Kate Rogers 'St Eustacia' (Grand Central)

It's Baffling that Dido should have made a planet-eating virtue out of chronic musical anaemia considering that there's plenty of lady singer-songwriters about who do similar but with an edge, charisma and soul. people like Kate Rogers.

Tempted to UK by northern hip-hoppers Grand Central, Kate's vocal on legendry tearjerker 'Sail' made the names of both artists, and to some extent, the label itself. They rewarded her with a solo deal, and while St Eustacia' glows with the same kooky charm, she's a far more rustic proposition alone.

Teeming with log cabin guitars and eerie percussion, the whole thing is imbued with an innocence that means the songs of love gone right 'Welcome' and wrong 'Not Ten Years Ago ' sound more directed to best friends than to lovers. Meanwhile Kates sharp Canadian vowels make the whole thing more exotic enough to stay enchanting. No Rock n' Roll fun here. But plenty to cuddle up to.

7/ 10 - NME

KATE ROGERS ‘ST EUSTACIA’ (GRAND CENTRAL)

She has lent her voice to the likes of Rae & Christian and label-mate Aim,
but Canadian chanteuse Kate Rogers has finally released a record in her own
right.  And what a record.  St Eustacia would be little more than an average
collection of polished folk-pop, were it not for a couple of extraordinary
off-beat arrangements, including the cinematic "Nothing Appeals To Me Here'.
Rogers sets her emotionally raw lyrics against pared-down guitars, piano and
the odd electronic beat.  A stunning debut.

4/5 – Independent on Sunday

The Times

Combining folk roots with a CV in electronica (as the singer with Rae &
Christian) Rogers is the Canadian answer to Dido. The opening track
'Welcome' could be straight off 'No Angel'. But as her debut album unfolds,
Rogers finds her own gracefully poised voice. The piano and guitar
arrangements are simple yet often stunningly beautiful, especially on
'Mighty' and the title track.

4/5 The Times

New Kids In Town - Sunday Times Culture

KATE ROGERS
Who Is She?
A Canadian singer whose voice has graced albums by her label mates Aim and Rae & Christian, Rogers has now ventured out on her own . Into a recording studio that is. Home is still the countryside near Toronto where she grew up. As her wonderful album, St Eustacia, demonstrates, she is a songwriter whose multigenre music is evidence of a talent following inspiration rather than fashion.

Who Does She Sound Like?
Vocally, Rogers has an edge and a vibrato that are equal parts Dusty Springfield, Cilla Black, Eddie Brickell and Robbie Williams. Musically, St Eustacia flirts with folk, straight pop, country, blues and madrigals. Welcome and Nothing Appeals To Me Here could both, in the right circimstances, provoke a mass outbreak of Elizabethan dancing. A penchant of mutilayered, canonical vocal arrangements only strengthens the sense of musician operating, Kate Bush-like, creatively more in her own private century than ours.

So what were her influences out there in the Canadian snow?
"Utter shamelessness was all I had to work with" she says.

When's the record out?
St Eustacia is released tomorrow on Grand Central

KATE ROGERS – St Eustacia (Grand Central)
Aim chanteuse braves the singer-songwriter path alone
Grand Central has always had an embarrassment of riches when it comes to female vocalists, with both Veba and Kate Rogers soaring over their beats, and finally one has released an album in her own right. Kate is best known for tracks like Aim's 'The Girl That Fell Through The Ice' and Rae & Christian's 'Not Just Anybody', but left to her own devices, she ploughs an angsty melancholic folk furrow. Initially perfectly pleasant, over time St Eustacia reveals its more endearing nuances, through more off-filter moments like 'Nothing Appeals To Me'. Could it be that while all the majors were out searching for the new Dido, Grand Central tripped over her on their own doorstep?

4/5 – Observer Music Monthly

KATE ROGERS 'ST EUSTACIA' (Grand Central GCCD125)
"Rogers' pure, clear vocals have graced tracks by Aim and Rae & Christian,
but her debut album reveals her true calling as a fine singer-songwriter in
the classic style. On numerous tracks here, her sophisticated
folk-influenced pop explores emotional landscapes with controlled power, and
little concession to fashion"

MUSIC WEEK

KATE ROGERS - St Eustacia
Grand Central Records
Rae & Christian vocalist makes her singer songwriter debut.
Raised on an isolated farm in Canada, Kate Rogers probably isn't used to
crowded places. But boasting affecting , folkish-tinged vocals, ‘St
Eustacia’ parachutes her right among the Dido's and Beth Ortons of this
world. Fortunately, thanks to her emotional range, she still manages to
shine. ‘Not Ten Years Ago’ casts her as an wronged avenger, while the spacey guitars of ‘Odyssey’ reveal a more fragile side. With shifting
instrumentation - from simple pianos to Arabian-infected beats - reflecting
her changing moods, the likes of the rousing title track suggests she won't
simply be fading into the crowd. Q

