Chart Update!
January 4, 2012

Under Your Hood just hit number 4 on the National Folk/Roots/Blues earshot Chart!

The National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart

We've also just entered the chart at CFMH 107.3, Saint John, New Brunswick, at number 15 of the top 30!!

CFMH 107.3 MHz - Saint John Top 30

Under Your Hood Charts!
January 3, 2012

Under Your Hood debuted in December at number 1 at CILU on the earshot Folk/Roots/Blues chart and is still holding! It has also reached the national top 10 earshot chart for Folk/Roots/Blues!

CILU 102.7 FM Folk/Roots/Blues

The National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart

Thunder Bay Television profiled the chart topper:

Newswatch Video

Taddo slips into new CD
Under Your Hood is her second full-length

By Brian Kelly, The Sault Star
August 2011

Catherine Taddo happily mixed business with pleasure during a recent trip to Europe.

During a three-week jaunt overseas in July, the Sault Ste. Marie musician's itinerary included visiting with friends, taking in Scotland and Ireland and performing three shows in Cologne, Hamburg and Rome.

Taddo performed material from her new album, Under Your Hood, music from her first full-length, This Way, and some of her favourite blues covers.

"I was hoping to expand my audience base in Germany and Italy," said Taddo in an email.

Hitting the road isn't unusual for the civil engineer.

Taddo toured Canada, from Quebec to British Columbia, in 2005 to promote This Way. Since then, the Lakehead University graduate has played shows in the Sault and region and a date in Nebraska.

Next up is an appearance Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Roberta Bondar Pavilion as part of the city's summer concert series. Admission is free.

Under Your Hood was recorded over the past year at Taddo's home studio. The recording features Ed Young (drums), Frank Deresti (bass), Rusty McCarthy (lead guitar) and Paul DellaVedova (guitar on Under Your Hood and Slow Train).

The disc's 10 blues songs feature nine Taddo originals, including Slow Train, Waiting for You and Leave the Light On, and a cover of Louis Jordan's Men are Like Street Cars.

"My goal was to write a blues album with a lot of energy," said Taddo.

"I spent a lot of time in the writing process, but ironically Slow Train is one of my favourites from the album. (It) took less time to write than most of the other songs."

The album's artwork by Brian Tremblay features Taddo with a 1955 Chevy on Gore Street with the Barnes Block in the background.

Under Your Hood will be released this fall. Cost is $20. Copies can be ordered at Taddo's website.

Taddo Finds Right Balance
August 14, 2010

By Shannon Leahy
Special to the Chronicle Journal

Catherine Taddo is both a musician and an engineer proving that her left brain and right brain make beautiful music together. “There are a lot of skills that are transferable,” Taddo explains from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., about her two passions. “The engineering math skills don’t hurt when it comes to the business side of music. Plus, touring nationally and internationally takes a lot of preparation and organizational skills.”

If you think the civil engineering degree Catherine earned in 1997 from Lakehead University is the brains of the operation, think again. “Being a musician involves a technical side in terms of sound recording and musical equipment,” she explains. “I’ve been able to setup a recording studio in my home and have recorded a number of Sault Ste. Marie bands, and musicians.”

The 36-year old has been playing guitar since she was 11 and recalls an immediate love of music. “My parents introduced me to after-school guitar lessons and I’ve never stopped playing,” she says. “While I was in high school, I sang, played clarinet, bass clarinet and oboe, and joined just about every concert band and ensemble possible. Today I focus on singing and playing both electric and acoustic guitar.”

Although Taddo has performed nationally and internationally, she still considers herself an aspiring musician. “I think most musicians just want to keep learning because there’s always something to learn; that’s part of the joy of being a musician. I want people to enjoy listening to my music and I want to enjoy playing my songs.”

When asked to share some tips for novice musicians, Taddo says: “I think the best advice is just to stay at it. A lot of people who are taking lessons or just picking up an instrument for the first time want to see immediate results so they get discouraged quickly. Making music takes a bit of perseverance.”

