In a city hardly known for its country music scene, Katie Curley has carved out a distinctive niche with her crystalline vocals and unflinching songwriting. On her forthcoming holiday EP Big Colored Lights (out November 15, 2024), Curley transforms the familiar tropes of Christmas music into a vehicle for exploring family dynamics, childhood wounds, and the bittersweet passage of time.
Recorded at Brooklyn’s Cowboy Technical Services with producer Eric “Roscoe” Ambel (Sarah Borges, Bottle Rockets), Big Colored Lights showcases Curley’s evolution from her roots in Bourbon Express – praised by New York Music Daily as “as good as it gets in hard honkytonk” – to a more nuanced territory where country meets introspection. The seven-song collection emerged from a personal challenge Curley set for herself nearly a decade ago: write one Christmas song each year.
“Christmastime Therapy,” the EP’s opening track, sets the tone with its raw examination of family relationships. “Thanks to you and Daddy / I’ve got a lifetime supply / Of heartbreaking stories,” Curley sings, her high, clear voice cutting through an arrangement featuring Rod Hohl’s harmonies and Rob Clores’ plaintive piano work. The sass-filled “Closing in on December” brings legendary pedal steel player Mark Spencer (Sun Volt) into the mix, along with harmonies from Mary Lee Kortes and Ambel himself, creating what Curley calls “almost too much, it’s so good.”
Born in California’s Mojave Desert but raised in rural Washington State, Curley’s journey to country music was anything but direct. After studying classical harp at SMU, she found herself in New York City, searching for her musical voice. It wasn’t until her late twenties, while browsing the Seattle Public Library during a difficult breakup, that she discovered “Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women In Country Music” – a book that would transform her relationship with the genre.
The EP’s title track, “Big Colored Lights,” pays homage to Curley’s grandfather’s holiday decorations in the Washington woods, while “Shotgun Wedding in Bethlehem” cleverly reimagines the nativity story through a country lens, complete with angelic harmonies from Drina Seay and Shanelle Jenkins. The collection closes with “New Year’s Too,” featuring powerhouse vocalist Lizzie Edwards and Rob Clores’ soul-stirring organ work – a track Curley considers the EP’s standout single.
“Making this record felt like celebrating Christmas in July together in a cowboy-themed studio in Greenpoint, while the rest of NYC and the world did its thing,” Curley reflects. This spirit of joy and creative freedom permeates the recording, which features a core band including husband Brendan Curley on guitar, Max Newland on bass, and Kenny Soule on drums.
Beyond the music, Big Colored Lights marks a poignant moment in Curley’s life – her parents’ decision to leave Washington State for Spain means the place she’s returned to for holidays will now exist primarily in memory. “Making the EP now is a chance for me to say goodbye to my childhood stomping grounds and to hold onto them at the same time,” she says.
When she’s not making music, Curley works as an elementary school teacher, bringing the same authenticity to both vocations. “I go into work with the explicit intention of helping the kids I teach keep their little lights shining,” she explains, “which means I have to try to keep mine from being snuffed out too.”
PAST PRESS
“Country music with some quirky bite to it…it has a cool Dolly Parton charm with a bit of Kellie Pickler’s country-rock tonality (“Red High Heels”) mixed with Sue Thompson (“Paper Tiger”).” – Americana Highways