April 2009

Concert A Huge Success In Bismarck, Music Videos To Follow

Braving the worst flood in over one hundred years, fans filled the Belle Mehus Auditorium to see Kayte and her seven piece band perform an hour and a half of her hits and new material including a four song tribute to the legacy of Richard and Karen Carpenter. Kayte comments, "That was my favorite part of the show--just seeing these young faces singing along with every word. It's incredible to see that the Carpenters legacy isn't being lost on the new generation of music fans." At times Kayte sounds identical to Karen, and it was just a matter of time before she would bring this facet of her vocal abilities to the table. Kayte looks forward to releasing a few Carpenter's gems on her new album, as the requests have been overwhelming to do just that.

Last week Kayte was in Florida on location shooting footage for a DVD and her television appearances up in North Dakota. The out-takes and many new festival clips are already finding their way to YouTube, so rather than make it hard for you to find these short films, we've included some links to them right here at the end of this month's news briefing.

Finally, many of you who know Kayte personally know that she has been a candidate for the implantation of a pacemaker for over fifteen years. Through all of her grueling touring and performances, she has *almost* never missed a beat. This is a testimony to her steel will and complete dedication, but wisely she will go in to the hospital for the operation on May 1st. This medical procedure will protect Kayte from passing out behind the wheel of her car, one of her greatest fears as she logs so many miles touring by car each year. Maintaining her health has become Kayte's big priority since her collapse at a show over a year and a half ago. She now is a devout practitioner of yoga and brings her bicycle everywhere with her to stay in shape (you may have noticed her new physique). The pacemaker will allow Kayte to return to downhill skiing, a sport she discontinued due to her heart condition. It will also insure that she can continue making music and touring as heavily as she always has in the past.

March 2009

Preparations Complete For Concert on April 2nd in Bismarck, ND

With reviews like the one in the Crossville Chronicle calling Kayte "amazingly talented" (February 2009) while performing with Dennis Donald, and calling her "A Star" while performing on the live stage on San Marco Island last month, the pressure is mounting. Kayte ran through some of her Bismarck set for Jim Foster of Blue Flamingo Records this week, as she is introducing seven new songs from her forthcoming album entitled "I Will Return". From all indications this will be one of her finest releases, and all at a time when the chemistry is perfect. Already fans have been clamoring over the beautiful Carpenter's Tribute, in addition to selections from a rich catalog of songs by Grammy award-winning writers. Of course, there will be new ones co-written by Kayte as well.

You can catch Kayte's comments on Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, and Nashville Music Pros if you choose to... Kayte apologizes that updates to this webpage have been delayed as her workload is understandably heavy. She will be in Florida for a single festival in April at the Villages before concentrating on completing her new album with Jim Foster this Spring.

January 2009

Preparations Begin For Concert in April

Kayte is now stationed in her "command center" (a fancy name for her touring RV) in a secret location in Florida writing the new material and performing copyist and arranging duties for her upcoming tour. She remains isolated from all noise and most of her friends, as the preparations call upon all of her skills developed in her formal music training and her experience as an arranger for live shows when working for ITP Records. Her goal is to repeat the magic she unleashed when also hibernating in her RV; namely, songs like "Heaven Help My Human Heart", "Love On a Rainy Day", "Three Words Away", and "Somebody Sent Me An Angel". Naturally, the new songs are reflecting the intense emotions that are racing through the media and through her personal life.

The most challenging part of this project is how to stay positive when so much painful change is happening all around her. Kayte reflects upon the untimely passing of Gary Capik, her friend and proofreader who was once a DJ on the NPR affiliate WCLU in Thousand Oaks, California. (KCLU was the first radio station in the country to introduce Kayte's music on the air.) Three of her friends have been touched by cancer just this season. Kayte has been an active supporter of the "Relay For Life" for years, and even her own father has been back in the trenches battling his third cancer remission in the past decade with radiation therapy. Kayte is struggling with the irony of the disease seemingly rearing its head in so many of her friend's lives at the same time she is writing an intensely spiritual album. "It's why I had to get away to write. I had to focus, and allow my emotions to come to the surface, no matter how painful they may be. My job is to uplift and I have to unload my grief-- privately--to be effective as a writer. I also want to stay far away from negative thought. I believe grief is not negative, it is natural. I want to turn the pain into something lasting and beautiful; something for everyone to use to ease their pain to in times of trouble."

