Kaki King
Kaki King with Jerome Holloway. 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, at Swedish American Hall. $15-$17.
Kaki King is the best new guitar player to come along in a generation. She started her musical life as a drummer and her percussive training carried over to her guitar-picking. She has a unique percussive style that blends finger-picking and fret-tapping to create harmonic overtones, slap-bass techniques, string scratching, and guitar-neck slapping that all take the guitar into the territory of a percussion instrument without sacrificing her considerable melodic flair. She started busking in New York City's subways in the aftermath of 9/11, wanting to flash a ray of musical light into the collective gloom of the time. She loves playing solo, pulling listeners into swirling, luminous compositions marked by their combination of heartbreaking melody and dramatic musical flourishes.
Tags: Hear This, Show Preview, Kaki King, New York City, Cafe Du Nord