June 2, 2016 7:30pm Kaiser Cartel with Tracy Bonham and Interlochen Arts Academy singer songwriter students

Some of you may know that Courtney moved back to Traverse City, MI in order to start the Interlochen Art's Academy singer songwriter program. It is the first of its kind in high school education. Because Courtney is an alumni of both the prestigious arts camp and the Arts Academy, she wanted to help pioneer this new path in education.Benjamin as you may know is now teaching the music program at Brooklyn Heights Montessori school in Brooklyn, NY. He teachers general music as well as songwriting and piano. Courtney took a group of students on a midwest tour last year funded by the extremely generous Robert Carone of Upstaging Lighting and Trucking based outside Chicago, IL. They took a tour bus playing Uncommon Ground and The Old Town School of Folk in Chicago as well as played on WGN TV/Radio and sang the national anthem at the final home Bulls game. They headed to one of Kaiser Cartel's favorite places in the midwest, The Twin Cities, performing at McNally Smith and Performing Arts Center. Then headed to Courtney's home town of Indianapolis, IN joining forces with Dale Lawrence of the Vulgar Boatmen and Vess Ruhtenberg of United States Three. Finally the finished up in Nashville meeting up with John Strohm and playing Rocket Town. This year Courtney's students will be heading the East Coast with there Interlochen Arts Academy orchestra and dance students who perform as a part of the Young Americans series with the NY Philharmonic. They will play with Kaiser Cartel and Tracy Bonham in NYC at Union Hall on June 2. Doors at 7:30 Tickets $12 advance/ $15 Door. This is a special show and not one to be missed!!! http://www.unionhallny.com/event/1171231

Courtney teaching song writing masters class at Idyllwild Arts Academy!

I am super excited to be teaching a song writing workshop as well as giving a performance at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, CA. Since I myself attended a performing arts high school (Interlochen Arts Academy), I know first hand how amazing the opportunity is to have amazing teachers at your fingertips.

I learned so much from Interlochen. At Interlochen, the focus is on western classical music and jazz. At the time, these genres were widely accepted and most schools frowned upon learning to sing other kinds of music. A vocal major at Interlochen learns all the foundational healthy singing techniques and through peers and teachers, one hones in on their craft. There is a composition element but it is much more formal than the writing that I do now as a professional performer. The only piece that was missing was an opportunity to explore other genres of music and gain knowledge from performers and writers alike outside the classical and jazz realm.

I learned so much about reading music and performing already composed pieces. But, the one thing I missed in that early education was learning how to let go as a performer and forget what is written. I didn't gain the knowledge of writing my own music and having a creative outlet for my life experiences. I also didn't learn how to write with other musicians. I learned these aspects of music from playing in rock n roll bands. I learned to collaborate with musicians who taught themselves. I gained their musical language used in this musical setting. So much understanding and freedom came from riffing on a few chords with the band mates while I explored vocally. We could jam for hours. I spent a long time thinking about the message in the music and the message in the words as well as their relationship to each other. Later, I started working with both classically and non-classically trained musicians in different settings. How diverse they were. It was hard for them to speak to each other. I felt so lucky to have an understanding of how to communicate between them as well as how to integrate the two worlds together.

In college I had a desire of having a broad musical understanding and experience. I chose to find expert teachers in the music of cultures outside the US. I focused on the Hindustani style of Indian Classical music and southern African folk but was blessed to have college professors available in the Ethnomusicology department to teach me about various Asian music as well. I found it to be incredibly important to open my vocal repertoire to the music of the world. Singing music from other cultures has its own set of desirable attributes. Paying attention to sound, tone, feeling, and how it felt physically added a whole new perspective to my musical palette. Its a strange sensation for a western classical singer to learn how to throat sing with Xhosa women in South Africa. The women that were teaching me didn't speak English. I learned completely through imitation. I remember distinctly the first couple of times that I started singing and trying to make the sound they were making. They giggled at me but in the most loving and supportive way.

Although the focus of the master class at Idyllwild will be pop music driven, I hope that some of the things I have learned in my experiences will open the eyes of these students in a way that they weren't open before. I will be instilling in them the feeling of being open in writing, in singing, and in performing so that they may continue on their journey with the world wide open. I think the fact that a performing arts school is now able to value other genres of music outside the classical and jazz world, we can begin to feel the shift of music education in our country.

