, she figured it out. "I play American music – that just about covers it," Gaffney says.

"So many people see me and think, 'Oh it's a chick with a guitar' – how do you get past that?" she asks, pausing to reflect over the rhetorical questions. "I've never really been embraced by the folk community, but I'm not really rock either."

Gaffney, who performs Thursday at Harlow's, explores numerous sounds on a new album that deftly rides the lines between genres. With its rollicking beats, sunny melodies and intimate lyrics, "The Coachman" mirrors Gaffney's curious nature, easygoing charm and an endearing vulnerability.

This wasn't always the case. There was a point in Kate Gaffney's life when she didn't think much about music, about playing guitar, about whether her voice had a certain twang to it. The story of how the 29-year-old got to this point is wrapped up in the story of how she got to Sacramento and, thus, wrapped up in the very nature of her personality.

The Philadelphia native arrived in California around the turn of the century for a college internship in San Francisco. Eventually, she moved to Folsom to live with her then-boyfriend and work as a Child Protective Services social worker.But the job was physically exhausting and emotionally grueling, and domestic bliss was, well, not so blissful.
And then one night Gaffney went to see a friend's son play at the Blue Lamp, and everything changed. As Gaffney watched Jackie Greene on stage, she was mesmerized by the possibilities. She'd played guitar for years, ambling through favorite classic rock songs and the occasional Pearl Jam tune.

It had never really occurred to her, however, that she had a voice, that she could write songs, that she could do this. "Here was this kid my own age playing this music that I totally loved," she says now.
"I just had this epiphany and this idea that I could make music for living started to take shape." The young blues phenom encouraged Gaffney, and the epiphany eventually evolved into action. Gaffney quit her job, broke up with the boyfriend and moved to midtown to pursue music. She hit local bars and cafes to play open mikes, met other musicians and started writing songs.

After two years, she decided it wasn't enough and decided to return to Philadelphia. "It was kind of lonely out here; I had no real roots or ties," she says. "I wanted to have a support system." Gaffney took two months to ease back into life on the East Coast, playing at every open mike she could find between here and Pennsylvania. "It was grueling – I was by myself but it also helped me build up some confidence," she says. "It felt like a coming of age."

A chance encounter with Clifford Antone helped cement Gaffney's conviction. The owner of Antone's nightclub, known for helping launch Stevie Ray Vaughan's career, caught Gaffney busking on the street. "He just stopped and told me I was great," Gaffney says. Antone died in 2006, but his encouragement still resonates. "Whenever people come into your life like that, it's just validation for continuing on."
Back in Philly, Gaffney slowly built up a following, playing gigs and putting out a few records. Another chance encounter with Wallflowers bassist Barrie Maguire led to a Los Angeles studio where the two started working on "The Coachman. Gaffney had already decided she was ready to move west again and contemplated making L.A. or even San Francisco home.

Then she talked to Marty DeAnda. Gaffney met the Dig Records co-founder through Jackie Greene, and the two stayed in touch after she moved. Now, DeAnda urged the young singer to return to Sacramento and let him manage her career.

A big offer from a guy who wasn't even that impressed the first time he saw Gaffney play. "I didn't think she was that good," DeAnda says. "She was unpolished, pretty much status quo – there was nothing there that turned my head." Nothing, that is, except for Gaffney's breezy charisma.

"I was enamored with her," DeAnda says. "That's such a huge thing with Kate – her ability to reach you – she just flat out makes people like her." DeAnda kept watch, and in 2004 he asked her to open for Greene on a New Year's Eve show. Gaffney flew back to California on four days' notice. After the show, DeAnda knew she was the real thing. "She was so impressive, so much more grown-up," he says. "I could hear the changes in her songs and voice. She'd developed into a really good songwriter."

So when he learned that Gaffney was thinking of staying in California, DeAnda lobbied for Sacramento. "I said, you've got me, you've got a place to start," he says. That's all she needed to hear. "Being an artist can be so alienating," Gaffney says. "I've always been a self- promoter, I've always done it on my own – but I always wanted a team, too."

Jay Shaner sees Gaffney as a singer-songwriter on the verge. "I think Kate's at the beginning of her journey of her music career – she's still finding her voice and her ability." Shaner, who's watched Gaffney perform since her early open mike days in Sacramento, says it's the singer's voice that sets her apart. "A lot of female vocalists either have this really high, floaty voice that's very detached, or they're super- dramatic. Her voice lacks pretension – it's robust and genuine." It's so real, he says, that sometimes people don't know how to respond.

Now, Gaffney is eager to see how "The Coachman" will fare. There are plans to make a push for radio and play dates up and down the coast. Mostly, however, she's trying to practice a little patience. It gets hard, she admits, always worrying about how to pay her band, wondering if her record will make it into enough stores, hoping to get booked on the next great show. "I'm always thinking about the business side of it (but) that was my New Year's resolution this year – to be more patient. "Of course the New Year is almost over," she says with a laugh. "But it is about patience, being strong, believing in myself, knowing it won't happen overnight."

However long it takes, Gaffney says music is her only priority right now. Currently without a boyfriend, it's just too difficult, she says, to make time for anything other than her career. "I'm a hopeless romantic at heart and I am a little lonely sometimes," she admits. "But it's kind of hard to work dating around my schedule. "The only thing I can commit to right now is my music."