Katie is the latest single from country-pop music artist Jonny Reid, originally from Portaferry on the North-East coast of Ireland.
Reid has lived in West Australia for almost seven years, sharpening his skill set on the local music scene. With the release of his debut album, Another Life, and the accompanying debut single, the title track from the album, landing him a no.19 position on the iTunes Singles Chart and no.3 slot on the Country Singles Chart, it all looks very welcoming for Reid’s brand of feel-good guitar pop-rock.
As well as sharing the stage with international acts such as Ritchie Sambora (Bon Jovi) and country music legend Nanci Griffith, Reid has had a taste of the touring life with a series of sold-out local shows with his six-piece band.
Katie is immediate and stylistically persuasive with a well-considered dynamic—the laid-back verses contrast quite effectively with the full steam ahead choruses—that doesn’t attempt to rewrite the country-rock slash pop playbook but merely adds to it in a decent enough way. Comparisons to Keith Urban will be made, of course—and perhaps rightly so—but Reid’s vocal style and particularly the timbre of his voice set him apart somewhat.
‘‘I just want to keep making music people enjoy and that I am proud of. I’d like to continue to grow as an artist, and as the late country artist Nanci Griffith once told me, ‘just keep writing and just keep singing’.’
Put it this way, Reid is more Bryan Adams than Urban in the vocal department and a mix of both these guys when it comes to his songcraft. Although the opening lyric of the chorus—‘Bring me down to the water, I won’t ever be oh so free’—brought to mind Springsteen’s The River. However, Reid’s river conjures a less desolate list of adolescent behaviour, and the musical component also serves up a more positive and light-hearted retrospective response.
As Reid has said about his motivation and drive, ‘I just want to keep making music people enjoy and that I am proud of. I’d like to continue to grow as an artist, and as the late country artist Nanci Griffith once told me, ‘just keep writing and just keep singing’.’
LISTEN TO JONNY REID HERE: