Kristy Kruger - Fever of Unknown Origin (2018)

Songwriter and artist Kristy Krüger has an extensive history in music that spans classical, jazz, folk, and rock genres. Throughout the course of her career as a pianist and composer, Krüger won a multitude of state, national, and international awards for jazz and classical composition and performance. When she shifted gears into the world of the singer/songwriter, she brought a broad spectrum of influences with her, ranging from Billie Holliday to Johnny Cash as she criss-crossed the country, touring alone for over nine years. Her untraditional jazz-influenced approach to folk music has carried her throughout the United States, and secured her status as a favorite in her hometown of Dallas, Texas.

The Dallas Morning News says she has grown into one of the most eclectic singers in the area, citing her as a “female Tom Waits.” Krüger has also received five nominations from the Dallas Observer, Dallas’ leading entertainment weekly, and was awarded Best Female Vocalist in 2006. Her latest album, Songs From a Dead Man’s Couch, won the 2007 Independent Music Award, sponsored by Border’s Books and Music and the Musician’s Atlas, for Best Americana Album of the Year and received two 2007 first-round Grammy nominations by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

With a wealth of life experiences from her solo journeys, Krüger is also an engaging storyteller and essayist. She has contributed to Public Radio International's This American Life and even made a fan out of the show’s host Ira Glass. In addition to these efforts, Krüger has released four full-length albums. Her latest, Songs From a Dead Man’s Couch, is a meeting of her Texas Americana roots, her love of New Orleans-style jazz, her not-so-sunny disposition, and a touch of the cosmic – a sound she’s calling: “Ameritronica.”

Krüger began studying classical piano at age five. She studied jazz at the Dallas Arts Magnet, whose alumni includes Norah Jones, Edie Brickell, and Erykah Badu. There her strength became composition. By the time she was 17 the Texas Music Teachers’ Association presented her with an award for winning more musical awards than any other high school senior in the state of Texas, leading to scholarships at the country’s best music schools. She graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Upon graduation, Krüger released her first album and began touring solo in 1999. She released a second album in 2000 and relocated to New Orleans in 2003 where she recorded a third album, An Unauthorized Guide to the Human Anatomy with Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum and Andrew Gilchrist, long-time engineer for Ani DiFranco. Anatomy was awarded Best Female Singer/Songwriter Album of the Year in the International Just Plain Folks Music Awards.

After seven years of touring the country alone, Krüger released her fourth album, Songs From a Dead Man’s Couch, a title that came about from her writing songs on the second-hand couch of a dead man. The title suits this collection of dark and deliberate songs and her voice sounds of a lone, well-traveled woman. She gives a nod to her Texas roots, offering up a sullen, classic country influence on several numbers. There is also a definite hint of New Orleans in her writing, inspired by the traditional jazz she heard while living there. Other tracks offer a fusion of dark Americana and electronics, a sound Krüger is calling “Ameritronica.” Krüger produced the record, leaving some tracks raw and layering others with ambient electric guitars, keyboards and her latest instrumental endeavor, the pedal steel.

Dead Man’s Couch has received airplay on public radio and community radio stations throughout the country, including World Café Live and KCRW in Los Angeles, among others. Dead Man’s Couch also received flattering reviews from national publications such as Performing Songwriter Magazine, Paste Magazine, and No Depression. Her album was also chosen as one of top 5 “Do It Yourself” releases of 2007 by Performing Songwriter Magazine. In the first round of 2007 Grammy nominations, Krüger was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance and Best Pop Vocal Album.

In November of 2006, Krüger received the tragic news that her brother, Lt. Col. Eric Kruger was killed by a road side bomb in Baghdad, Iraq, after only one day in the country. Upon attending his funeral at Arlington National Cemetary, she made a promise to her brother to perform a concert in his memory in all 50 states, to see America for him. Krüger has performed in about half of the 50 states, sharing songs and stories about her brother from the stage and is working towards her goal. She donates portions of the proceeds from the memorial shows to the Fisher House, a non-profit that cares for our wounded Veterans. She is currently working on her 5th album to be released in early 2009 and also tours as a sidewoman (vocals, piano, banjo, and pedal steel) for Brian Vander Ark, frontman of the Verve Pipe.



Track List:
01 - What I Do (00:03:25)
02 - Home Is Everywhere I Roam (00:03:09)
03 - The Carpenter (00:02:53)
04 - Folsom Prison Blues (00:04:27)
05 - I Long for the Night All Day (00:02:41)
06 - I Cried for All that Might Have Been (00:03:24)
07 - Johnny and June (00:03:41)
08 - It Hurts Most of All When I'm Standing Still (00:03:24)
09 - Goodbye Brother (00:03:55)
10 - I Fell in Love with a Man Who Said He Loved Me (00:03:25)
11 - Directions for a Sudden Death (00:04:37)
12 - Johnny and June (solo piano) (00:03:48)
13 - Come and Gone (00:03:56)

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