Rachel Harrington: Bio
Full Biography
NOW PLAYING: “I am absolutely enchanted with this record! A brilliant debut ... already a leading contender for Album of the Year in my opinion!” ~ Bob Harris, BBC Radio
Top 12 DIY Pick: "Rachel's voice has just the right combination of temerity and twang" ~ Performing Songwriter
“IT’S A CRACKER! The challenge is finding only one area to highlight. ” [14 top-seller, April 2007] ~ Miles of Music
FIVE STARS! “Absolutely brilliant! The best debut since Gillian’s ‘96 Revival.” ~ Ctrl. Alt. Country
“A top-drawer Americana debut .” [4 top-seller, May 2007] ~ Smart Choice Music, UK
“A roots musician in the truest and purest sense... like reading a beautifully written novel ... haunting.” ~ NetRhythms
“Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch...Rachel Harrington. These comparisons don’t seem far-fetched at all given the extraordinary excellence of this debut.” ~ Glitterhouse
“Rachel’s voice is one of the many highlights on this record ... steeped in the past [with] an oddly current feel.” ~ Americana UK
Bluegrass Unlimited: "'The Bootlegger's Daughter' is an ideal vehicle showcasing [Rachel's] multiple talents and should prove to be a significant landmark in her musical career."
FOUR STARS!
~ Mojo
~ The Irish Times
~ The London Sun
::bio::
Reared among the Pentecostal pines of Oregon, Rachel Harrington has been doing things in the wrong order for quite some time. She'd had extensive radio play before performing her live show, and she was opening for Grammy winners and nominees before releasing her first record.
Now, hot on the heels of her critically acclaimed 2007 debut, The Bootlegger's Daughter, Rachel presents CITY OF REFUGE. Her backing band on the recording is TIM O'BRIEN (fiddle), Mike Grigoni (dobro), Zak Borden (mandolin), and Jon Hamar (upright), with Holly O'Reilly and Pieta Brown on backing vocals.
Peopled with characters seeking respite, escape or salvation, CITY OF REFUGE farms personal and mythical stories from the American West, including tales inspired by the memoirs of prostitutes during the Alaska Gold Rush, the cantankerous Harry Truman of Mt. St. Helens, and short story writer (and fellow Oregonian) Raymond Carver. The album is produced by Evan Brubaker and mixed by David Ferguson (Johnny Cash's American Recordings III & IV), released on Rachel's own SkinnyDennis Records. Several tracks from City of Refuge have already been selected for in-store airplay by Starbucks.
Fresh off a three month European tour, Rachel is currently touring behind the record as a duo, joined by multi-instrumentalist ZAK BORDEN (Willy Mason).
::history::
Rachel Harrington grew up in a small town in Oregon with a deep Pentecostal upbringing, from families of Danish dairymen and Irish lumberjacks. As a child, her only exposure to music was gospel - that and her father's secret Stax/Motown collection he'd amassed since his return from Vietnam. She especially loved the black gospel groups, the secular Otis Redding and Sam Cooke.
"I remember being a little girl, like 8 and 9, and my folks would leave to go to church often in the evenings and I'd beg to stay behind at home - when they left I'd turn out all the lights and put on the Otis Redding records and stand in front of the big window in the living room, singing into this broken little microphone I'd gotten somewhere."
At the age of 12, after a stay with an aunt and uncle in Montana, she fell in love with horses and began to ride and participate in rodeo events. Out on the ranch one day, she met an old cowboy named Dutch who spent many hours giving the novice rider lessons - during which he listened to his favorite radio station: "stone country." This provided critical exposure to the likes of Hank Williams Sr., Loretta Lynn, and George Jones.
"Hearing Loretta Lynn changed my life. Finally, I had someone I could actually sing like. And it was then I also realized the connection between country and soul. First time I heard Hank Williams I knew he was coming from the same place as Ray Charles - you can just hear it." Around this time, a family friend gave Rachel her first guitar.
Shortly after, her parents divorced, her mother remarried, and the new family moved Texas where they resided for the next five years. Rachel had a son just out of her teens, spending the latter part of the '90's putting herself through college as a single parent.
"I was writing a lot then, a lot of short stories - but did very little music. I sang in a few different bands now and then when I had the time, which I mostly didn't. It wasn't until 2001, after my second son was stillborn, that I began to take music seriously." Following a long year of grieving, she says, "I just didn't want to be that little girl in the window anymore. Life's too short for that."
In January, 2004, Rachel released a homemade demo EP called Halloween Leaves and began to play open mics. Shortly, she was opening for many of her songwriting heroes like Guy Clark, Eliza Gilkyson, and Todd Snider. She then began work on a proper debut album: The Bootlegger's Daughter was released on Rachel's own SkinnyDennis Records in May of 2007. Bootlegger went to #1 on the Euro-Americana Chart and #36 on the Americana Music Association Chart. Following a successful year of hard work and touring, Rachel released her seond full-length cd, City of Refuge, after playing 60 shows in 75 days throughout Europe.
As a third generation Oregonian, from great-grandparents who moved westward from Texas, Harrington feels a strong connection to place and to creating music that, at least in part, captures some of the stories and heritage of The West. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Pacific Northwest Bioregional Studies from Fairhaven College in Bellingham, Washington and completed Master's work in Environmental Conflict Resolution at NAU in Flagstaff, Arizona.
During her college years, Rachel also studied creative writing with critically acclaimed author Ann Cummins and began to write short stories.
"If anything, I think I'm actually a short story writer. The story always comes first."
::awards & achievements::
* 2006 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Emerging Artist Showcase
* 2006 WCS International Song Contest, honorable mention
* 2005 gig harbor songwriter competition winner
* 2005 old no. 9 music scholarship winner
::selected festivals & venues::
* 2008 Crawley Folk Festival (UK)
* 2008 Perth Southern Fried Festival (UK)
* 2008 Glasgow Americana Festival (UK)
* 2008 Devon Folk Festival (UK)
* 2008 Larmer Tree Music Festival (UK)
* 2008 Stamford Guitar Festival (UK)
* 2008 Leigh-on-Sea Folk Festival (UK)
* 2008 Bluewaters Bluegrass Festival (WA)
* 2008 Rivercity Bluegrass Festival (WA)
* 2007, 2005 Gig Harbor Folk Festival (WA)
* 2007 Bainbridge Bluegrass Festival (WA)
* 2006 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival (NY)
* 2006 Not Yer Daddy's Grass (bluegrass festival) (OR)
* 2005 NW Pickathon (OR)
* 2004, 2005, 2006 NW Folklife (WA)
* The Tractor Tavern, Seattle
* The Triple Door, Seattle
* Aladdin Theater, Portland
* Billy Block's Western Beat, Nashville
::selected openings & festival stage-shares::
* shawn colvin
* the greencards
* guy clark
* david wilcox
* marty stuart
* lucy kaplansky
* jim lauderdale
* todd snider
* david lindley
* fred eaglesmith
* eliza gilkyson
* tracy grammer
* infamous stringdusters
* the be good tanyas
* jolie holland
* danny barnes
* amelia white
* last train home
* martha scanlan
* jesse sykes
* del mccoury
* foghorn stringband
* eilen jewel
* tim o'brien
* the wilders
HI RES PHOTOS:
By Michael Bauer
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