About Us
quality folk = kate power & steve einhorn
"You guys are the best - the absolute best." - Dave Carter
"So earthy and fresh is your music. I love it." - Lloyd "Tommy" Doss, Sons of the Pioneers
"Your music is wonderful! I love your harmonies. Keep on!" - Pete Seeger
"Steve & Kate are the Roy & Dale of folk." - Mary Flower
"Exquisite." - Eric Andersen
Grand prize winners from Music 2 Life at the Kerrville Folk Festival for "Travis John" and songs that make a difference (2006), Kate Power & Steve Einhorn, build community with harmony, guitars, banjo and ukuleles.
Special guests of Garrison Keillor on "A Prairie Home Companion," and encouraged by Pete Seeger to "Keep on!", Kate and Steve captivate audiences with eloquent songwriting and seasoned musicianship from four decades in the folk tradition. Northwesterners transplanted from New England and metropolitan New York, Kate & Steve elevate audiences with music that moves both heart and feet in postiive directions.
Legendary in the Pacific northwest for harmonizing community, Kate & Steve present concerts and workshops in community settings for all kinds of folks. Kate & Steve created the self-published The Ukalaliens Songbook & CD to teach the method behind the Ukalaliens Workshop, and Rise Up Ukalaliens Singalong. Their songs range from eloquent originals to traditional favorites woven together with harmony, anecdotal americana and humor.
ukalalien: n. a newly converted ukulele player prone to singing and strumming on the ukulele, spurred to spontaneous acts of music and song singing, both alone and with others, regardless of setting or circumstances, thereby creating a euphoric sense of wellbeing.
Kate & Steve's Ukalaliens Workshop was created to convert the uninitiated to the joys of making music uing ukuleles and folk songs. Kate & Steve travel with two dozen Kala ukuleles to lend and share the secrets of playing using folk songs with an artistic, whimsical and inclusive approach. Their method is drawn from introducing instruments into the hands of new players in their musical instrument shop of twenty-five years in Portland, Oregon. Fun and simple method and tunes aimed for success for even the most shy, the workshop based on their self-published "Ukalaliens Songbook: A Beginner's Guide to Ukulele Fun" (and soon-to-be-released Homespun DVD) has produced thousands of new "ukalaliens" to the joys of making music.
Endorsements from teachers, musicians and students make the Ukalaliens Songbook a comprehensive way to bring new musicians into the fold from scratch.
"Kate Power & Steve Einhorn are entertainers and teachers of intelligence, compassion and wit... Their songs reside in many places across the Americana landscape - from barbershops to mountain glens, from city streets to the other side of never - each holding a treasure worth hearing and keeping close. Listen with someone you love, you will find yourself wanting to reach out and hold a hand. If love is a matter of finding the right person to harmonize with, then Kate Power and Steve Einhorn have shown us all the way." - Tara Wolfe, Cabin Fever NW
kate power
singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist
Music to Life winner of the Grand Prize at Kerrvillle 2006 for her song, "Travis John", Kate Power is considered "one of the great voices of our time." (Bill Margeson, WCDB).
Multi-instrumentalist, Kate is a DADGAD guitarist, open-back banjo, 6-string ukulele and high-strung Nashville guitar. Kate's first instrument is a voice that delivers songs from the broad brush of a warm heart. Poet, Kim Stafford, says Kate "writes from the beginning of time" rendering songs that feel familiar in new songs.
In play with Steve Einhorn, guitars, banjo and ukuleles lay the strings under harmony as it was intended to be; natural, beautiful, one.
Born in Boston to musical parents in a large Irish-American family, Kate came of age during the folk revival in New York City and "metropolitan New York" (New Jersey). At 15 years old, Kate began to play in coffeehouses & festivals and established her place in the New York folk scene as a singer-songwriter playing clubs and coffeehouses from Manhattan to Woodstock. Kate migrated to the Pacific Northwest in 1977 to explore the last of the American frontier and has called the Pacific Northwest home ever since.
In Portland, Oregon, Kate stepped on stage as the lead singer & multi-instrumentalist in the Portland Irish band, "Wildgeese" (1982, produced by Micheal O'Domhnaill). Kate joined the folk scene in the Great Northwest while growing her audience worldwide through independent releases with Steve Einhorn (Dancing in the Kitchen, Harbour, Now & Then, Tales from Puddletown, Pearls, Brick & Mortar, Bicycle Songs). She also has been a select artist for Celtic recordings with Hearts O'Space (Celtic Twilight 3, Lullabies, Celtic Twilight 4, Celtic Planet, and Celtic Woman 3: Ireland in 2008 among others.
Kate joined forces with Steve Einhorn in 1994 and they have been harmonizing ever since.
steve einhorn
singer, songwriter, guitar, trumpet lips, ukulele
Steve Einhorn is a lifetime musician with a deep understanding of the relationship of man and guitar. Hands-on, he has been making music from an early age in the 60's in New York City to Boston and then to Portland and the Great Northwest since 1978. Steve's music originated in jugband favorites inspired by Jim Kweskin, bluegrass in Boston band, Foxfire and moved into original new folk in the Great Northwest, bringing many of the finer flavors of Americana with him.
The classic sound of his guitar lends rich and elegant backgrounds to a voice that growls warm with a sweet molasses and a shade of grit. New folk or traditional; Steve Einhorn is the groundwire who holds the audience in his hand with a deft wit that matches the warmth of his music. He delivers his songs with a sure hand that lends itself to good stories and songs you can feel. Genuine, warm and funny, Steve Einhorn carries music to fresh heights by playing it straight with a boundless love for guitar and a voice that has been singing for a lifetime.
Founder of "The Appalachian Philharmonic Jugband", Steve debuted at an early age with gigs at the Bitter End in New York City and various clubs in the mid-60's. He toured the northeast with Boston-based bluegrass band "Foxfire" before moving to Portland, Oregon in 1978. His early solo Kicking Mule release, "Whole World Round" became a regional favorite as his music for peace, the environment and countless causes for a better world grew his reputation in music activism. His guitar and harmonies are sought after and found behind dozens of recordings for popular artists in the Pacific Northwest.
Steve Einhorn's name was synonymous with his extraordinary music shop, a legend in Portland since 1981, Artichoke Music. Owner of Artichoke Music from 1981 through 2006, Steve inspired and taught thousands of people about music, instruments and songs and grew a deep and rooted reputation for making a better world through music and helping people get their start while running the shop and performing in the region all along.
In 2007 he handed off the duties of the shop to pursue the call as performer, recording artist, producer, visual artist & teacher, both at home in the Great Northwest and on the road with Kate Power.
