In a musical climate dominated by pre-packaged hype and artificially sweetened ear candy, Kim Ferron is the real thing, an artist who remembers the days when songs actually mattered. She emerges fully formed on her exhilarating Cherry/Universal debut, an album that reveals an emotional depth and range that broadens with each listen. Uncompromising, cathartic and from the soul, Ferron’s confessional song writing lays her bare: raw yet gentle, tender yet lacerated, vulnerable yet completely in control, all sung with a voice that’s warm, fluid, and absolutely stunning. Whether cooing about pleasures of the flesh, asserting her self-reliance or condemning a dying relationship, the pop-savvy Ferron masterfully manipulates melody to serve mood. As a result, hook-laden, bittersweet songs like “Nothing But You,” “Dance” and “Real” are not only rich with provocative imagery, but catchy enough to sound familiar after a single spin.
Simply put, few debut albums announce themselves with such authority.
Says Ferron, “I want people to turn to my music and feel something, be it anger, sorrow or joy. I just want them to find it therapeutic. I want them to use it as a release. That’s how I felt when I first turned to music. It became my escape.”
Born and raised by her mother in South Florida, Ferron fell in love with singing at an early age. “We moved around a lot and didn’t have a lot of money,” she recalls. “I couldn’t afford to buy a lot of records, so my exposure to music was mostly limited to what I heard on the radio. When I was thirteen, we went to a gospel church and I joined the choir. It was there that I really learned how to sing. I sang church music until I was seventeen, then got my first paying job singing Top 40 stuff at a nightclub. I was the youngest singer on the club circuit.” The years that followed saw Ferron paying some labor-intensive dues, working ten-to-twelve hour days for little pay, capped off by hole-in-the-wall cover gigs at night. “I temped, I worked as a waitress and I had another job working in a Dr.’s office. Singing was greatÉ I was performing five nights a week in two nightclubs and also did a few shows in Europe, but I wanted to sing my own songs. I never let it get to me, though. I always knew it was simply of matter of when, not if.”
Not surprisingly, that time is now. With her debut album due out in mid-2000 and her inevitable smash hit, “Nothing But You,” recently featured in an episode of Fox’s blockbuster television show, “Buffy The Vampire Slayer,” Ferron has arrived in grand style.
“My mom told me that I’m living her dreams,” says Ferron. “She used to play guitar when she was young and this is what she always wanted to do, but never got the chance. That alone makes this all the more special. I consider myself extremely lucky.”
