Kate Mann’s songs take you on a southwestern journey of the nighttime world with snapshots of love lost and dangerous encounters. A deeply resonant, unique vocal quality, atypical chord progressions, and compelling and intelligent lyrics combine to conjure comparisons as varied as Michelle Shocked, Lucinda Williams, John Prine, and Townes Van Zandt. Kate grew up at the foot of the Sandia Mountains in New Mexico, and the texture of the desert subtly sculpts her music. She has been influenced by singing cowboys, heartache, eighties hair bands, old rock and roll, troubadors, bourbon, travelers, and gentle souls. Kate moved to Portland Oregon in the mid-ninties, where she cut her musical teeth as a member of several bands before branching out on her own. A former high school teacher, she had an awakening of sorts in 2005 and dedicated herself to music full time. She traded in her car for a van, fixed up her mother’s old 1963 Gibson acoustic, and started touring the Western United States, playing venues from farmers’ markets to cafes to dive bars. Kate has shared bills with such notable acts as Todd Snider, Jackie Green, Brett Dennen, and Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. She was a finalist in the 2009 New Folk competition at the Kerrville Folk Festival, received an honorable mention in the 2009 International Songwriting Competition, and has twice been a finalist in the Americana category of the Independent Music Awards. "Rattlesnake on the Road" (2012) was recorded at Howlin' Dog Studios in Alamosa CO by Don Richmond. There is more than a hint of the Wild West woven throughout the thirteen tracks, from cautionary tales to a love song written to a mountain. Kate currently lives off-grid in the mountains of Northern New Mexico with her partner, four dogs, and two cats, with horse ownership lurking somewhere on the horizon. When not making music she can be found watching birds, listening to coyotes, and playing in the mud. “Kate Mann is of that rare breed who can sing mournful tales of love and loss — minus a pedestrian sense of desperation — and come away with all the perspective of a woman enlightened…” Leah Urborn, VenusZine “Her voice came streaming out over the speakers, bright, eager, bourbon soaked. The kind of voice that belongs with this Roots/Americana music. A voice that belongs to the wilder history of this country. A genuine voice that begs you to listen, move your a** to the music and dream of the open road…” Jake Carlsen, livemusicpdx.com “Kate Mann's voice struts out of your speakers like a Southern belle dancing in the alleyways of a Nashville ghetto…” Ryan J. Pardo, Portland Mercury