Press

Harp
"It’s nothing if not ironic that it took a young lady of English descent to create one of the most authentic, American country albums of the year."

MUSIC CONNECTION
"Here’s a surprising gem of an album of nostalgic sounding country tunes, only sung by a Silver Lake diva from the UK. Sounds odd, but it’s true, and this lass can sing her heart out.”

OXFORD AMERICAN "The Music Issue 2006"
“...See that blur in the background? That’s all the fun people dancing!”
Editor’s Pick Of The Month

MIDWEST RECORDS
KARLING ABBEYGATE: So who would have thought Joey Altruda would know so much about country music? Abbeygate is cleaning up on winning awards out west with very good reason this girl rocks, and we mean that in a country way. With a killer command of country and rockabilly at her fingertips, Abbeygate delivers a riveting performance that keeps you hanging on just to see what’s coming next. High octane, high energy and a winner throughout, this is a contemporary country date, with a subtle load of mixmastering thrown in, that you simply shouldn’t miss. Hot stuff.

Aquarium
I ran into Karling Abbeygate’s voice by chance while browsing artists on MySpace a few months ago. Initially, before listening to the tunes themselves, I was just taken with her excellent cowgirl boots. Mighty fine shit-kickers, but as it turned out, even better music. A modern day hybrid of Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee, Abbeygate croons in the style of the best 1950'5 Country & Western. Press play and time travel back 50 years.

Bullz-eye
If James Hunter’s 2006 album, People Gonna Talk, was like discovering a long-lost blue-eyed soul album from the early 60s, then Karling Abbeygate’s self-titled debut is the country equivalent. Surprisingly, the two have something else in common as well: they’re both from the UK. Abbeygate, however, has a Kansas-born father and therein lies the most plausible explanation as to how she can sound so damned authentic when singing country music. It also seems too easy to suggest that she’s channeling the spirit of Patsy Cline, but no critic alive will be able to avoid the temptation to do so; the songs as well as the production are clearly designed to emphasize the resemblance. There’s also a considerable degree of similarity to Dolly Parton’s earlier work, courtesy of Abbeygate’s little-girl-sounding voice. The majority of the tracks are covers, like Hank Snow’s Who Left the Door to Heaven Open, but Abbeygate’s originals--the best of which are “Tonight Is Gonna Last” and “Someone Else’s Man” are so solidly rooted in the grand old country tradition that it’s clear this won’t be a one-off album. Whatever you do, though, don’t let Abbeygate within a hundred miles of Nashville; her sound is nothing like the country music of today, and it’ll be nothing short of a sin if it gets tainted. ~Will Harris (01/04/07)

TURBULA MUSIC
Equal parts Wanda Jackson, Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee, Karling Abbeygate's new solo album is so firmly steeped in the classic country sounds of the 1950s you'd almost rather listen to it on a big old floor-sized tube-powered radio than your CD player. And yet, it's not gimmicky – what we have here is simply a superb album by a talented singer with a penchant for the classic sounds of the golden age of the Grand Ole Opry and a willingness to bring her own touches to that music.
Like Cline, on some songs the Southern California-based Abbeygate's gorgeous vocals just float above the band, like a pearl sitting on a velvet pillow. On others songs, she's got Lee's tomboy-tough attitude ("Just Love Me One More Time"). And the pure fun of her little-girl falsetto ("Tonight Is Gonna Last," "Beg Steal & Borrow) puts her own stamp very firmly on this album.
Mike Boito's piano has a honky tonk purity to it that is the perfect complement to Abbeygate's voice. Joey Altruda's guitar playing is traditional in sound, befitting the overall theme, yet full of surprising little hooks on his solos. A pedal steel guitar adds another level of deep country sound.
While many of the covers here are classic-era country chestnuts, they're not overly familiar. "Many Happy Hangovers To You" may have been written 40 years ago, but a quick search shows it's only been recorded once before. Hank Thompson recorded "Who Left the Door to Heaven Open" more than three decades ago, and Abbeygate may be the first since.
Abbeygate has also written four of the 12 songs here, and they're among the most memorable cuts on the album. The rollicking "Beg Steal & Borrow" is the best of them, and if the world suddenly becomes a just and fair place this song will be all over the radio and other bands' playlists.
Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).