Kathy Chiavola

b. Chicago, Illinois, USA. Talented country vocalist Chiavola (pronounced ‘key ah vo lah’) made a big splash in her adopted home of Nashville, Tennessee, USA, in early 1993 with a round of excited reviews for her debut album. She had first attempted to launch her musical career as an opera singer, switching to country with far greater success and prompting heady praise such as the following review, taken from Folk Roots : ‘Not often one finds such poise, power or purity in a voice committed to the world of contemporary country.’ The subject under discussion was Chiavola’s debut album, Labor Of Love, which included standards such as Buddy Holly’s ‘Well All Right’, Peter Rowan’s ‘A Woman In Love’ and the Elvis Presley hit ‘A Fool Such As I’, plus the work of less-celebrated artists and songwriters. Her only self-composition was the title track, an elegant, dignified tribute to the artist’s own mother. However, it was the eclecticism of the collection that attracted so many supporters, leading Robert Oermann of The Tennessean to write: ‘She has the unusual ability to ‘cry’ like a country star, moan like a blues mama and maintain the clarity and purity of tone of a folk soprano, often all in the same song’. Her second album, The Harvest, followed in 1996. A bluegrass/acoustic project, guests included Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, Bill Monroe and Vince Gill. On it she was accompanied by world champion fiddle player Randy Howard, Brent Truitt on mandolin and Roy Huskey on acoustic bass. Howard died of cancer in June 1999, and From Where I Stand is Chiavola’s tribute to him.