Reviews

"Christine Kydd emerges as a more commanding singer than ever before, using her athletic new vocal powers - sustained notes, soaring flights and rock solid middle register firmness - to put extra muscle and meaning into a selection of songs taken from the folk repertoire."
(The Scotsman)

"This modest first solo release from Ms Kydd has given a deal of pleasure round these parts over the past couple of months in much the same understated way that Michelle Shocked's debut did some years back."
(The Living Tradition)

"Janet Russell and Christine Kydd can be heard on a Greentrax release, where they triumphantly offer perhaps the most strikingly original vocal sound on this side of the Atlantic.  The two-voice format is brilliantly conceived and delivered, with Janet's melody line and Christine's harmony constantly challenging for the listener's attention."
(The Scotsman)

"Her unaccompanied version of 'Gloomy December' ...  is quite breathtaking in its audacious but accomplished voice-hurling.  Also unaccompanied, 'Tired of Working' is delivered with beautifully weighted stresses, while 'The Snows They Melt the Soonest', sung above a soft pipe drone, and 'Cotton Mill Girls', in plain but effective Appalachian style, are other outstanding tracks."
(The Scotsman)

"The urgent jazzy music composed by Karen Wimhurst alternates with Burns songs sung unaccompanied in achingly beautiful harmony by Rod Paterson and Christine Kydd."
(The Scotsman)

"Timelessness was on offer in the shape of a first-time collaboration between master fiddler Alasdair Fraser and top Scottish singer Christine Kydd.  Both are renowned for their ability to re-mint traditional material sensitively and imaginatively, and the striking rhythmic and harmonic configurations they wove together - linking songs and tunes, swapping melodies back and forth, Fraser improvising boldly and fluidly around Kydd's singing - sounded wonderfully fresh and different, buzzing with new and arresting dynamics and syncopations."
(Scotland on Sunday)

"Absolutely fantastic. Great help and a great teacher."
(workshops)

"Excellent! Gave me a new way of approaching singing and having fun with it. Plus learning these new songs and meeting people with the same interests as I was great."
(workshops)

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Current highlights

2006 started with a bang with Voice and Song workshops at Gardenstown, February, and including JustsinginBirnam, Niel Gow Festival at Dunkeld, March and Birnam, a visit as tutor to Limerick University's Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, March; performances at Ceilidh Culture, Edinburgh, April; performances (and songwriting in schools) at the Orkney Festival, May.

Future performances in 2006 include The Hairst festival, Splore Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Whitby Festival, Brechin Arts Festival, others tbc.

Recording projects are in the pipeline- watch this space!

Christine is currently available solo, with Calluna featuring Anna Wendy Stevenson, Charlotte Peterson and Rebecca Knorr; in a duo with Barbara Dymock (original Ceolbeg singer); and in "Songs and tunes of the Sea" with Norman Chalmers (Jock Tamson's Bairns).

The Splore, The Lemon Tree, Innerleithen Festival, invitation to Russia for third time, invitation to join the prestigous Champions Committee of Angus Council as representative of Traditional Music and Culture.

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