The new songs have been "sneaking into the sets" at the events she is performing in around Florida this winter. Kayte will be holding back releasing any of the material until the completion of the album, which contains the song "I Will Return" that debuted to a large crowd last weekend. There will be a few smaller concerts around Florida and Tennessee just before the performance with members of the Missouri Valley Chamber Orchestra in April. She then intends to go back to Oregon to be with her father for a while immediately after the concert on April 2nd. The song "I Will Return" is proving to be autobiographical...just be patient and Kayte will do just that!

December 2008

The Year Ends Strong as Television and Radio Airplay Increases

This year has been one of the best years to hear Kayte's original songs on radio and television. Last summer, the third episode of "Swingtown" on CBS (Thursday night) included the song "Love On A Rainy Day" from her 2003 release "Larger Than Love". Although the series was dropped by CBS after the initial thirteen episodes, the series was picked up and placed into syndication on the Bravo Network. The full series has also been released online for purchase in DVD format. In Kayte's own words:
"It just goes to show you what you can do when you are locked in an RV, the rain relentlessly pouring down, and you are making exactly zero dollars selling CD's that nasty day on tour in New Rochelle, NY. I refused to have a zero income show. So I wrote a song instead of shivering in my booth. I never even opened my booth up for business. As a result, I may have done better with that song in one day than I have ever done in any given day at a festival. We all face challenges, but it takes courage and heart to not let them get you down and to keep going in spite of physical or emotional pain. I try to face every difficult day like that awful day alone in the RV, crazily calling my friend's answering machine over and over again just to hear the comforting sound of his voice--that's the sad truth in the lyric--and all I really wanted was to reach him but I couldn't. There are always ways to overcome pain and isolation, even when you are all alone. There's always someone out there to listen, even if I had to write the song and wait patiently to get the message across. I am so fortunate I can use my music as therapy when times get rough."

Other notable achievements this year have included the addition of Kayte's music being placed in rotation on "The Band Wagon" hosted by Sam Scozzari on radio station WWUH-FM Hartford CT, and welcome radio exposure in Jacksonville, FL by host John Maycumber. This week the renowned Clear Channel talk show host Rhett Palmer also requested Kayte's song "Tiny Baby Boy" for his talk show.

"Tiny Baby Boy" originated on an album that was never formally released due to contract and album design issues, and still shows up seven years later on this site as "Coming Soon". We apologize for the delay. Finally, the first single from this album is ready to download. You can purchase an mp3 copy of either of the two versions of the song through the player right below this text, or wait a few weeks until itunes releases it internationally.

Download "Tiny Baby Boy"

Concert At The Belle Mehus Auditorium, Bismarck, ND, April 2nd, 2009

The Belle Mehus Auditorium is home for the Missouri Valley Orchestra based in Bismarck, ND. This luxurious 800 seat theatre features the finest acoustics and amazingly intimate seating for such a large venue. Kayte completed negotiations last October for a concert date, and is now taking many weeks off from her normally grueling tour schedule to write and arrange the musical show, a monumental task as she is doing all of the arranging herself. This is why starting in late November you haven't seen her in any festival appearances, and in the new year she is limiting her schedule to two festivals each month beginning in February. In the concert she will perform live with a group of hand-picked musicians. The musical theme will include a tribute to the music of Karen Carpenter, one of Kayte's favorite influences. Of course, there will be a new album of original music available at the venue. She has gradually introduced the new studio cuts in smaller concert venues this fall such as at the benefit for the Friends Of The Tennessee Wildlife Refuge on September 27th at the Lee School of the Arts in Paris, Tennessee. As the concert is taking shape here in Nashville, some very successful songwriters have offered Kayte some new musical gems to record, including one song that was originally slated for release in the major motion picture "Pearl Harbor" by artist Leslie Mills (vocalist with Yanni) and Chris Pelcer (too many credits to mention; most recently themes for Disney and songs on Yanni's new release). Kayte has also written several songs with the Grammy-Nominated songwriter and Publisher Jim Foster to be included in the program. True to her writing roots, there are also a new group of Strong/Bryon songs on the album. Kayte will also include her songs "Big Blue Sky" and "She Put The Music In Me" from albums that are out of print but are a part of her "oldies" catalog. (That's what they are now classified as on several online retail sites!)