Since moving from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie in 1999, Taddo splits her time between civil engineering, music and performing. “In 2005 I toured across Canada with my first album, This Way. My band and I started in Toronto and headed to Nepean, Kingston, Montreal and then across to Vancouver.” While still living in Thunder Bay and fresh from her Lakehead graduation, Taddo spent a year touring North America, as well as France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, and Switzerland.

She’s performed in front of a lot of crowds, but Northern Ontario crowds hold a special place in her heart. “In 2004 I played the Live from the Rock Folk Festival in Red Rock, which has developed quite a following. Musicians feed off the energy of the audience and vice versa so it’s always great when you have a fun, captive audience,” she explains.

The Thundering Women’s festival is another favourite event and a special career highlight. “I remember Serena Ryder playing in Thunder bay in 2004 and then a few years later show on the 2008 Juno Award for Best New Artist. There was so much buzz around her.”

Having Wendell Ferguson, an award-winning guitarist who’s toured with Shania Twain, play guitar for Taddo was almost as sweet as this memory: “I was on stage performing and watched Jane Siberry walk in, sit down and listen to my show. I’ll absolutely never forget that.”

As Catherine works on her second album and prepares to tour Europe next year, her life sounds in perfect pitch.

Northern Ontario native Warms Up with Baby It's Cold Outside

December 2009
By Brian Kelly
Sault Star

Catherine Taddo warmed up to recording a new take on a winter classic. The Sault Ste. Marie singer-songwriter collaborated with Vile Richard on the pop standard, Baby It's Cold Outside. Taddo recorded her vocals at her home studio and e-mailed them to the Toronto-based alternative pop band. "It worked out really well," she said of the long-distance recording project. "It was a lot of fun working remotely. You hear songs on the radio where it's been done and I'd never done it myself. It was good."

The Frank Loesser-penned track is one of nine songs included on the recently released Vile Christmas. Other album cuts include Greensleeves, Away in a Manger and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Taddo met Vile Richard's Olaf Alders and Andrew Vanhorn when both acts toured Ontario and Western Canada in 2005. They've kept in touch since. Alders contacted Taddo by e-mail earlier this fall proposing Baby It's Cold Outside.

There are countless versions of the song that was penned in 1944, including collaborations between Willie Nelson and Norah Jones, Michael Buble and Anne Murray and Rod Stewart and Dolly Parton. This new version finds, at Alders's suggestion, he and Taddo switching the male and female lines. There are also harmonies in the roughly two-and-a-half song that are "a little different than some of the versions I've heard," said Taddo.

The song, accompanied by winter photography, can be heard on Youtube. Search Taddo's name. It had 321 views as of Tuesday. She also contributed harmony vocals on Vile Richard's Poison Pill. That song is included on the band's 2005 release, How to Find and Fascinate a Mistress.

Taddo's participation on Baby It's Cold Outside marks a rare recent chance to hear the Thunder Bay native sing. She's only performed three times this year, at Steamy Bean Coffee Co. in November, a private party in June and Loplops in February. "I took a little bit of a break," she said. "I've been doing some other things. I got invited to do this song. I thought it would be fun."

Will local audiences get to see, and hear, more from Taddo in 2010? "I think so," she said. "Yeah."

Vile Christmas is a collection of holiday songs the band has recorded for family and friends over the years. Catherine was my first choice for other part," said Alders in an e-mail. "She's great to work with and she took her end of things very seriously. "She's much more of a perfectionist than I realized, which is actually a very good thing. So there were lots of discussions about little things here and there before we nailed down the final version of the song, which I think turned out very well. Taddo's voice, he added, "has a lot of character. I think it blends very nicely with mine which, I've been told, takes some getting used to."

The disc can be ordered through the band's website. Cost is $5 US. On the web:

www.vilerichard.com
www.youtube.com