Katharine Cole

Who the hell is she, anyway?

I wanted to take the opportunity today to share my background with everyone in detail so they know who Katharine Cole is. (I suggest getting a drink or a cup of coffee before starting this, if you want to get to the end. Yes, I'm old.)

I graduated high school in the mid 70's and was accepted into UCLA as a flute major. My first year at UCLA I was principle flautist in the UCLA Symphony Orchestra. During that year I also performed solo with James Earl Jones, attended the opening of "Fame" with a then-unknown Christopher Reeves, and among my many successful classmates were James Horner (wrote the Titanic soundtrack) and Joe Gore (Tom Waits/PJ Harvey), I was also in the Roger Wagner Chorale and the LA Symphony Choir. I changed my major in my sophomore year to classical voice and graduated with a BA in Classical Voice from UCLA in 1980.

In the rest of the '80s (I was now legal drinking age!) I performed in rock bands in Hollywood at famous clubs like Whiskey A Go Go, Club Lingerie, the Roxy, the Rainbow Room, Coconut Teaser and Cafe Largo, (and as a bassist, because women weren't thought of as guitarists in rock or they were just thought of as singers, but you could be a bassist because of the Talking Heads' Tina Weymouth). In 1982 I moved to San Francisco for the first time, where I created a band called Dogtown. This was a post-punk power Trio. We opened for the Dead Kennedys, The Bus Boys and played every Club in San Francisco from the I-beam to the Paradise Lounge. During the AIDS crisis, I moved Dogtown back to Hollywood California, when I soon began performing as The Katharine Chase Band (my maiden/married name - even longer story). I was living with Texas Terri, Cheri Lovedog, in the same building with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Bangles, Poison, Tex & The Horseheads among other then unknown rockers. At some point I moved to Silverlake and moved in with John & Exene of X, with friends like Dave Alvin, Candy Kane, unknown actors Kevin Costner and Viggo Mortensen, Dwight Yoakum - these were people working hard to make their careers and during this time I developed my songwriting skills surrounded by these artists.

My partner at the time, an incredible drummer with the degree in music from Pasadena College was asked to join the 4 Non Blondes of "What's Up" Fame before they recorded their first album. She moved to San Francisco and I soon followed. As part of the 4 Non Blondes Entourage and as fan club administrator, I traveled all over Europe hanging backstage with Aerosmith, Stone Temple Pilots, Metallica, Jimmy Iovine, etc. At the same time I was performing in San Francisco myself, opening for Hootie and the Blowfish at the Great American Music Hall, for Amanda Marshall at Slim's, DNA with Cake, Third Eye Blind and Train, among others. I later joined Penelope Houston's Reprise Records touring band along with Chuck Prophet and toured Europe and the East Coast. I was signed to a MCA side label - that record deal really was when I released my first and only major label album called The Truth. When that record label folded, I lost my major record deal and a lot of steam, so I took a break but not for long.
 

In 2003, I formed a super group with Dawn Richardson of 4 Non Blondes, Shelly Doty and myself called Kindness. Kindness released two CDs and toured many festivals all across the country. Kindness was arguably the first rocktronica band - a rock band that used triggers and samples in their sound, on the West Coast. When that band broke up in 2003, I moved to Hopland and spent the next three years raising horses and developing a side project called Kitty Rose. As a lark, Kitty Rose released two CDs - the first one Kitty Rose Greatest Hits and then Live at the Ryman. Kitty Rose wound up opening for Wanda Jackson, Kris Kristofferson, played North by Northwest, South by Southwest, all across Austin, Nashville's famous Tootsies, played the Bluebird Cafe and other notable venues for Country Western music. In fact, Kitty was inducted into the Traditional Music Hall of Fame in Council Bluffs Iowa in 2007 and I was one of the first members of Nashville's new Americana Music Association.
 

At some point, I agreed to be a board member for KZYX. I was a political activist for the No on 8 movement and the fight for LGBT equal rights, was a member of the Democratic Central Committee, and I was on the air as the host of first Toast ‘n Jam, then Sonic Blender, alongside Queer Ear which became Pride Radio Mendocino (which is still on the air today). Through all this I was still writting. I released another solo album "There is No God", recorded at Fantasy Records in Oakland with Chris von Schneidern producing.
 

I later moved from Ukiah to Atlanta, Georgia, and soon was recording at Fidelatorium (under Mitch  Easter and John Pfeiffer of  REM Fame) my next solo release, Brittle Season, in 2015. This album received a Grammy nod in the first round under the then-new Americana category for the Grammys. I created the rockabilly band "Kitty Rose and The Rattlers", recorded two original rockabilly albums (including vinyl) and toured from Charleston to New York City. (The videos are on YouTube, if you want to get a chuckle.)
 

I moved with my wife back to Hopland, California to my property in November of 2019 when COVID pretty much ended the music business as we know it. This is the time that I became the Underwriting Director at KZYX, then also Music Director just a short few years ago.

So from performing at age 13 at the Super Bowl in New Orleans, through touring all across the Europe and the United States, from performing with great artists and honing my craft as a songwriter and musician over the years, I hope that you will perhaps understand who I am now a bit better. I rarely "blow my own horn" but it seems important for people to know that I didn't come out of nowhere. (And like many Mendocino County people, you would never know who we are or our histories unless it's spelled out for you - or we die and you find out later.)
 

Please save for my obit as this timeline clearly makes me technically elderly...with a smile,

Katharine