Review: “The Single Girl” by Kathryn Koch

Kathryn Koch is no stranger to the Buffalo music scene. She’s perhaps best known from the band Redheaded Stepchild, which was active in the ’90s and ’00s. She also played sax with Zydeco band Black Rock Zydeco from 2012 to 2018 and is part of The Healing Committee along with Alan Whitney and Tim Pitcher, whose debut album will be released in Spring 2021. 

Koch’s debut solo album, “The Single Girl,” is at once traditional folk and something completely fresh. With a practiced eye for image, a colorful voice, and a willingness to tell a story plainly, Koch digs deep into the psyche of a romantic when romance has passed and convinces us that all of the songs have not yet been written.

The songs are brought to life through austere arrangements echoing the material’s lonesome sentiments. Koch accompanies her rich vocals on acoustic guitar while Tim Pitcher, on banjo, alternates between driving the grooves and lightly peppering with a sensitivity that allows the words and melodies to live front and center. Judicious use of harmonica brightens the sound and creates a dynamic mix.

Appropriately subtitled “A Song Story,” “The Single Girl” is a collection of 12 loosely related tracks that take us on an individual’s journey in search of herself following a breakup. The first thing we hear is Koch singing, “You lit my cigarette / You stole my lighter.” She goes on, in free verse, juxtaposing the bitter, the sweet, and the meaningful mundane, ultimately cueing us to the beginning of the story as she croons, “I know I’ll never see you again.”

As we move through the album, we get the impression that our “single girl” is evolving as she moves through a series of short-term relationships. Fashioning herself in darker hues on “Good For You” and “Pen and Ink,” we hear her punish herself with lopsided love affairs. On the latter, Koch delivers an outstanding vocal performance, treating the listener to some deliciously sour notes that sweeten as they ooze into pitch.

Koch covers a fair amount of Americana territory, including a delightful country waltz and a few bluesy numbers, tying them together with meditations on love, loss, and an ever-changing view of the past. She shows off some compositional chops with the gorgeous melody of “Saint Augustine,” which underscores the discovery that a healed wound is never as good as new.

Humor isn’t sprinkled throughout Koch’s writing as much as it is woven into the fabric with lyrics like, “There was a man who loved me and another man who absolutely did not love me / But if there was a difference I didn’t really care.” She never strays far from classic storytelling, always keeping us entertained and waiting for what comes next.

The thematic centerpiece, “The Single Girl,” posits a quiet realization and an empowering, if not completely honest, acceptance of a new self-identity. The lyrics are modern and relatable, while the music maintains folk street cred for those who are keeping score. It’s a standout track on a record that doesn’t have a weak spot.

The “story” closes with a transcendent anthem, “Little Birdie,” which fittingly borrows bits of melody from the classic tune “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and leaves us asking that same question.

As a seasoned writer and performer, Kathryn Koch’s latest effort reminds us of how completely a single idea can be explored when distilled to its simplest form over and over and over again.