May 2008

Airplay Alert In Jacksonville, FL

Host John Maycumber has moved his shows from the now defunct WIOJ AM (bought out last year by a sports broadcast company) to two more powerful and diverse radio stations. These stations are "terrestrial" as well as available on the internet. The first station is Talk Radio WZNZ which you can listen to on the net at www.1460.us. This station‘s broadcast signal covers the largest land area in the United States. WZNZ's syndicated and original programming engages over half of the political demographic in the 49th largest radio market in the United States. In addition, John Maycumber has an all-acoustic show on NPR affiliate WJCT that airs on Saturday evenings. As you know, John has placed two of our songs into rotation before, and I urge you to support his broadcasts and feel free to make requests. He has already told me that he has selected songs from our latest album for airplay, so don?t be shocked to hear us back on the air in Jacksonville!

Concert At The Cumberland Playhouse, Crossville, TN, May 30th, 2008

The Cumberland Playhouse is the only Tennessee theater and joins a handful of major North American companies offering a resident company in rotating multiple plays and musicals in any given week. Kayte will be joining Dennis Donald in his ongoing musical series celebrating music from important eras in American Musical History. I have included a piece from the press release to be issued later this month in the paragraph that follows:

"In the 1960s and early 1970s, a series of folk and country-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity as singer-songwriters. Their success has spanned across the decades, but no era saw them flourish like the 1970s. James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Dan Fogelberg, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne and Neil Young were just a few that were tearing up the airwaves....Some songwriters, particularly Carole King, also began releasing work as performers.

However you describe it, they wrote the songs that make the whole world sing! We invite you to come and celebrate these legendary performers with DSquared Productions Tribute to the Singer-Songwriters. Joining Dennis Donald from DSquared Productions, (a multi-talented performer) in this tribute will be the talented Kayte Strong, herself a Nashville singer-songwriter. Kayte has been likened to Carly Simon, Karen Carpenter and Carol King."

Fly Into The Breeze at www.thebreez.com!

The World's Easy Listening Leader, The Breeze, broadcasting the most beautiful music you will find, anywhere - whether you're listening to online radio stations or terrestrial radio stations--has picked up Kayte?s music and you should request it!!! CEO and founder John Meyer has on his playlist right now many of the artists that Kayte has personally worked with, including Al DeLory, Grammy-award winning producer and producer of "Four Roses", a rare album that has been out of print for some years, but still manages to circulate around the internet because of the great songs Al DeLory contributed to the project.

Airplay In Iowa...

Host Jim Manard with KBUR AM in Burlington, Iowa played selections from Positively Classic on his show "Jazz Lunch with Jim Manard" which airs from 8:45 AM to 11:00 on Sundays. The initial airing was on April 26th, and if you are lucky enough to be in the area, please give him a listen at this fine radio station, as he has pledged to keep the album in his playlist.

April 2007

Television Appearances

On Friday April 20th Kayte will perform live on Studio10, a program devoted to promoting positive music and lifestyles in the Tampa Bay/St. Pete viewing area. Please visit the website for more information as the date approaches:

• Link to the show
• Channel 10 Tampa/St. Pete

On May 2nd Kayte will tape her performance for Jesse Goldberg's "Songwriter's Show" on Channel 19 in Nashville, TN. Once she knows when the show will air, she'll post it in her blog on myspace:

http://blog.myspace.com/kaytestrong

Please watch the shows!!!

Here It Comes! New Music!

You can download Kayte's music digitally using the SNOCAP store. It's quick and easy to set up an account to access new music as it's released.

Digital versions of original songs from Kayte's back catalog will be found on new "Buy MP3's" page that has just been added to the menu bar. You can also purchase MP3's directly from Kayte's MySpace page right now---and the list is growing!

