ArtistInfo

Karen Blake

Pop, Folk and World

Karen Blake began her singing career while studying at the Athenian School in Northern California. Launched by the sudden and unexpected applause of her classmates while she was absent-mindedly singing along with a Joni Mitchell song on the radio, Karen progressed quickly to weekend gigs in Berkley CA playing guitar and singing with one of her schoolteachers. Moving back to her stomping grounds, Karen continued to sing all over LA with a trio called Souvenirs, creating tight three-part harmony to Andrews Sisters songs and other tunes from the 30's and 40's. During this time Karen began singing songwriting demos for publishing companies, becoming the singer of choice for many of LA's top songwriters. It was during this time that Philip Giffin fell in love with Karen's voice as he had the job of transcribing the music to these songwriting demos that Karen was singing. Giffin immersed himself in Karen's beautiful performances for over a year before having the opportunity to finally meet the singer in person. Soon after their introduction, Giffin not only became Blake's producer, but her husband as well. Karen's first album, "Just One Heart," was co-produced by Philip Giffin and Kyle Lehning. She had the privilege of working with such musicians as James Newton Howard, Steve Lukather, Peter Wolf, Dan Huff and Nathan East as well as vocalists such as Christopher Cross, Karla Bonoff and Wendy Waldman. Karen pursued not only a solo career, but a successful studio singing career as well. Some of her credits include: Singing with Michael McDonald on Christopher Cross's album "Rendezvous" Singing with Kenny Edwards on Karla Bonoff's "New World" Chris Hillman (of the "Byrds" ) "Like a Hurricane" Larry Carlton "Christmas at my House" Karen has diverse accomplishments singing on national jingles, TV shows and movie scores. She has worked with a range of notable composers including Randy Newman, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, Mike Post and the list goes on. Some of Karen's TV and movies credits include: The Simpsons Family Ties Star Trek Cheers LA Law Strong Medicine Boomtown Pee Wee's Big Adventure It's a Bug's Life Beethoven's 3rd

Genres

• Pop
• Folk
• World