KIYA HEARTWOOD BOLD SWIMMER:
Award winning singer/songwriter Kiya Heartwood’s music is described as “soulful confessions, political broadside and a wicked groove.” She was Americana before Americana, Grunge before Grunge. She writes like a band, but she's one person. The ideal of being a cultural worker like Holly Near is what drives her writing. Her punk side says that anything is possible -- you play a better guitar solo because you aren't tied down by the rules. Over the years, the different incarnations of her music have taken the flavors of Reggae and Rap (Radio Cafe), Roots Americana (Stealin Horses), Folk Rock (Wishing Chair), and now as her solo career begins to ramp up (again), we see the culmination of 30 years of honing her craft.
With over a hundred original songs to choose from, her live performances are never stale or recycled. She happily draws from her past, and channels it through her present. Much like a good curry, the blend of spices she infuses into her songwriting and performance bring a complexity and diversity that can't quite be labeled or boxed in.
Heartwood’s recently released solo album, Bold Swimmer, is garnering rave reviews from serious music aficionados. Bold Swimmer was produced by Mark Hallman who works with artists such as Eliza Gilkyson, Ani Di Franco, and Oasis. Richard Marcus calls it, "a damn good album," and Lane Gosnay says Kiya "delivers keen lyrical folk sensibility through a rock n roll power grid." Kiya makes her happy home in Austin, TX.
For more : www.kiyaheartwood.com
With STEALIN HORSES:
Castle Records in Franklin, TN signed Kiya and drummer Kopana Terry as Stealin Horses and then sold the band to Arista during a folk-signing craze and bidding war with 17 other labels.The band was signed at the first SXSW music festival in 1987. Stealin Horses released their self-titled debut CD in 1988.The CD featured outstanding California session musicians such as Russ Kunkel and Toto. The CD even has an appearance by Neil Young. The single, Turnaround, topped #32 on the AOR charts with medium play rotation on MTV. Stealin Horses toured the US and Canada playing with acts including Level 42, Wang Chung, James Brown, Rank and File, The Smithereens and The Stray Cats, culminating with a 1990 performance at Farm Aid IV. The group re-formed to tour as a five-piece in Oklahoma after being dropped from Arista in 1991. Stealin Horses played at SXSW for a second time and then signed to Mississippi label, Waldoxy/Malaco. The band released, Mesa and Mandolins in 1991. They toured constantly for two years and disbanded in 1993. Kiya released a solo album called True Frontiers, in 1993, for Malaco, which garnered a #1 on the Indie Americana charts with Home.
With WISHING CHAIR:
In the early 90's Kiya took guitar, songwriting and music industry courses at Middle Tennessee State University and began working as an artist in the schools teaching songwriting and poetry in Kentucky and Tennessee while touring solo. Kiya was hired to teach sound, guitar, and songwriting at the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Toronto, Canada where she met Miriam Davidson. Preparing for another solo CD, Kiya asked Miriam to sing on the recording. By the time Singing with the Red Wolves was finished in 1995, Wishing Chair had begun. Wishing Chair has eight CD's to date. Wishing Chair's latest CD, Stand Up Eight was released in July 2009. Miriam Davidson is currently living in Philadelphia and working as a choir director for two UU congregations as well as serving as the Interim Music Director of the Philadelphia women's choir, Anna Crusis. Wishing Chair continues to tour two or three times a year.
COMPOSER EDUCATION:
Kiya completed a M.A. in Cultural Studies from Vermont College in 2000. Kiya started writing for choirs in 2005 when she received a commission from the Denver Womens' Chorus. She began taking courses in music theory, arranging and orchestration. She now holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Converse College in Spartanburg, SC. and has studied in the MM in Composition program at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. She has worked with a number of choruses including the Cincinnati MUSE Choir, Calliope Feminist Chorus, Philadelphia's Anna Crusis Choir and the Converse Chamber Singers. Her song cycle, Weave and Spin was debuted in Miami, FL at the GALA conference in 2008. She received a Converse Creativity Grant to write an operetta in 2008. Kiya's operetta, Lying to the Sea Gypsy debuted in May 2009 in Philadelphia and has three productions to date. Kiya is also the former Composer -in- Residence at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, NJ. Her song cycle, A Balance of Earth and Sky is being performed by the First UU Austin Choir directed by Brent Baldwin at Meg Barnhouse’s Installation Service in First UU Church of Austin in Austin, TX January 15th, 2012.
EARLY YEARS:
Kiya was born in Nashville, TN and grew up in Central Kentucky. She started playing guitar and writing songs in middle school. After living in San Francisco as a late teen during the rise of the early Women's Music scene, Kiya returned to the University of Kentucky Honors Program in Creative Writing where she won the Elizabeth Barrett Poetry Prize. Kiya has been winning awards for her writing ever since. Kiya released her first cassette, Gravity, in 1983. Her underground college band, Radio Cafe, released their first EP in 1985 and in '86 changed their name to Stealin' Horses and released a full length cassette, The Ballad of the Pralltown Cafe.
