I must admit that until just a few days ago I hadn’t heard of the Scottish singer/songwriter KT (Kate Victoria) Tunstall (born 1975). I stumbled across the first video below, her smoking cover of the Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back,” while looking at other music on YouTube, and I was blown away by her musicianship, her ability to rock a song with just an acoustic guitar, and her gritty voice. She’s apparently far better known in the UK than in the US, though her song “Suddenly I See” (below) was a hit in my country.
This version of “I Want You Back” shows her penchant for performing over prereorded singing and percussion that she activates with a foot switch.
You can find another live version of that song here; both are superb.
According to Wikipedia, “Suddenly I see” was inspired by a photograph:
Tunstall explained in an interview that the song was “about the photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of Horses“, Commenting on the song’s later use in Devil Wears Prada, Tunstall said: “I didn’t realize the lyrics could perfectly fit a chick flick, and it could sound like I was singing about wanting to be a fucking model!”
The verson below is with a full band:
Finally, here’s perhaps her biggest hit in the UK, “Black Horse and The Cherry Tree“, and certainly the song that brought her to public attention. Wikipedia notes this about the song:
The song is usually performed solo by Tunstall, the original artist, with the layered guitar and vocals constructed piece-by-piece by sampling the parts live, and using a loop pedal unit to create the backing track. A performance of the song on Later… with Jools Holland (recorded before the release of Eye to the Telescope) was an important break in Tunstall’s career. [JAC: That’s the performance below.] The song won Tunstall an award for Best Single of 2005 in Q, and it received a 2007 Grammy Award nomination for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance”.
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I don’t listen to contemporary music very often, but KT Tunstall does have a nice voice.
‘Under the Weather’ is quite a nice song as well:
Under the Weather, KT Tunstall
Great stuff.
These are really stunning, and I am blown away. I really liked in Black Horse song how she sampled her own singing and sang along with it, using them as back-up vocals. And she worked the tambourine with her foot. I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time.
This performer has it all.
I have a few songs by her in my iTunes library. I’ve always liked “Through the Dark.”
K T is much played over here on BBC Radio 2. Good songs from a strong performer.
Last week BBC had a program with live-Dylancovers. I didn’t get her name, she did ‘Tangled up in blue’ and it was great. Now I know her name, thanks a lot.
Thanks for bringing KT back into my attention
She’s great!
A cleaner video of the second version of “I Want You Back” is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIfi-aXZUNc
Yes! I love her! An ex-coworker of mine had the album right after it came out and I instantly fell in love with her music. Glad you like it!
It’s a good I Want You Back – it must be difficult to transpose to guitar too – but I just think those huge piano chords from the original and Michael Jackson’s joyous, cartwheeling voice are so central to the song that any cover version’s going to be a slight disappointment, however good it is. Most of the great covers I’ve heard are of seemingly ordinary songs, that reveal something you missed from the original. Or they’re completely different overhauls that change a great song into something radically different.
I remember reading a couple of interviews with KT Tunstall and she seemed like a properly funny, likeable, salty Scot – lots of filthy jokes and not a hint of posturing or self-importance.
Echoes of Janis.