"Best Of The Fest"
...is now available online through CdBaby. This is a double album with 33 songs and a 12-minute video slideshow containing the most popular songs from Kayte's back catalog and several unreleased cuts.

The first disc of the 2-CD set is available digitally on the internet through CDBaby, the second disc is not. This is due to digital copyright restrictions; the rights to distribute the first 19 songs are owned and controlled by our label "Artfest Records". The songs on the second disc are controlled by other artists and publishers so we chose not to purchase additional digital-only licenses for these songs.

Be My Friend :) A Letter From Kayte

"Dear Friends:
OK. You don't have a lot of time to hang on the internet and to chat with your friends online. You've heard about the 'myspace' phenom from news reports and our kids, and are concerned about safety and are not easily swayed by the latest 'big thing'. But it is well worth your time to become a myspace member and log into my page at:

http://blog.myspace.com/kaytestrong

First and foremost, it is the very best place to hear the new music I am creating as I create it, and you can purchase MP3 singles through the snocap player (right above my 'Bio').

You will also find on my MySpace page 'friends' who own businesses and musicians I recommend. It's so much like the days of old where word-of-mouth was everything. I want you to listen to and patronize those people I put on my page. (I receive nothing personally by promoting my friends other than knowing that good people are being rewarded for their good work.)

And remember to bring your CD's and get them autographed when you see me at the shows; it's what will make them special if I manage to get a hit!"

October 2006

The Write Thing
Remember last spring when Kayte performed on the television program
"Nashville OnStage"? A publisher from Nashville's famed "Music Row" caught
her act on television last August, and suddenly Kayte began a new career as a songwriter for major-label artists. As a result, Kayte has been holed up in her project studio putting in long hours creating songs worthy of her years of experience. The first "crop" of songs is in the final stage of completion, and you may have heard her perform them live at the festivals. These songs will be on her next album "Be Strong" if they are not picked up by the publisher. As a result, the new vocal album is taking longer than usual. Kayte is tracking in some of the finest studios in Nashville, which requires Kayte to be careful with her self-financed budget because these studios are extremely expensive (!).

For those of you who are into music gear, the basic tracks (drums/bass/guitar) were recorded on a brand new ProToolsHD system in a "house" on Music Row named "Vibe 56" for its incredible ambience. Kayte is now recording vocals with her favorite AKG 414 that she has owned for over ten years, and is using a D.W. Fearn preamp from Blackbird Studios (John & Martina McBride's studio) to give her vocals clarity beyond anything she's ever recorded.

Kayte shares: "I have never been so conflicted. I am now a servant to two masters, one being the live gigs, the other the publishers who are hoping I can write them a hit. I have joked on stage about never having written a hit before and not knowing what to do, but the pressure is very real and I can only do the best I can and hope it is good enough. These people believe in me and are coaching me the best they can. Unfortunately, I am left with little time for myself, as both jobs are full-time".

You Can Find Us In Gift Stores!
We have been extremely fortunate to have so many Gift Stores help us market our albums. We want to give special thanks to "Leap Of Faith" in Cedarburg, Wisconsin, "Provincia" in Provincetown, Massachusetts and Portugal (Europe), and "Tropical Scenes" in Venice, Florida for being our top sellers this quarter. Please visit and buy from these very special stores as they have been instrumental in getting our retail market growing..Here are two of their emails:
Leapoffaith53012@sbcglobal.net
Manuel.sousa2@verizon.net

The Fundraiser "Hero Of The Game"
Ever since her last encounter with the celebrity team of Barbarlee and Rick Monday, Kayte has been promoting and performing a single release where the profits will be donated to the families of soldiers who are injured and are stationed at Walter Reed Hospital in Alexandria, VA. Sandy Brokaw (William Morris Agency/Brokaw Company) has offered to present this song to some great musical artists once the fall touring season is over.

A number of patrons have expressed a need to understand the nature of this fundraiser. The story of Rick Monday is best told by Rick himself in the interview below:

Story Link

Kayte and Dennis wrote the song about this event in baseball history, and presented it to Rick and Barbarlee in June.

