They met, they meshed and now Kate Morgan and James Struthers are bringing their music back to Java Jive Saturday, Feb. 18.
Morgan, who spent her early years in Salmon Arm, has always made music her priority. Choir, voice, piano and band classes combined with songwriting skills, performance experience and sheer determination led to Morgan becoming the youngest performer ever to play Lilith Fair.
She has shared the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Erica Badu, K’Naan and The Sheepdogs.
“I was really, really lucky getting to play Lilith Fair. I had an in,” she says, explaining a young woman who sang backup vocals on her single Lovin’ You, worked at Nettwerk Records. “She ended up playing the song for Lilith Fair co-founder Terry McBride and he called me in for a meeting.”
Not only is Morgan a natural performer, her songwriting ability has led her to co-write with some of Canada’s best songwriting talent, young and old including Bill Henderson (Chilliwack), Jeff Johnson, Jesse Wainwright (State of Shock), Juno-nominated Carly Rae Jepsen, Jeff Dawson, Dave Genn (54-40), Dane Deviller and Juno Award Producer Of The Year Brian Howes.
Morgan attended the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival as a child and credits that event and Wednesdays on the Wharf for having a huge influence on her career choice – a choice that landed her on stage at the 2010 Roots and Blues.
Opportunities keep popping up for Kate, who will showcase at Canadian Music Week in Toronto next month, then travel to New York and LA to work with some high-profile writing/production teams.
Morgan met her new touring partner James Struthers through a friend from university.That was last August when Morgan was on a solo, coast-to-coast tour. He asked Morgan to join him and she accepted.
“We hit it off and started writing,” he said Thursday from his home in Winnipeg. “We had good chemistry.”
Touring together led to the discovery of joint interests: James and Kate share an undeniable passion for music and songwriting, childish things like Smurfs and Transformers, neither has a favourite colour, and they both have chicken pox scars in the same place (above the left eye).
Struthers has toured the country five times, released two EPs, four music videos, and has cracked the Canadian AC charts with his festive single Blue Christmas in under two years. The Winnipeg-born singer/songwriter was just five when he began piano lessons, not something he particularly enjoyed.
“It was a drag, I weaseled my way out of it,” he laughs. “But I missed the music.”
So the 23-year-old picked up a guitar at the age of 15 and has been teaching himself to play ever since. Singing came a little later at the age of 17 and was first aired at open-mic nights at small venues.
“When I started, I couldn’t hold much of a note, but it’s a muscle and you have to train it,” says the young artist who began his arts degree with a major in psychology and a minor in business management in Kelowna, along with ample snowboarding. “It was the University of Big White, and I realized after a while that snowboarding wasn’t going to lead anywhere.”
While he dislikes the limitations of selecting a single genre, Struthers describes himself as a singer-songwriter whose music is indie with pop sensibilities.
Struthers’ cover version of the song popularized by Elvis Presley, peaked at #8 in December, putting him in the radio charting ranks of Michael Bublé and Justin Bieber.
The video for his Transformers-inspired, self-written song You, Me and Optimus Prime has charted more than 184,000 YouTube views.
Struthers and Western Canadian Music Awards’ Producer Of The Year Arun Chaturvedi are working on a full length album to be released in the spring, accompanied by North American tour dates.
And now he’s is loading up the station wagon for the seven day Reading Week Riot tour that will take the pair to four B.C. Interior cities before heading to Vancouver.
Struthers and Morgan play their own independent sets during each concert, but join each other for some duets – and have recently started their own side project, called James And Kate www.jamesandkate.net. They will be showcasing some of their joint tunes during their B.C. tour stops.
Catch the talented pair at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 at Java Jive on the Trans-Canada Highway.
