The Lilac Line - Karla Kane

We head to San Francisco to meet our next LCM featured artist Karla Kane. Karla is best known as the lead singer-songwriter and ukulele player for California band the 'Corner Laughers'. They have released four albums, plus two more with the side project 'Agony Aunts'. Karla's first solo release, 'King’s Daughters Home For Incurables' has just been released on Mystery Lawn Music/Gare du Nord. Our LCM #TrackOfTheDay is the very catchy first single 'The Lilac Line' taken from the new album.

Karla will be coming on London on the 28th October to play a set at The Betsy Trotwood in Farringdon. If you are enjoying her music please go down and say hello.

“The Lilac Line” is a poppy, dreamy song in an acoustic arrangement complete with accordion, ukulele, and harmonies. Full of vivid imagery and a mix of melancholic and hopeful lyrics that complement the upbeat and refreshing melody, it turns a trip on public transportation -- the titular Lilac Line bus route in Nottingham, England -- into a wide-eyed meditation on life. Kane explains, “As usual, I wrote the song under my beloved oak tree in the back yard. The title refers literally to the bus line in Nottingham that we ride with our UK bandmates, Mark and Helen Luker (who both play on the track). The lyrics unfolded stream-of-consciousness-style, reflecting an attempt to appreciate the small, everyday things while we can, as the moments fly by so quickly.”  The song received its radio debut, fittingly for its Nottingham connections from BBC East Midlands, which called it “marvelously melodic.”

The upcoming solo release from Karla Kane, 'King’s Daughters Home For Incurables', leads listeners into an intriguing land of acorns and tea leaves; feminism and folk tales; pagan pop and pastoral protest songs; wistful wanderings and sharp observations on the current state of the world. It's n enchanting collection inspired largely by the tours of England she’s undertaken over the past few years, with a folkier sound than her previous work. Recorded at home, rather than in a studio with a producer, the album is Kane at her most independent and intimate, with sweet vocals and songwriting at the forefront. Themes include anxious thoughts on motherhood and the passing of time, the search for “home,” and a deep desire to summon optimism and hope in a dark world. Though it has DIY roots, the album expands its scope from the micro to the macro level. Woven into many of the songs are the field recordings of Richard Youell, which bring the sounds of the English countryside (buzzing beehives, dawn choruses, rainstorms) alive in harmony with Kane’s music, and the record features a number of transatlantic collaborations, including a track with British musician/poet Martin Newell (Cleaners from Venus).