Blues Music Magazine Review by Matthew MacDonald
Katarina Pejak is a Serbia-born singer, songwriter, and pianist who made her home in Nashville. A classically trained pianist, she embraced American roots sounds via her father's record collection and chose a career in blues while still in high school. In fact, her debut album, 2010's Perfume & Luck, gained her admission to the composition and songwriting programs at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she won the Songwriting Achievement Award. She released First Hand Stories in 2012 while attending, and after graduation issued Old New Borrowed and Blues in 2016. All were acclaimed in Europe. Her recordings and her high-energy live show on continental and Asian festival stages brought her to the attention of Ruf Records, who signed her for Roads That Cross, her first album with worldwide distribution.
Cut in Texas and produced by Mike Zito, Pejak wrote 9 of the 11 tunes for the date. The two covers are fine readings of Joni Mitchell's "Sex Kills" and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company's "Turtle Blues." Her studio band includes the incomparable Laura Chavez on guitar, Jonnie Trevn, Jr. on bass, and Damien Llanes on drums. Pejak's singing voice sits at the treasure spot where Norah Jones, Victoria Spivey, and Bessie Smith all meet. Her songs here engage the wide range of American song forms, from blues and jazz to roots rock, loungey swing, and even Tex-Mex. Opener "The Nature of My Blues" juxtaposes wrangling surf guitars and funky backbeats, while her clear delivery boasts a streetwise persona. Her reading of "Sex Kills" marries her barrelhouse-piano style to a dubwise bass line, stinging guitar fills, and taut snare breaks. While "Cool Drifter" recalls Marcia Ball's New Orleans-drenched piano blues, Pejak's vocal comes right out of vintage rock and pop. "Turtle Blues" is a wonderfully ragged Chicago rent party blues; "Old Pain" is a definite heartbreaker, borrowing from the Memphis country-soul tradition and recalling the searing emotional delivery of Bonnie Raitt's early-'70s recordings; while "She's Coming After You" marries tango, son, and bolero, then adorns them with surf-guitar trappings. "Down with Me" is gritty, garage-rock blues infused with regret. The title track weds the lyricism and sadness of Tom Waits to spooky country rock, and the closer, "The Harder You Kick," is a laidback solo-piano and vocal-swing blues with a colorful bridge and coda. As her introduction to American audiences, Pejak's Roads That Cross is remarkable: her songs and charts are as sophisticated as they are diverse. And no matter what other musical forms she brings in, urban blues is the overriding one. Add to this an unsual yet extremely attractive singing voice, plus deft, enviable keyboard skills that would wow almost anybody, and you have an exciting artist who is just getting started.
ChickenWillson Review by Bill Wilson
BLIC Kultura - Peca Popović
Katarina Pejak on BBC RADIO2, The Blues Show With Cerys Matthews, 06.01.2020 (Click to listen)
Katarina Pejak, "Novo jutro"
RTV Pink, 2019 (Click to watch)
Sound Guardian Review, 2019
Liverpool Sound and Vision,
Review by Ian D. Hall (Read more here)
Glide Magazine,
Review by Jim Hynes (Read more here)
Katarina Pejak, “The Harder You Kick” u emisiji Srbija na vezi, RTS, 2016
(Click to watch)
Katarina Pejak & Slaven Ljujić
Blues Radio International (FL), 2016 (Click to watch)
Albumom „Roads That Cross“ Katarina Pejak je započela svoju internacionalnu karijeru. Fantastično, reklo bi se. Sve dosadašnje recenzije su jednoglasne. Radi se o izuzetnoj ploči, kažu. Nesvakidašnji talenat je bljesnuo u punom sjaju, nova zvezda je rođena. Dovoljno je samo pročitati recenziju Toma Jureka (moj omiljeni recenzent) na sajtu All Music Guide.
Nije to za mene neko iznenađenje. Čini mi se da sam znao da će stvari ići u tom pravcu. Mogao bi da kao Muta Nikolić uzviknem: „Šta se radujete? Pa, sve je to normalno!“. Pratio sam, naime, Katarinin razvojni put. Uverio sam se u njen talenat, u erudiciju, ljubav prema muzici i njeno potpuno razumevanje. Znao sam da će se uspeh jednog dana desiti.
Ovog martovskog jutra preslušavam, po ko zna koji put, album „Roads That Cross“. Jedanaest pesama je na njemu, 9 originalnih Katarinih i dve obrade – „Sex Kills“ Džoni Mičel i „Turtle Blues“ Dženis Džoplin. Muzika je suptilni melanž bluza, soula, finog džeza, amerikane, klasičnog roka. Tu i tamo su pridodati prstohvati kantrija i kabarea. Opijajući muzički koktel koji emanira jedno posebne osećanje u kojem se fina melanholija susreće sa sačuvanim dostojanstvom i hrabrošću da se odvažno živi i pored toga što je srce slomjeno a nada izgubljena. Iz mog ugla gledano to je najveći kvalitet ove ploče. To umeće da se kod slušača izazove bazična emocija koja definiše bluz, rok, džez i svaku drugu formu popularne muzike.
Kad sam već zašao u ove lične vode, onda da budem ličan do kraja. Ja sam, naime, kao Big Boj Matson iz Frirsovog filma „The Hi-Lo Country“ ljubitelj „starih načina“. U tom smislu bih hteo da skrenem pažnju na ulogu dva tzv. agensa socijalizacije koji su po opštem mišljenju davno izgubili na važnosti, a koji su u slučaju Katrinog uspeha reafirmisani na najbolji mogući način. Reč je o roditeljima i školi.
Roditeljska požrtvovanost, privrženost, spremnost na svaku vrstu pomoći i podrške da se prepoznati talenat razvije do kraja, meni je dirljiva i nekako mi budi nadu da ovaj svet nije otišao dođavola. Isto je i sa školom. Katarina je prošla kroz naše muzičke škole, stekla zavidno muzičko obrazovanje, onda otišla na Berkli i taj svoj dijamant izbrusila do kraja. Danas se često govori sa nipodaštavanjem o roditeljima i školi. Mislim da Katarinin svetski uspeh demantuje te glasine i ponovo vraća u centar zbivanja te starinske institucije. Porodica i škola su važne stvari. Tako je bilo, tako i treba da bude.
I tako dok slušam Katarinine pesme – „Nature Of My Blues“, „Moonlight Rider“, „Old Pain“ i druge – uživam u muzici ali i u uverenju da nije sve nepovratno uništeno. Album Katarine Pejak „Roads That Cross“ je na scenu ponovo vratio neke zaboravljene vrednosti, afirmisao „stare načine“ u novom vremenu i uverio nas da postoji samo početak. Kraja nema.
Rock on KP!
Žikica Simić
Katarina Pejak: Roads That Cross (Ruf)
(jedna beleška)