Kari Beth

There is a fine line in the world of music that a performer must walk to keep the listener engaged and entertained. That is, the line between authentic and cheesy; emotional and overstated sentiment. Kari Beth strives to create real music that evokes both situational and empathetic emotional responses, authentically. She does this with a voice that has been described as haunting, a perfect voice for the genre [folk] and by drawing inspiration for her music from friends' prosperity and heartache, historical articles and her own personal life experiences. Really my inspiration comes from anything one might experience or perceive in everyday life from the awe-inspiring to the mundane.

Kari Beth grew up in a small town in northern New Hampshire; a musical child in a mostly non-musical family. She says The only musician that I know of in my family was my grandfather, and I never got to meet him. Her parents, not knowing what to do with her, gave her the opportunity to take lessons with various local musicians; It was there she fell in love with the art form. Around the same time she started writing poetry, it would later serve as a platform from which to jump into songwriting. She says, I loved the freedom to both express myself and to empathize with others through it [writing], it was a real form of therapy for me.

Kari Beth's early years in music were spent playing bass guitar in the metal band Pinion. The band released two albums, one of which she played on and helped write. After a few year hiatus to raise her young child she started taking acoustic guitar more seriously and joined a jazz combo through The Flynn theater in Burlington VT (playing bass). Around that same time her musical affections made a noticeable shift. Kari Beth fell in love with Folk. I fell in love with folk mostly because of it's brilliant simplicity; it helped me realize just how important the transference of emotion was in such an art form instead of focusing mainly on a sonically pleasing piece; it really changed the way I looked at music. Her many influences include Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (of Gillian Welch), Joey Ryan and Kenneth Patengale (of The Milk Carton Kids), Paul Simon, James Taylor, as well as the many talented local musicians she plays with regularly. I love them, they're my family.

Performing mostly in northern Vermont Kari Beth has been developing her skills as a front man at many of the incredible local venues Burlington has to offer; most notably - Higher Ground, The Flynn and Nectar's. For the last year she has been playing in an acoustic folk duo called The Light and The Laugh with Timothy Fitzgerald, a very talented local guitarist/vocalist. She is currently most excited about working on her first solo album and is enjoying performing for the diverse audience Vermont has to offer. I absolutely love what I do.