Last night I finally caught up with Kate Hathaway at the Illini Union.  I saw 2 artists for a whole $3.  It was great, even if there were only about a dozen people there.

Kate was playing acoustic, without her band.  Her brother, James, joined her on vocals for a few songs, and minimalist harmonica on one of those.

She played mostly stuff off of her album, but she did one new one and a few older songs that I hadn’t heard.  I had her sign my CD and asked her about the show at Aroma next week.  Turns out she cancelled that show because some friends invited her out to Denver for a week to play 4 shows. 

The second artist was Haley Bonar.  She played guitar and electric piano and had a friend on electric bass.  She was interesting and I went ahead and picked up her CD, …the size of planets, which I’m listening to right now. 

I’m not sure what I think.  The lyrics are much easier to understand on the CD.  It still sort of seems like music to commit suicide by though.  That is not meant as a disparagement by the way.  Just sort of the mood it evokes.  But hey, she uses an ellipsis in her title so it has to have some redeeming qualities.

She’s from South Dakota and currently lives in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.  I’m not saying anything bad about those places.  I can just sort of see those climes having that sort of effect on some sensibilities, and she seems to have that sort of sensibility to her.

All in all, it was a very good, but strange, show.  Hey, $3.  I got far more than my money’s worth!