Katarina Pejak - Perfume & Luck

Size: 96,6 MB
Time: 42:12
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2010
Styles: Piano Blues
Art: Front, inlay, tray, tray-in

1. Perfume & Luck (3:23)
2. Turtle Blues (3:12)
3. Missin' You (3:12)
4. Invitation to The Blues (4:39)
5. Cow-Cow Boogie (1:48)
6. My Home (3:37)
7. Half Ain't Been Told (4:21)
8. Pinch Boogie (2:35)
9. Put It Right Here (3:18)
10. Some Of These Days (2:19)
11. Man Of The Hour (2:59)
12. It's A Blessing (4:14)
13. Levee Blues (2:31)

Katarina Pejak is a blues singer, songwriter and piano player and a Ruf Records recording artist. She is best known for her eclectic musical approach - her style lives on the crossroads of American music genres such as blues, soul, folk and jazz. Katarina started performing in her late teens, playing blues clubs in her hometown (Belgrade) and other cities in Serbia. She put out three albums in her home country, "Perfume & Luck", 2010, and "First Hand Stories", 2012 and “Old, New Borrowed and Blues”, 2016, a live mini album recorded in 2015. Though she has been classically trained at piano, she strayed away from classical music found her passion for songwriting and improvised music in her high school years. Through her father's music collection, she discovered her main influences: Otis Spann, Ray Charles, Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Norah Jones and many others. In January 2011, she began her studies at Berklee College of Music, where she was admitted on a scholarship. She graduated in May 2014, from the Songwriting major and in her last semester was awarded the Songwriting Achievement Award for her overall success within the department. During her studies at Berklee, she was mentored by the likes of Dave Limina (a long-time keyboardist for blues legend Ronnie Earl), Pat Pattison (an internationally acclaimed lyric writing guru), Scarlet Keys (accomplished song and jingle writer)... In the summer of 2018, Katarina signed with Ruf Records, a German-based blues label, known best for their cross-over approach, and joined the long list of internationally-acclaimed artists such as Victor Wainwright, Mike Zito, Ana Popovic, Samantha Fish, Bernard Allison and so many others. In 2019, Katarina was a part of the Blues Caravan 2019, a Ruf records travelling show and has played over sixty shows all across Europe. Her fourth album, "Roads That Cross", came out in February 2019, and has been listed as one of the 2019 Favorite Blues Albums at allmusic.com. The album was produced by a fellow Ruf records artist, Mike Zito and it features: Laura Chavez (guitar), Lonnie Trevino (bass), Damien Llanes (drums) and Mike Zito (guest guitar and vocals, co-writer of "Nature Of My Blues".

Perfume & Luck MP3

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Katarina Pejak, Ina Forsman, Ally Venable - Blues Caravan 2019

Size: 100,3 MB
Time: 42:22
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2019
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Full

01. Gypsy Lady (3:58)
02. Meet You Down The Road (4:37)
03. Squeeze (3:23)
04. First Time I Died (3:32)
05. Lucky Number (3:32)
06. Wade In The Water (4:24)
07. Drag Me Down (3:38)
08. Shake & Repeat (4:11)
09. Release Me (4:41)
10. Why Don't You Sell Your Children? (4:01)
11. I Thought I Told You Not To Tell Them (2:21)

Like every year since 2005 Ruf Records sent the Blues Caravan on its journey through Europe and the rest of the world. They stopped by at Music Hall, Worpswede DE on 2019-02-22 to present a very diversified and excellent show.

This years members have been the very talented “Texas Honey” Ally Venable (voc, g) from Houston TX, the already experienced Ina Forsman (voc) from Finland and Norah Jones-influenced Katarina Pejak (voc, key) from Serbia/USA (Nashville) accompanied by Roger Inniss (b, musical director) and Elijah Owings (dr).

Katarina Pejak is a singer/songwriter and piano player who combines genres of the American roots music, filtering them through her Balkan descent and a classical musical training.

Ally Venable started singing at an early age in church and then in recent years picked up the guitar and found her passion establishing herself as a Texas Blues Guitar Slinger writing own songs and performing them on stage.

Ina Forsman is a singer/songwriter from Finland who started her career with Guy Verlinde and Helge Tallqvist and her style is located in the area of tension between blues, rock and jazz.

Blues Caravan 2019

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VA - 25 Years Anniversary Ruf Records

Source: CD
Size: 123.8 M
Time: 53:26
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2019
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Full

01 Ally Venable - Texas Honey (2:28)
02 Jeremiah Johnson - Straitjacket (4:12)
03 Bernard Allison - Backdoor Man (3:50)
04 Samantha Fish - Chills & Fever (3:19)
05 The BB King Blues Band - Lown Down (4:41)
06 Big Daddy Wilson - Deep In My Soul (4:38)
07 Mike Zito - First Class Life (4:03)
08 Vania Sky - Hard Working Woman (2:54)
09 Sandy Brown - Why Did You Hoodoo Me (5:13)
10 Michael Lee - Weeds (2:52)
11 Ina Forsman - Get Mine (3:59)
12 Victor Wainwright - Boogie Depression (3:31)
13 Katarina Peiak - She's Coming After You (3:30)
14 The Ragtime Rumours - Faker (4:11)

Pop the champagne: Ruf Records is 25. A lot has changed in rock ‘n’ roll since 1994. We’ve seen a thousand bands rise and fall. We’ve watched a hundred rock scenes blow up and burn out. All the while, Ruf has steadily evolved, from its roots as one man’s vision, to the most respected blues/rock label around, with a roll-call of talent to top any independent on the planet. And if that sounds like a bold statement, you’re holding the proof in your hands…

Of course, Thomas Ruf didn’t expect any of those accolades back in 1994. Back then, Ruf’s charismatic founder and leader created the label simply to give the legendary Chicago bandleader Luther Allison a platform to release some of the best albums of his career. Tragically, Luther himself was lost to cancer in 1997, but Ruf Records never missed a beat, continuing to develop some of the brightest talent in America, Britain, Europe and beyond, while always retaining its fearsomely independent spirit.