The choice of the charity came from the Mondays, who had recently visited the injured soldiers in the Walter Reed Hospital. They listened as the soldiers told her that they were unable to afford transportation or hotel costs to bring their spouses and children to come and visit them while in recovery.

There once was a community effort by some local hotels to provide accommodations and meals to the families on holidays, but Kayte was told on her visit to Alexandria in September that this program had been discontinued and nothing had taken its place. Kayte also witnessed a similar plea from a soldier who had lost both legs and who was on local television trying to raise funds for the families of the injured servicemen.

According to Mr. Brokaw, the only way to effectively fund such an effort is to have a major star release the song. Please, if anyone has a special idea on how to get this song heard, email Kayte. In the interim, Kayte will perform it live for you at the festivals--just ask!

June 2006

Kayte has been selected to be the celebrity entertainment for the Relay For Life held at the Don Ahern Veterans Stadium in Bayonne, New Jersey. This is a well-known benefit for the American Cancer Society. On the evening of June 16th, she will perform her song “These Hands” which has been used as healing music in hospices around the country.

May 2006

Television and Radio Appearances!

On May 20th Kayte will tape her performance of one of her new songs from the forthcoming album “Be Strong” and the program will air in Nashville, TN on channel 19 on the following Tuesday at 5:30 PM, Wednesday at 8:30 PM, and Sunday at 10:30 PM. Kayte is one of many local artists that will be featured on the program “Nashville Onstage". She will be (unless changes occur) the fourth act.

This spring has been the busiest yet as Kayte and her music is in rotation on two Florida stations. In March she appeared on the Rhett Palmer talk show (Vero Beach, FL), and had interviews on WPSL (Port St. Lucie, FL) on the Ed Burchfield show, and WSTU (Stuart, FL) accompanied by renowned baseball player Rick Monday (the radio announcer for the L.A. Dodgers on station KFWB 980 AM).

Kayte purchased a new recording computer, and spent most of April overhauling her studio. This means a new album is on its way! Kayte uses Logic Pro from Emagic/Apple as her primary recording software, and has recently brought her computer to her performances; playing and recording live at the shows directly into the computer. While at a craft festival in Gay, GA she wrote an entire piece while playing live as people watched. Today’s technology is amazing!

With her computer background (a degree from the University of Oregon in Computer Science) Kayte has enjoyed the process of creating a state-of-the-art computer network with the power to score and record large and complex pieces of music. Right now in her home studio she has three powerful computers networked together to handle all of the processing: an Intel Macbook Pro, a dual processor G5 and a dual processor G4.

In April - with help with acclaimed Nashville songwriter Chris Pelcer - Dennis and Kayte have written a song for the hit group “House of Lords”, a band closely associated with Kiss’s Gene Simmons. Soon, Kayte and Dennis will begin writing music for Hotel Line, a company dedicated to producing films of 5-star luxury resorts. Kayte and Dennis are also working on a very special musical project commemorating the Los Angeles Dodger’s 25th Anniversary of their World Series championship in 1981 (the first of the eighteen years Kayte lived in Los Angeles).

Kayte is writing (as I write) new original songs for her new album “Be Strong”. She has also written five new instrumental pieces which will sometime this year be included on a CD entitled “Hearts of the Ocean, Two”. Her 2001 release “Heart of the Ocean” continues to this day as her best selling title in the digital marketplace, so it is important for her to create a sequel.

Whirlwind tour garners radio airplay, television scoring opportunities, concerts

For Kayte’s tenth anniversary selling CD’s on the road, the reward has been bittersweet and long in coming. With representatives working hard on both American coasts, her music is in rotation on stations in Florida this winter season, and she is working on a two-minute score for an animation company based in Woodland Hills, California with her partner of four years, Dennis Bryon.

Kayte has been touring with festival companies for the majority of the last decade, and now she is booking her first concert dates in areas of high demand. These dates will be included on this webpage along with her regular festival dates and will be notated whether these are private or open to the public. Her first booking is on March 8th at the Encore RV park community center just outside of Vero Beach.

