From the Promoter

Rachael Yamagata has been called ‘the troubadour of heartbreak’ by the press and fans are drawn to her ability to ‘turn emotion into song’. She has got the old soul singer songwriter essence that calls upon Todd Rundgren, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, The Carpenters and Elton John and sonically gravitates towards the darker stylings of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, P.J. Harvey and Danny Elfman.

She has toured with the above as well as The Swell Season, Ray LaMontagne, Ryan Adams, Sara Bareilles, Adam Cohen, opened for David Gray solo at Madison Square Garden, been the guest of Pete Townsend’s In the Attic Series, and shared the stage at Carnegie Hall with R.E.M. and Patti Smith.

Yamagata has played for President Obama and performed this year at the Cherry Blossom Festival with The First Lady as well as been the guest of the White House for a tweet dialogue on behalf of her fans with the White House Office of Public Engagement. She appeared as herself in the new movie ‘Renee’ performing her song ‘Keep Going’ based on Renee Yohe’s true story of addiction and triumph which started the movement TWLOHA. She has been the Barnes and Noble two-time guest of the ‘Upstairs at the Square’ series pairing artists with writers – first with author Alaa-Al-Aswany (The Yacoubian Building) and more recently with Bill Clegg (Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, 90 Days). Mr. Clegg requested Rachael specifically for the relevance her records had during his own recovery process.

She spent her early years on RCA releasing ‘Happenstance’ and then Warner Brothers releasing ‘Elephants.. Teeth Sinking Into Heart’, but chose independence of late and releases on her own label ‘Frankenfish Records’. She launched a Pledge campaign to raise funds for ‘Chesapeake’ and reached her goal in 3 days thanks to a loyal following that continues to support her. She turned in a ‘dowry’ of sorts from her father to help fill in the gaps and even slept in a tent for recording when the house converted studio left beds to be desired. NPR, The Audio Perv, Perez Hilton and even Taylor Swift remain fans. The highly known photographer Jungman Kim of South Korea calls her ‘a muse’ and even featured a special release of her album paired with his photographs.

She is highly driven and totally type A with some fear that this bio will be too much tooting, but considers it a good exercise in career recapping. She hates the phone, loves hot sauce and animals (not together), studies accounting in the mornings at the gym and cannot get enough of marathon dvd series and HGTV at night. She sighs that most think her songs are only about love relationships and expect her to be depressed and lovelorn. At heart, she is the eternal optimist writing about connection and hope. C’est moi, Rachael Yamagata.

Promoter