"In the same oft-opened vein Kate Rogers releases 'Not Ten Years Ago' (Grand Central). Canadian born Kate made a name for herself purring over songs by northern sulphuric soulster Aim, yet solo seems intent on being Dido with a country twang, except even more grown-up. This will probably sound even better after being fucked about with by one of her label mates – Riton or somebody.” NME

SUNDAY TIMES 'THE MONTH' - "the twenty hottest acts around"
Having lent vocal lustre to albums by Aim & Rae & Christian, the Canadian singer Kate Rogers steps up to the plate this month with a small gem of a solo album, 'St Eustacia' (released by Grand Central). A deft lyrical touch - "lately, I've been looking forward to meeting the rest of you" - is but one of her gifts; above all, though, is Rogers' wonderful voice that moves the album from the "mildly diverting" pile to the one marked "slow-burning but ultimately outstanding". Flecked with blues, roots, jazz and country, her songwriting too, shows why it is high time she moves out of the shadows. 'St Eustacia' is one of those records that will soundtrack events that are memories in the making, could we but know it.

KATE ROGERS - DJ Magazine feature
Taking Odyssey at their word, Kate Rogers has gone back to her roots. The Canadian chanteuse has lived in Toronto for most of her years but grew up on
a remote farm on the countryside north of the city and that pastoral air
whistles sweetly through her debut album 'St Eustacia', a collection of
songs as crisp and fresh as a mountain dawn.

"I consider myself a city girl but I'll always need the space I had as a kid when I was just surrounded by nothing but forests," she says. "A lot of that yearning comes touring when there's no escapes from the bus!" But 'St Eustacia' represents a musical homecoming for Kate in more ways than one. She's best known for providing the haunting vocals on Aim's 'Sail', 'The Girl who Fell through the Ice' and Rae & Christian's 'Not Just Anybody' - a link with the British beats scene forged through the fact that Mark Rae is her cousin.

"I'd always sung as a kid but gave it up in my teens," she admits. "Then Mark came over when he was getting Grand Central off the ground and convinced me to start again."

Yet the beautiful ballardry and rustic folk that comprises 'St Eustacia' has clearly grown from the seeds of John Denver and Southern bluegrass rather than between the cracks of Grand Central's street.

"We started making an album in the same vein as Aim. But after a lot of conversations we decided it was time to explore where my heart genuinely lay because the beats stuff was all new whereas the music I listened to back here was really rootsy stuff."

And while Kate admits that she "can't imagine any DJs playing my records" as a soundtrack to life outside the dancefloor - which is 99% of our lives, after all - she should strike a cord.

"My inspirations are very day to day but there's a definite sense of anticipation and anxiety about what I was moving into," she says. Which for her is a singer-songwriter market some might see as saturated. "All female
musicians have to contend with stereotypes about being 'wishy-washy' or whatever but I refuse to let it change me or the way I make music. The whole album evolved from me just picking up a guitar and starting to sing with no beats, no nothing." And from such tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow.

Kate Rogers 'St Eustacia' album is out February through Grand Central Records.

WHAT'S ON IN LONDON - TALENT WATCH KATE ROGERS
Canada is the new hot place at the moment, and I don’t mean because of the weather. It seems to be producing a plethora of quality artists. Oh Susanna, Kathleen Edwards, the Be Good Tanyas, Vanessa Carlton, the list goes on....Canadian singer/ songwriter Kate used to be vocalist with Aim and her vocals were heard on dance duo Rae & Christian’s ‘Not Just Anybody’. However, she’s now emerging as a solo artist: ‘I’ve found my roots,” she told me last week after her impressive showcase at the tiny Arts Café in Aldgate. Kate was doing unplugged versions of tracks from her forthcoming album St Eustacia. ‘Not Ten Years Ago’ shows the warmth in her voice and her considerable talent as a songwriter. She’s like a a younger Nathalie Merchant. ‘The Apology’ is the kind of song Dido would write if she wasn’t permanently stuck in coffee table mode and ‘Nothing Appeals to Me Here’ is an extraordinarily atmospheric, gothic folk opus. Kate’s influenced by the likes of the aforementioned Be Good Tanyas, Gillian Welch and Nina Simone. She has that depth of emotion that Beth Orton possesses and songs that rival the best of Kristin Hersh. She’s only done a handful of gigs as a solo artist but already is a mesmerising performer. Full band shows are promised for next year.