Live studio appearance in Myakka, Florida will be followed by other radio interviews in St. Lucie and Vero Beach

The first interview and live performance on the air this winter will be in the KGKI studio as a guest of station owner Gregg Kielma. “I have no idea what will happen, but as usual, we’ll just have fun” is Kayte’s typical refrain. Kayte plans to sing one song from a yet-unreleased album (forthcoming this summer) entitled “Someday We Will Get Along”. You can listen to this station on the internet at www.kgkiradio.com.

Plans are in the works for radio appearances during the second week of March in the Vero Beach area. Stay tuned!

Benefit for the Shelter for Abused Women and Children strikes close to home

On March 16th Kayte will perform at the private estate of Robert and Pam Cahners, two of the trustees for the Shelter for Abused Women and Children. The benefit will include a live or taped message from Naomi Judd, who has been a supporter of this state-of-the-art facility in Naples, Florida.

In addition to holding world and American records in weight throw, Bob Cahners gives much of himself to amazing charitable organizations. He took Kayte and Dennis to the shelter for a guided tour and to meet the people who make such a difference in their community.

Those who know Kayte well would know why she was unable to hold back tears as she walked through each room filled with paintings by and photographs of victims of domestic violence. Kayte herself was a victim of domestic violence, having endured the same emotional trauma and life-threatening situations until escaping to safety over a decade ago. Kayte knew that when Bob Cahners approached her at a street festival and asked her to lend her talent to the event that Bob had been sent by divine hands to help her heal the old wounds.

“I had no idea how much of the raw pain was still there. I saw a picture of a beautiful young woman who had been killed by her spouse, and all of it came flooding back as I touched that picture: the rage that someone could do that…the disgust… and the wonder that I was one of the lucky ones to be alive. My way of coping the past ten years has been to bury the whole thing and to forget the past, but now I have enough strength and distance to use that energy inside me to help others before it’s too late.”

Big Blue Sky is in rotation at WIOJ in Jacksonville, Florida

John Maycumber, program director of the AM station WIOJ emailed Kayte on Christmas day to tell her that he is playing the song “Big Blue Sky” on Sundays. What an awesome Christmas present! Call him and tell him how cool that is: 904-641-1010. You can request other songs from that album as well.

Florida College of Natural Health Endorses Music by Strong & Bryon

If you recognize the music your massage therapist is using as being that of Strong & Bryon—you’re right! FCNH (Florida College of Natural Health) invited Kayte to perform at their holiday luncheon, and at their graduation ceremonies this last season, and they carry Strong & Bryon CD’s in their holistic bookstore. Hundreds of licensed aestheticians and massage therapists pass through this college every semester, so it follows that the music is traveling to new destinations every week.

FCNH offers reasonably priced massages and skin care to the public as well as expert instruction. They can be found on the internet at www.fcnh.com.

2005

“Serene Noel” cracks the top 100 on the New Age Charts

Kayte’s Christmas instrumental album “Serene Noel” scored a number 96 airplay position a little over a year ago on the New Age charts without promotion, and without Kayte’s knowledge.
“I sent roughly fourty radio stations a copy, then was so involved in my IRS audit that I didn’t check the charts until this week.” Kayte had spoken to a professional song promoter before sending the albums out, then had to abandon her efforts and concentrate financially and emotionally on her audit, which she “won” in late February. “By then I had completely forgotten about it, I was so relieved to have the IRS off my back.”

Kayte to be featured on the Rhett Palmer Show, 2/28/05

Rhett Palmer, a well-known talk-show host, will interview Kayte and Dennis live between the hours of 8 and 10 am on the Clear Channel station 1370 AM, Vero Beach, Florida. Listeners will be able to call in to the station during the broadcast.
Rhett Palmer has interviewed many famous people including Colin Powell, Mike Tyson, President Bush, and Diane Sawyer, to name a few.
You can call Rhett on the air weekdays between 7 and 10 AM at 1-772-564-0400. Please support the show, and visit his website: rhettpalmer.com.
Kayte says: “Call me, dude!”

Two new albums are being produced in Nashville at same time!

