1. Chameleon

2. Long Silences

3. Chene

4. Cherry Blossom

5. Stolen Wing

6. Pushing Through

7. Signs

8. This Feeling

8. This Feeling (Free Downloadable Track- Limited period only)

Track and album samples and downloads available now at cdbaby.com here

You can also search via i-tunes

Reviews of Whispers in the Underground

VIRTUAL BLISS October 2010
By Jim Heinrich

Phemie Alcott is a gorgeous singing avatar who gives concerts on the Web site Second Life, a 3-D virtual Internet community. Phemie plays the guitar and piano with perfect poise as she sings the hauntingly beautiful songs of Kate Clark, her creator. This is the other, virtual world of Kate Clark, who has sung alto in the Pittsburgh Camerata since 2006. Kate describes Phemie as “a fun, hot blonde.” Despite Phemie’s last name, she bears no resemblance to Louisa May, and she’s no “little woman.” Phemie has the longest legs you’ve ever seen and wears a miniskirt and stilettos. She strums confidently and nods and sways and connects with her avatar audience as she sings her mellow acoustic original rock. Phemie, of course, has the voice of Kate, who was lead singer with the Pittsburgh rock band Bitter Delores for four years in the 1990s, a decade before joining the Pittsburgh Camerata. Kate says, “Phemie has a lot of what is inside of me that the real world doesn’t see. She’s my alter ego or what have you. And no, I don’t want to look like her in real life. I like being me!”

You can see Phemie perform live if you link to http://treet.tv/shows/livekick/episodes/ep008#comment-form. You’ll be watching her on the online show “Alive N Kickin” as she performs at “the Firefly Cafe on Pemberley in Second Life.” You can catch Phemie regularly on Second Life, usually three or four times a week. (For her shows on Second Life, Kate sings and plays the keyboard from her home, and she sings covers in addition to 10 original songs. She says her dogs’ barking in the background is well-known throughout Second Life.) Kate emphasizes that she takes performing very seriously and always gives the audience her best. For her, Second Life is all about the music. Phemie’s audience is enthusiastic, including smashing-looking avatars dancing not quite in synch to the music. The setting, resembling Eden before the fall, attracted a graceful butterfly woman, a scantily clad witch with green hair, and a guy with a bare butt among cowboy studs and ballerina types. All are grooving to Phemie’s show. And what isn’t to love? The six original songs Kate sings on the show are lovely, and when she chats between songs, Kate’s familiar, tinkly voice comes out of Phemie’s mouth. For 32 minutes, it’s fascinating, disconcerting and nutty, and if you’ve never experienced it, you need to do it at least once.

Kate had asked me not to dwell on the Second Life aspect of her music, but some background is necessary to understand her musical breakthrough this year.

Kate has recorded what I consider to be an amazing CD with a British guitarist whose concerts she had attended on Second Life. Kate has never even met Dave Szczerba — whose avatar name is Didier Soyuz — but she admired his talent and contacted him.

Didier (Dave) sent Phemie (Kate) eight instrumentals, and he even included suggested titles. Kate wrote the words and melodies and polished her singing. Didier mixed the music, with Kate doing her own harmonies on some tracks, and the result is the CD “Whispers in the Underground.” In some of Kate’s publicity, she has described herself as being influenced by such rock icons as P.J. Harvey, Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos and Joni Mitchell. I’m not sure that these comparisons are helpful.Kate’s music is more like P.J. Harvey on Prozac, Sarah McLachlan on triple espressos, Tori Amos on Zoloft, Joni Mitchell on Red Bull. The eight new songs are happy, optimistic, sunny, the melodies insidious and haunting. I love the “white spaces”; the pauses are as eloquent as the music itself. Her poetry evokes Joni Mitchell. The first song on the CD, “Chêne” (the French word for “oak”), is one of my favorites. She talks about building a house with “my bare hands alone” in the chorus, and I love each little pause after the word “bare,” as if she’s about to say something naughty. I love the verse that goes “I can see my
breath/The one you used to take/But now it is a vapor, a mantra, a ghost.” And I have to wonder why Kate isn’t being heard on radio stations all over the world. (By the way, she says she’s very popular on Second Life in Europe.) Kate confirms that my favorite track, No. 5, “This Feeling,” is also her favorite. The melody goes in many unexpected places, and it’s unforgettable. When I describe Kate’s music as sunny, here’s confirmation from her lyrics: “The sun, you are the sun that shone right through me/You shine, giving me a brand-new feeling.” Kate says
she’s not a perfectionist, but if this song isn’t perfect, I don’t know what is.

Her other songs — all keepers — are titled “Cherry Blossom,” “Stolen Wing,” “Long Silences,” “Pushing Through,” “Chameleon,” and “Signs.” They can be downloaded on iTunes or Reverbnation.com, and the CD is for sale digitally or on hard copy (either as a CD or as individual songs) on CDBaby at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/alcottsoyuz.
Enjoy “Whispers in the Underground,” but I hope you won’t whisper about it or confine it to the underground. Spread the word.

If Jim Heinrich were an avatar — and he’s not — his virtual name would be Jimi Hendrix. He regrets that his last concerts with the Pittsburgh Camerata will be Halloween weekend.

Friday, November 5, 2010