Sealed Lip Records Presents

RavenFest:

a celebration of

Kristi Martel's new CD "Ravengirl"

Sealed Lip Records' 10^th Anniversary

When: Sunday, October 22^nd 2006

Where: The Hi Hat Jazz Club 3 Davol Square Providence RI 02903

Venue Contact: 401-453-6500

Time: Doors open at 5pm, Music happens from 6pm to 11pm

Who: The Kristi Martel Band opening acts include Mary Ann Rossoni, Spogga, Kevin Silvia, Kellianna, Tony Lee Thomas, and Jennifer Minuto

Cost: $15 in advance, $20 at the door

Advance tickets are available through Art Tix online at www.arttixri.com, via phone at 401-621-6123, or in person Mon-Fri, noon-6pm at 10 Dorrance St Providence 02903. General seating is limited; arrive early for best seats.

About Kristi Martel... www.kristimartel.com

"Kristi Martel loves life, and the joy she gets out of it exudes from her every pore. She can be singing about the darkest things in the world -- betrayal, self-hate, death -- and yet somehow, coming from her, it feels hopeful and uplifting." -- Marion Davis, Motif Magazine

"...love emanates from every note." - Vienna Teng

"...a fine musician...Incomparable!" - Utah Phillips

Voted Best Alt-Rock Female Vocalist of Rhode Island in 2006 by Motif Magazine, award-winning songwriter and avant-soul piano diva Kristi Martel grew up in New England and earned an ASCAP grant and two music degrees (Bard and Mills College) before beginning her touring and recording career. Her sweet presence and fearless songwriting endear audiences nationwide. Her piano playing combines her love of blues dissonance and syncopation with her classical training. Her powerful voice is at once sweet and bitter, emotional and visionary, articulating prayers and quirky autobiographical narratives in the same breath. Through Sealed Lip Records she has released five CDs, most recently the demos for her forthcoming studio album, Ravengirl.

About The Kristi Martel Trio...

Kristi has wanted to add a rhythm section to her live performance for years. Nisha Purushotham is a freelance percussionist and artistic director of Rhythm and Roots, a youth program focused on the study and performance of Afro-Caribbean percussion. Kristi met Nisha in 2004 at AS220's Broad Street Studio and recruited her to accompany Kristi at RI Pride in June 2005 with such success that they agreed it was only the beginning. Kristi met Kurt Meyer when she was searching for a fretless and upright bass player for her forthcoming album Ravengirl, and the trio had so much fun working on the album that they decided to keep playing together. Kurt loves to play bass with good people who make great music, and says that Kristi is GOOD PEOPLE!!! The audiences will tell you how tight the music is, and how remarkable it is to witness the trio's apparent joy working together.

About the Kristi Martel Band...

For RavenFest, Kristi intends to represent the arrangements she created for her album, Ravengirl, which means expanding the Trio to an 8-piece band! In addition to the Trio, Kevin Silvia, lead guitarist and long-time friend of Kristi's, is the only other "Ravengirl" studio musician joining her for RavenFest. Kristi recruited her "Brave Enough" and "The Mule" studio drummer, Rich Kulsar, from NYC, to play for this special event. Brown student Miya Perry will be performing on cello. Kristi performed all of the backing vocals on the album herself, so she recruited two former members of WomanSpiritRising: a feminist chorus, Angela Romans and Kristie Speck, to reproduce those backing vocals live. The result is extraordinary.

About Ravengirl...

Kristi Martel's former life partner, Amy Caroline "Littlebird" Nuara, died by suicide in August 2003. Kristi and Littlebird had just made plans to move from California back to Rhode Island, because Littlebird liked Providence from her years at RISD, and Kristi missed her homestate. They had also just finalized plans for Kristi's next CD project, "The Mule." Littlebird's death changed just about every aspect of Kristi's life, but she managed to follow through with those two plans, moving to RI in November 2003 and recording "The Mule" in January 2004. Although she could not write new songs for 11 months, Kristi began a list of song ideas that she knew would later become Ravengirl.

The first song Kristi wrote after Littlebird's death came from words Littlebird sent to Kristi through a medium. The next answered the hundreds of fan letters Kristi received, fearful that Kristi too would take her own life. The next was a response to Littlebird's family and friends who had blamed Kristi for Littlebird's death. The next became the title track, a song expressing the miracle of healing trauma through feeling the pain. Kristi kept noticing that she still felt joy every day, in spite of the huge and traumatic loss and grief she also experienced. She noted it, she counted the blessing, and she came up with the goofy joke version that she must be some kind of superhero to still be able to experience joy. Her superhero name is Ravengirl. And the album, with its 7 tracks written before Littlebird's death and its 8 tracks written after, will break open your heart to feel your pain only to remind you that that is where you'll heal and find your joy.

About Sealed Lip Records...

Kristi Martel created Sealed Lip Music in 1994 as a publisher member of ASCAP, to maintain rights in all her scores and compositions. In 1996, she created Sealed Lip Records with the release of her first collection of songs, a homemade cassette tape, "4-track and live recordings," which sold out almost right away. In 1998, SLR released a live concert tape, "With Mouth and Hands," which also sold out within a year. In 2000, SLR released its first CD, a 4-song EP called "Give Me a Little...," which just sold out its second printing. In 2001, SLR released Kristi's first full-length CD, "Brave Enough," to rave reviews. In 2003, SLR released a limited edition signed and numbered CD single, "bound," and reprinted "Brave Enough" to prevent its selling out. SLR released Kristi"s second full-length CD, "The Mule," in 2004. SLR released "Quaint & Curious Ravendemos," a second limited edition signed and numbered CD, in 2005, as a fundraiser for her forthcoming studio album, Ravengirl.

Photos are available at www.kmetal.net/presspix.html