Concrete Playground

If you're not already an excited fan, what you may know about Kaki King is that Rolling Stone named her a "Guitar God" in 2006, and that most live reviews could be filed under: 'guitar tech drool dream'. I'm not kidding. She plays acoustic, she plays electric, she plays lap steel, she does something called tapping, and another thing called fanning. And when she tires of those things that I do not understand, she plays the piano.

What no review seems to mention is that, ok, so she's a bonafide guitar god in that bordering-on John Fahey way, but hoo doggy does she have a pretty voice. So when she played in Sydney Festival's Spiegeltent a few years back, I was crushed when she didn't sing the whole time. But then she did that thing with the fanning and the tapping and I was happy once more, just like the rest of the sold out audience. Since then she has collaborated and toured with The Mountain Goats, Foo Fighters, and contributed to the soundtracks of Into the Wild (Golden Globe nomination) and Twilight (don't hold that against her), as well as releasing a handful of new EPs and — critic's favourite alert! — 2008's Dreaming of Revenge LP.

See her because you understand those noodler's terms I used in the first paragraph and want to pray at the alter or whatever it is you do – or see her because you're a sucker for a pretty voice, but do see her.