“Sometimes I’m listening for a great first line to pull me into a place or time, virtually all of Julia Kasdorf’s songs have that. And she has a voice with the character and rich resonance to bring each one home.” Peter Hay, Twin Vision
Ready, Boys? Julia Kasdorf Celebrates Album Release with Barns of Rose Hill Concert
Ready To Rock & Roll
Singer Julia Kasdorf at the Top of Her Game
Julia Kasdorf’s powerful vocals are well known to area music lovers through her decade-long collaboration with the alt-country group One Horse Town. As the singer entered the new decade, she put
together a new band—with an accent on rock and roll—and embarked on a thriving solo career.
Kasdorf shared the stage for years with her friend and fellow vocalist Janet Emma Garbe in One Horse Town. Both singers moved on to new projects a few years ago, and Kasdorf is now a regular on the local winery circuit with her acoustic solo show and takes things up a notch at gigs with her band The Ready Boys.
Julia and The Ready Boys will get the joint jumping at Purcellville’s Catoctin Creek Distilling Company Saturday, Aug. 16, the latest in a series of concerts at the craft distillery’s base of operations on Main Street. Kasdorf’s rock show includes lots of familiar rock covers, from the Eagles to the Beatles to David Bowie, given a new twist by Kasdorf’s rich vocals. For the singer, it’s all about giving the audience a chance to let loose and have fun.
“To me, going out to hear live music is really fun, and I like to provide fun,” Kasdorf said. “I want people to be moved to get up and dance and get out of where they’re at. There’s so much fun in dancing and responding to live music. It kind of takes you away. It’s kind of like the way adults play.” Continue Reading
One Horse Town Thrills Young and Old
Julia Kasdorf’s performance by itself – whole-hearted, unabashed, sincere, unself-concious – kept me on my feet even after chairs opened up. And it got some folks nodding to the beat who probably rarely even turn up their car radios. She so completely and clearly loved what she was doing that we had no choice but to love it too – everybody in the room. She gave us all she had, left everything onstage. By the end she barely had enough voice left to say Good night. If she’s that good when she’s under the weather, I’d like to see her when she’s well.
Mark Dewey, Blueridge Leader, 2007
Review of “Dawn Will Deliver” by One Horse Town, featuring Julia Kasdorf and Janet Emma Garbe
ALTHOUGH ONE HORSE TOWN took home a Wammy this spring for best new artist, “Dawn Will Deliver” scarcely sounds like an album you’d expect to hear from a fledgling band.
Some of the credit has to go to keyboardist Jon Carroll, Mary Chapin Carpenter’s longtime collaborator, who produced and plays on this release. But no doubt Carroll would be the first to acknowledge that he had a lot to work with during the sessions that produced this gem, starting with the tunes composed by band members Janet Emma Garbe and Julia Kasdorf. They write country songs, all right, but they’re big country songs, often spirited or spiritual and strongly influenced by blues, bluegrass, honky-tonk and Southwestern swing traditions. Garbe and Kasdorf are also terrific singers who occasionally evoke shades of artists such as Anne Murray (on “Heart of Indigo”) to Bobbie Gentry (“Willie”) and frequently forge striking harmonies. What makes their contributions shine all the brighter is a series of colorful arrangements featuring several stellar musicians, including pedal steel guitarist Lynn Kasdorf, guitarist Stuart Martin and fiddler-mandolinist Tom McLaughlin, among others.
Mike Joyce, Washington Post, June 2007
Review of “Dawn Will Deliver” by One Horse Town, featuring Julia Kasdorf and Janet Emma Garbe
Taking their cue from regional success story Last Train Home — as well as taking their rhythm section of drummer Martin Lynds and bassist Jim Gray — Washington, D.C., band One Horse Town works its magic with strong songwriting, glorious harmonies, and roots-based melodies that linger like welcome guests. Vocalist Janet Emma Garbe and vocalist-guitarist Julia Kasdorf, whose husband Lynn Kasdorf flavors the tunes with tasteful steel and dobro, are skillfully sincere but also playful and loose on “Stronger”, “Language Of Goodbye” and “Heart Of Indigo”. All the elements come together on the rollicking and rolling “On The Mountain”; everyone’s contributions combine to create a wickedly catchy number. The ace in the hole is veteran producer Jon Carroll, who lends a powerful piano and keyboard presence throughout.
Buzz Mcclain, No Depression, Nov 2006.