Courtney playing solo shows in support of Alex Dezen

I am so excited to announce a mini tour with Alex Dezen of The Damnwells. This will be the first solo tour I have done since 2004. It's kind of crazy and scary but totally exciting at the same time. I had thought about it before but not seriously until Alex convinced me it would be good for me. Thank you Alex. Alex's wife Angela will be singing with him and knowing how we are when we get together, we are sure to put together some three part harmonies. Look out Carter family! I know it will be fun.

After the solo shows, Ben and I meet in Minnesota for four shows. We are so excited to be back in the heartland. We will also play Chicago, Milwukee, Des Moines, and Indianapolis. We will end the year with a special show at the the Bell House in Brooklyn opening for Dar Williams the day after Christmas.

As a side note, we will have some very special holiday merch that is only available at the midwest shows. So, you can only see what it is if you come. (It is not underwear! LOL)

Xo
Courtney

I Hope Your Ears Bleed blog...

KaiserCartel ‘March Forth’
By Nathan | July 29, 2008
http://www.ihopeyourearsbleed.com/2008/07/29/kaisercartel-march-fort

So over the past couple of months, lots of different bands have been sending me their stuff hoping that I mention them on the site, which is really exciting. But as you can imagine, the majority of it isn’t even worth mentioning. Fortunately, I have been taking the time to listen to all of them, because I hate the thought of missing out on the delightful debut album from a new pop duo known as KaiserCartel. The album is filled with catchy melodies and gorgeous harmonies. Their vocals are so seamlessly intertwined that I automatically assumed that they must be related. Although they aren’t the next Jacksons, they still have a pretty great story. Courtney Kaiser, the elementary school music teacher and Benjamin Cartel, the early childhood art teacher, had met several times at different gigs while supporting their own musical talents, but never got the chance to hang out or play together. That is until finally on March 4th (how witty of them), they finally got to hang out. That fateful night not only was the beginning of a new romance, but it also led to one of the best pop albums of the year. Fans of Mates of State will have no problem getting into this album right from the start. Musically they are a little different. Where as Mates of State rely a lot more on a catchy percussion beat, KaiserCartel relies a little more on what they can create with a guitar. But vocally and melodically they are very similar. Now they aren’t just some knock off that almost sounds like a band I like. They are making great music in and of themselves. March Forth is a strong album from start to finish. Not a dull moment. Take a listen to one of my personal favorites and let me know what you think.

KaiserCartel on summer tour 2008

We are on the road. Everything is going really well. A lot of driving, but that's par for the course. I am really happy we bought the Prius. It's easier on the wallet on top of being better for the environment. We just left Kansas City. We played with our friends The Belles and Heidi Gluck from The Only Children and Some Girls. We did two nights together, one in Lawrence and one in Kansas City. Now we are on our way to the twin cities. We have a lot of shows there as well as some TV and radio spots. It is always nice to be in MN. I will be bit a bit slower at updating this site, so please check out kaisercartel.com for all tour date info and news updates. I hope we will get it all linked up at some point.

Check out our "Oh NO" video on VH1.com
Hope to see you in your town;)

"Okay" featured on Paste Magazine's compilation

One more great thing....

our song "Okay" is on Paste Magazine's compilation this month which you get when you purchase the magazine. It is issue 42 and on track 13. This is totally awesome. We had no idea about it until someone on myspace told us. We are really happy about this promotion. Please go out and get it:) Happy Tuesday!

CD release show, new EP on itunes, radio play, and craft making.

So much to blog about! First off, our cd release show is set for Manhattan at Joe's Pub on June 10th at 7pm. You will want to buy tickets in advance and reserve a table for yourselves as well. We will have many special guests and are so excited to play the whole record for you!

Our new EP is up on itunes. That is the only place you can get it unless you buy it through us at shows and we have limited copies. So get it while you can. It is titled "Okay" and other things we feel..Also, our video for Okay is on the EP. If you buy the entire EP on itunes you get the video to have on your computer as well. You can see the video on the Grizlet site for free (our wonderful video makers) www.grizlet.com as well as our myspace page, youtube, and on the bluhammock site.

We were played on KEXP a couple of times this week. We are so excited by that and the fact that they now have a station in NYC. No more online for NYC....we can actually tune in on our radio dials.

This weekend, we invited our friends over for drinks and craft making to prepare for the "Season Song" video also to be shot and directed by Grizlet. We made a tree, bumble bees, flowers, and birds. It's going to be awesome. The next day we shot the video for "Blue Sky" as well. So, we have been busy bees......

We enclosed some pictures from the party and as you can see, Ivan was totally pooped after the whole thing:)

Hope to see you at Joe's Pub!