If you haven’t seen Kayte and Dennis on the road as much, it’s because they are at home writing a new album with help from hit songwriter Chris Pelcer (“These Hands”). At the same time, Dennis Davis, the engineer/producer who brought you such hits as “Breathe” by Faith Hill, and “Burn” by Jo Dee Messina has joined the production team. Dennis is currently remixing songs from Kayte's back catalog for radio airplay.

“Our goal is to have two fresh albums by summertime: one will be an acoustic, unplugged retrospective of the past ten years, and one will contain fresh original songs for our summer festival tour.”

Kayte’s summer schedule will be posted on this website within the next month.

Kayte is celebrating the season by travelling to the UK with her touring and writing partner Dennis Bryon. While in London, she will be “hanging” with Brian Willoughby, the the guitarist in the folk group “The Straubs”. Kayte also plans to meet some of Dennis’ bandmates from the R&B/ pop group “Amen Corner” which had six chart records in Britain in the late sixties/early seventies. Between business meetings with the performing rights organizations, musicians and various performance venues, she will hopefully do a little creative writing and R & R, which is sorely needed after her intense year of touring. “If last year was tough, just wait and see what’s in store for 2005...”

In September, Kayte performed at the historic Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee. “It was amazing to look at all of the famous photographs of performers on the walls right before it was my turn to go up on stage; Dolly Parton, Donna Summer, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, and Carole King had all left their mark on the famous club. I said my little prayer that I might live up to the reputation of those who had gone before me. Now that I’ve broken the ice, I can’t wait to go back”. Kayte was accompanied by David Llwellyn and Rob Lutes on acoustic guitars.

October marked the first time Kayte had performed in a public speaking engagement. She participated in an event sponsored by S.O.N.I.C., an organization dedicated to educating music industry professionals about new trends in the marketplace. On the panel were such notable speakers as the CEO of Equity Records and the program director of WSM (the “Opry Station”). Kayte was chosen because her indie label has gained notoriety among the Nashville elite as being one of the most sucessful indies in town.

Kayte is in negotiations to perform at the Germain Arena in Florida (tentative dates are in March) with the Christian keyboard sensation Paul Todd hosted by the famous portrait artist Cyril. The event will be a benefit to raise money for the hurricane victims in the area. Kayte will introduce a new recording at this event.

Kayte is now recording new material for two releases due out in 2005. One is a collection to be titled “The Masters Volume One” of her most requested songs performed in an acoustic setting. Kayte jokes, “Maybe I should call it Almost Unplugged”. I’m going to sneak my keyboards in there somewhere!”

The working title of Kayte’s other original album is “Be Strong”, in honor of her name change from Kayte Wolf to Kayte Strong. “I have tried to create a niche for myself, but as long as the late folk singer Kate Wolf continues to be a force to be reckoned with, I cannot keep my old name.” Strong is her family name on her mother’s side, and reveals a whole different side to Kayte’s heritage. “On my mother’s side I am related to William Penn and Nathan Hale... some of the founders of our nation. I am proud to have a Strong (pun intended) American heritage, as I so love this country.” Her relatives came to the New World in the 1500’s on some of the very first ships from England.

In June, Billboard Books released “Tales From The Rock ‘n’ Roll Highway”. The reknowned author Marley Brant is receiving five-star reviews for this collection of road stories told first and second hand by some of the most famous musicians of all time. Kayte has a chapter in this book titled, “But It Can Be...” which she wrote.

If you want to find out what it REALLY is like to do what Kayte is doing, you owe it to yourself to check out this book. You can purchase “Tales” at Amazon.com for under twelve dollars. The other tales in this book are just as amazing. This book truthfully describes what it means to spend your life on the road. Marley gets it just right when she reveals how the phrase “Remember the time...” sparks hilarious and revealing stories from each and every touring musician. “We do live in a world all our own, and often are cut off from what is normal to most people. It looks glamorous, but this is one of the most difficult jobs on earth.”

(When Kayte’s father read her story in “Tales”, he called her up immediately and asked , “It wasn’t THAT bad, was it?” to which she replied, “No, it was WORSE!”)

Kayte is working on another writing project which will be revealed this winter on this website.

Happy Holidays!