Katie Mullins
“Pastoral”
Playing at: Pete's Candy Store (709 Lorimer Street, Williamsburg)
Info: Tickets (FREE) | Directions

Brooklyn singer songwriter Katie Mullins is not just a classically trained singer. She's a vocal chameleon—and it shows on her debut album of love songs, Pastoral. The opening strums of “Start Your Engines” paired with her lilting vocals grab your attention right away. The title track, which is available here for download, gives way to the mbira, an African thumb piano, joined by a cool, fuzzy bass that drones below Mullins’ high arching 'ooh'’s and howls. “I Miss Berlin” is stripped entirely of instrumentation, and “Anthems” mashes up Francis Scott Key’s “Star Spangled Banner” with Germany’s own national anthem “Deutschlandlied.” The album is also infused with a variety of musical genres, picked up from Mullins' six years of performing in operas, a country band, theater productions and films in Berlin, Germany.