Blue Note Records will release 'Spilt Milk', the debut album from singer and songwriter Kristina Train, on September 22nd, 2009.
Kristina Train, who was born in New York City and raised in Savannah, GA, has made an urbane, soulful, and lush debut that showcases her stunning voice. As a vocalist, Train alternates between gentle balladeering and powerful belting, her bluesy vibrato revealing the breadth and elegance of a young Dusty Springfield - a little bit London, a little bit Memphis.
'Spilt Milk' was recorded in London with Jimmy Hogarth, the sought-after British producer whose recent credits include Duffy, Corinne Bailey Rae, and James Blunt.
"Kristina possesses a true classic voice - an effortless delivery with complete commitment to the emotion of the song," Hogarth says. "It was a real pleasure and an honor to have worked on this very special recording."
Powerhouse songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and arranger Eg White (a Grammy Awards Record of the Year nominee earlier this year for Adele's "Chasing Pavements") co-wrote most of the songs with Train, who delivers them so convincingly that the words could be pages torn from her diary.
The title track unfolds with an almost cinematic grandeur, its string-laden chorus swelling with widescreen melancholy. Balancing the sultry with the strong, Kristina Train excels on bittersweet breakup/makeup numbers like "Don't Remember" and "It's Over Now." As the aphorism of the album title suggests, Train knows how, over the course of a song, to walk away from a relationship with tremendous style.
"I wanted my album to offer glimpses of my influences, but not sound like them," Train says. "Jimmy, Eg, and I are of similar background, we appreciate the same music and we have similar tastes. The arrangements are just what we felt the songs needed. They give the songs flavor, but don't try to steal anybody else's style. My hope was for the album to nod to the music I love, while still sounding modern."
Raised by a single mother, Kristina took music and ballet lessons, sang in church and school choirs, and soaked up the southern soul, blues, and gospel music that have had such a profound effect on her work.
As a teenager, she unearthed her mom's tucked-away stash of Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Janis Joplin albums and tried to make her voice sound raspier.
"When we had thunderstorms, I would go up to the roof and scream at the top of my lungs," she says. "God only knows what that's done to me!" At 19, Train was spotted by a local producer who offered to bring her to New York to showcase for Blue Note Records, which immediately offered her a development deal. Train decided to put off signing for a few years to attend college in Athens, GA. It was time well-spent as Train now realizes.
"At 19, I would not have been able to make this kind of album, which, ultimately, is the album I have always wanted to make. It defines who I am. I always had a feeling that music wouldn't just be in my life. It would be my life."
The tracklisting for 'Spilt Milk' is as follows:
Spilt Milk
No Man's Land
Don't Remember
Don't Beg For Love
It's Over Now
You're Still Going to Lose
Moon Rivers and Such
I Can't But Help
Call In The Maker
Half Light
Far From The Country
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