Biography
Kate McDonnell first explored partnership performances prior to launching her solo path in 1993. During high school and college in her native Baltimore, MD, she collaborated with her twin under the name Katie and Anne McDonnell. After a four-year hiatus from the stage, during which she resided in New Haven, CT, and held positions that ranged from editorial work to driving an ice-cream truck, peddling encyclopedias, and handling administrative tasks at a social-service organization, she formed the duo McDonnell-Tane in 1989. While based in New England, the pair opened shows for Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Kathy Mattea, Leo Kottke, and Suzanne Vega, and issued two albums, Volcanic Rendezvous and a self-titled collection. In New Haven she also joined the trio Colossal Olive alongside Alison Farrell and Cara Burgarella; the sometimes a cappella ensemble became known for its humorous approach.
McDonnell self-produced her independent debut Broken Bones, which appeared in 1994. That same year readers of the New Haven Advocate selected the emerging solo artist as the city’s leading singer/songwriter. In 1995 she received the New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival and relocated to the Northwest. She was also named a showcase finalist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Waterbug Records reissued the twelve-track Broken Bones in 1996.
Her engagement with music dated to age four, when she discovered a Joan Baez record among her mother’s collection. A left-handed player, she took up her mother’s Gibson guitar—taller than she was at the time—and taught herself to play it upside down and backward while resting it in her lap. She earned a degree in English Literature in 1983. Her first original song was written in 1989. After self-producing the follow-up Next in 1998, her material gained broader radio exposure and she toured throughout the United States and Europe. A Kennedy Center appearance came in 1999, and two years later she performed at the Newport Folk Festival. Don’t Get Me Started was released in 2001.
McDonnell self-produced her independent debut Broken Bones, which appeared in 1994. That same year readers of the New Haven Advocate selected the emerging solo artist as the city’s leading singer/songwriter. In 1995 she received the New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival and relocated to the Northwest. She was also named a showcase finalist at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Waterbug Records reissued the twelve-track Broken Bones in 1996.
Her engagement with music dated to age four, when she discovered a Joan Baez record among her mother’s collection. A left-handed player, she took up her mother’s Gibson guitar—taller than she was at the time—and taught herself to play it upside down and backward while resting it in her lap. She earned a degree in English Literature in 1983. Her first original song was written in 1989. After self-producing the follow-up Next in 1998, her material gained broader radio exposure and she toured throughout the United States and Europe. A Kennedy Center appearance came in 1999, and two years later she performed at the Newport Folk Festival. Don’t Get Me Started was released in 2001.
Albums
Trapeze
2024
Ballad of a Bad Girl
2021
Where The Mangoes Are
2005
Where the Mangoes Are
2005
Don't Get Me Started
2001
Next
1998
Broken Bones
1996
Live
