Paper Tongues - Paper Tongues - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

The Dead Tongues is songwriter Ryan Gustafson's long-evolving vehicle for a beautifully fractured vision of folk, country, blues, and cosmic American rock, and Unsung Passage is a first-person reckoning with the things Gustafson, a chronically peripatetic adventurer, has seen enough to sing about. The ten remarkable tracks of Unsung Passage are long-distance distillations of events lived and places seen and pondered and ultimately poured into reflective anthems for our harried times.

Hailing from the small city of Chester, PA on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Kathleen Fontaine-Prattis (affectionately dubbed InchKatInch by family and friends) exhibited extraordinary talent as a singer at an early age. As a teenager, Kat began performing and recording with a host of local artists. It was not long before she was sought out by countless musicians, singers and producers that revolved around Philadelphia at the time. As the Sound Of Philadelphia and the recording empire created by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff grew, so did the experience and reputation of Fontaine. By then, she earned her place on a very short list of the area's top voices. Kat quickly moved up the ranks of Philadelphia's booming music scene. She performed or recorded lead and background vocals for the likes of Norman Harris, Bunny Sigler, Billy Paul, The Trammps, and The Temptations' Ron Tyson to name just a few. Fontaine's career would eventually lead her to share the stage with internationally renowned artists ranging from KC & The Sunshine Band, Sister Sledge, and Gloria Gaynor - to late greats like B.B. King and Ray Charles. Over the past few years Kat has been working with the legendary Philly Soul producer Butch Ingram abetted by the awesome talents of The Society Hill Orchestra. She released her first solo album to rave reviews and has been busy entertaining adoring audiences ever since. Back in the studio with Ingram and The Society Hill Orchestra, Kat teams up with the world-class saxophonist Benny Barksdale, Jr. For a superb rendition of the great Norman Conners soulful 1988 hit, InchI Am Your Melody,Inch breathing new life into the time-honored classic.

Dust is the fifth album from The Dead Tongues, the folk project of the North Carolina-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Gustafson. Written in a near-fever dream of inspiration in a rural expanse of western North Carolina, Dust combines folk and jam-band spaciousness with overgrown nature imagery and ego death. It's an identity crisis caught on tape, an exploration of how turning away from your art can be the thing that ultimately leads you back. As Gustafson puts it best in the lyrics of Dust Some stories have no endings, some things never die.