Walter Trout, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Mike Zito, Jeff Healey, Savoy Brown, Dana Fuchs, Bernard Allison, Samantha Fish and many more. To anyone with even a passing interest in quality blues, the Ruf roster since 1994 reads like a hall of fame, taking in legends, supergroups and bright young talents. As such, when it came to compiling this special 25th anniversary release, the songs selected by Thomas across these CD and DVD Sampler are all killer, no filler.

Twenty-five years. It’s been quite a ride, with one hell of a soundtrack. So here’s to the story so far – and the next twenty-five years...

25 Years Anniversary

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Katarina Pejak - Roads That Cross

Size: 101,5 MB
Time: 43:21
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2019
Styles: Electric Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Full

01. Nature Of My Blues (3:20)
02. Sex Kills (4:39)
03. Cool Drifter (3:00)
04. Moonlight Rider (4:26)
05. Old Pain (4:20)
06. Chasing Summer (3:39)
07. Turtle Blues (4:28)
08. Down With Me (4:21)
09. She's Coming After You (3:31)
10. Roads That Cross (3:30)
11. The Harder You Kick (4:03)

It takes a brave artist to blaze their own trail. From her birth-city of Belgrade to the Marz Studios in Texas where she recorded her dazzling new album, Katarina Pejak has walked countless roads and stuck a thousand pins in the map. Now, with Roads That Cross, this award-winning performer unveils a fresh set of songs that follow her muse wherever it leads her. Inspired by blues, jazz, country and rock ‘n’ roll – and shaped by all the cities she’s called home – this is music that crosses borders and brings people together. As producer Mike Zito says: “Katarina is one of a kind…”

Making her debut on the iconic Ruf Records – and taking part in the label’s famous Blues Caravan tour in 2019 – Roads That Cross is the stone-cold classic that Katarina has promised since the start. Rewind to the post-millennium and this upcoming artist was already a little different: a classical piano virtuoso who raided her father’s record collection for Tom Waits, Bessie Smith, Van Morrison and Otis Spann – then challenged herself to write songs that measured up.

Hitting the blues circuit in her late-teens, word of Katarina’s house-rocking musicianship and smoky vocal spread across the Serbian capital like wildfire. But she had bigger plans. In 2011, Katarina followed the call to the birthplace of US roots, winning a scholarship to the famed Berklee College of Music that trained stars from Steve Vai to Quincy Jones. “It was amazing and tough at the same time,” she recalls. “Studying with people like Dave Limina and Pat Pattison really shaped me.”

Katarina soon made her own mark, picked out for Berklee’s prestigious Songwriting Achievement Award and winning critical acclaim in her native Serbia for early releases like Perfume & Luck (2010), First Hand Stories (2012) and Old New Borrowed And Blues (2016). Her material touched on every genre, but the common factor was honesty, which flooded from the speakers and held audiences spellbound as she performed with the A-list and began to be mentioned in the same breath. “I’ve had the privilege to meet and play with some true blues greats,” she recalls, “like Ronnie Earl, Mike Zito, Anson Funderburgh, Mark Hummel and Ana Popovic.”

For now, Katarina has put down roots in Nashville. But Roads That Cross was born in Texas, where she arrived this year armed with a notebook full of new songs, a stellar studio band and the burning desire to make the best album of her career. “A young woman from Serbia,” considers Zito, “surrounded by Americans, in Southeast Texas, takes the reins and leads this band into some of the best songs I’ve heard in a long time. Her voice is subtle and seductive, her piano playing is on fire. She has emotion, passion and a desperate need for the music to be magical.”

Mission accomplished. Listen to Roads That Cross and you’ll be taken on a magic carpet ride of emotion and mood. There’s “She’s Coming After You,” with its Latin groove, echo-chamber guitars and a lyric about a femme fatale who “looks like the Devil’s daughter/Walks like a baroness”. There’s the choppy reggae-flavoured “Down With Me” and the expert jazz of “The Harder You Kick,” carried by organ and Katarina’s astonishing vocal. The upbeat “Cool Drifter” combines escapism with a soul edge, while “Moonlight Rider” will satisfy the blues hardcore, its gritty riffs and dusty groove addressing a lover that she knows will leave. “I didn’t realise until after making the album,” she reflects, “but most of these songs are about good-byes.”

For everyone else, Roads That Cross is the start of a beautiful relationship. Following her meteoric early career, Katarina Pejak stands at a crossroads, ready to step into the fast lane. “She’ll make you think,” concludes Zito. “She’ll make you cry. By the end of this record, she’ll have you in the palm of her hand. For Katarina, this is only the beginning…”

Roads That Cross

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