Sequim fiddler a ‘force of nature’

Don’t let her age fool you, Jeremy Cays says. The kid behind the fiddle has skills.

In concert: Kate Powers

Who: Kate Powers (fiddle) and David Rivers (guitar)

What: Album/CD release for Powers’ “Jump”

When: 7-9 p.m. Friday, July 15

Where: Calvary Chapel Sequim, 91 Boyce Road South

Cost: $10 suggested donation

See/hear more online: katepowersmusic.com

 

Don’t let her age fool you, Jeremy Cays says. The kid behind the fiddle has skills.

“She is a force of nature,” Cays says of Kate Powers, who’s all of 16 years old. “She’s … beyond her years. If you get to know the level of musical genius she is at, at her age — it’s amazing.”

Fans of every musical genre from bluegrass to gypsy jazz to Celtic can find out for themselves when Powers and guitarist David Rivers play select pieces from Powers’ new album, “Jump,” when the duo takes to the stage at Calvary Chapel Sequim on Friday, July 15.

CDs will be available for purchase at the event.

Powers got her start on the fiddle at age 10, but her instrument of choice came serendipitously. She’d been playing piano for two years but her mother suggested she pick up the fiddle to help her read music.

“It didn’t work how she wanted it to,” Powers jokes.

While she still plays piano for thinking about chords, it’s the fiddle and violin she’s taken with, playing with various groups (the Powerhouse Band, Young Fiddlers, Deka Piano Trio) and community ensembles (Sequim Community Orchestra, Peninsula College College Jazz Ensemble, Port Angeles Symphony) and on her own at state and county fairs, fundraisers, benefits, private parties, talent shows and whatnot.

Powers says she doesn’t have to search too much for inspiration when it comes to creating her next piece.

“For the most part it just happens,” she says. “I’ll put cool note patterns and combos together, keep people on their toes.”

When Powers was looking for someone to combine creative forces with in the area, she turned to Cays, a Sequim-based musician who produces and records dozens of local artists at his Jeremy Cays Productions studio between Sequim and Port Angeles.

“(David) is super intuitive and very smart; he doesn’t ever over-play,” Cays says. “(Kate) gave him all the chords and he had to figure out what to do with them. That was cool, to see the two of the figure that out.”

Altogether, “Jump” consists of 10 original Powers tracks. “It’s just a great number,” Powers says. “Nothing else compares to 10.”

In “Fog,” what Cays calls his favorite track on “Jump,” Powers leads the way with a haunting, somber melody that dances and soars, with Rivers’ thoughtful chords providing a subtle foundation leading up to a piercing, plaintive coda.

In contrast, the two rollick and bound and roll through a four-minute-plus frenzy of a piece dubbed “Finally There: The Toast Is Burning.”

Powers says Rivers’ style was a great fit for what she was trying to get across in “Jump.”

“(David) knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time. I didn’t have to tell him what to do,” she says. “I’m only a control freak when the situation calls for it — most of the time I like to be pretty lax.”