KJ Denhart & The New Tarot

KJ’s performances will move you to laugh, to dance and even to cry. Her special blend of urban folk & jazz has earned her four Independent Music Award nominations and in ’09, she was named as one of Jazz.com’s top female vocalists. She’s appeared at scores of festivals and has residencies at the ’55 Bar’, Smoke in NYC, at the Baz Bar in St. Barth’s, and the prestigious Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. Her very latest, “Album No.9?, a collection of 60’s jazz, pop and rock standards is set for release on Motema Music in Europe & the US in the fall 2010. Consistently praised for her pathos, originality and impeccable musicianship, KJ is a one of a kind songwriter, guitarist and performer, not to be missed.


?KJ, born Karen Jeannne to parents from the island of Grenada, was the first US citizen born to a small family. Her only brother, born in Aruba, had taken an interest in music and it was on one of his discarded guitars that KJ wrote her first song. “I picked up a guitar when I was ten and immediately I started writing music,” she recalls. “I loved Sergio Mendes’ songs, liked John Hartford on the Glenn Campbell Show and really got into James Taylor and Joni Mitchell, who I still consider my two main influences. I also loved other singer-songwriters of the time including Carole King and Laura Nyro and later fell in love with Steely Dan’s music, and just about wore out my LP of Hubert Laws’ Rite Of Spring. I was completely self-taught, by listening to records and playing them over and over, teaching myself tablature from a great James Taylor book and modal tunings from Joni Mitchell’s For The Roses song book. I didn’t really do much but play guitar through my teenage years.


“??In the 1980s, KJ toured for six years as the lead guitarist and occasional vocalist with an all-female band called Fire, playing rock and top-40 music throughout the US, Canada and Europe. After the group ran its course, she worked at a day job while continuing to write and play music. While working in Cleveland as a financial analyst, she started the Mother Cyclone label and made her first recording. Moving home to New York in 1997, she formed the NY Unit, a group that she still performs with. “I look for players who have an ability to groove and have lots of drama in their playing.


“??In addition to running her own band and Mother Cyclone label, KJ has been named among the six winners of the Kerrville New Folk Song contest in June 2006 for “Private Angel” and won the Mountain Stage New Song contest in August 05 for “Little Mary.” Another Year Gone By, Live won the 2006 Independent Music Award for Best Live Performance.


The New Tarot is an alt rock music project fronted by the Walker sisters, and they want to play you music and sing you songs. MONIKA (Vox/Otherstuff!) is insane, and so are you. Her fascination with sanity once led her through the grand halls of Brooklyn College to study AI and philosophy, but now she pals around with all sorts of normans and mormans writing songs about people and singing a synth soaked version of the blues. KAREN (keys!) is the only normal person in the world, and recently jumped ship on a composition degree from Hart School in CT to run around and play music with her sister in Brooklyn. Somehow they've convinced JEFFREY(drums) KEYANNA (guitar) and DAVE (bass!) to follow them into the rabbit hole.
So go ahead, jump in, we triple dog dare you.