Kate Power & Steve Einhorn: Bio
Quality Folk = Kate Power & Steve Einhorn
KATE POWER & STEVE EINHORN are a rare pair; folksingers giving folk music a good name in Portland, Oregon over a
lifetime. Their music generates community and romance simultaneously. Unique, original and warm, the harmony of
Power & Einhorn brings people out of their shells and into their hearts with beauty and humor. Raised in the
tradition of urban folk, these musical raconteurs roll life into compelling and beautiful songs.
Tracy Grammer describes them this way ... "Kate & Steve are my favorite folk duo. Their music embodies reverence
-- for the craft of songwriting, for the folk tradition, for the audiences they sing to and for this complicated,
terrible, beautiful world that we live in. Kate's earthy banjo and her emotive voice ring with compassion and hope;
Steve's spot-on guitar leads and wry sense of humor are grounding, organic, the perfect complement. But all time
stops when they sing together. Close your eyes and listen to that blend, friends -- that's where the love really shines through." ~tg
Rich voices and joyful players, their songs are warm on the ears and linger long in the heart. Homegrown, conscious,
funny, moving; listening to Kate Power & Steve Einhorn has the effect of good medicine; regenerative. These two
musicians got to fall in love and this is the music they make. Spurring listeners to keep "Dancing in the Kitchen",
the music of Kate & Steve is an evocative elixir rejuvenating hearts wherever they go.
Coming of age in the folk revival of Greenwich Village and Boston, these metropolitan New Yorkers came together
after finding their footing in folk clubs as youngsters, turning them into seasoned pros at an early age. Kate Power
and Steve Einhorn find the filling of life in music and share it with skill, balance and sensitivity on their various instruments and gifted voices.
By the mid-70's, coffeehouses, concerts and festivals turned into family life and making a living running Portland
folk institution, "Artichoke Music" for 25 years. They left their station behind the counter in 2007 to return to
music, art, writing, teaching and to play for people, peace and community wherever they go.
Pre-analog, unpretentious, seasoned players, beautiful songs...
Singing from scratch under the influence and encouragement of the great American folk heroes, Kate and Steve take
their place among the many voices of the American story.
Kate Power - Singer, Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist
Music to Life winner of the Grand Prize at Kerrvillle 2006 for her song, "Travis John", Kate's songs are inspired
by a simple take on a complex world. In tandem with music partner and husband, Kate Power & Steve Einhorn build
community through the music they write, play and perform and leave their audiences a little richer, positive, and
humane. Using a lifetime of tools brought to a fine patina behind the counter at folk instrument shop, Artichoke
Music, Kate is refining her focus on art, music and writing, reflecting life as she finds it inside and outside the
community. One life in music. Two lives in harmony. Kate Power is a voice whose song is growing.
Kate Power left the east coast and arrived in Portland on the 4th of July, 1977. Born to musical parents in a large
Irish-American family in Boston, Massachusetts, music came naturally to Kate. She came of age during the folk
revival in "metropolitan New York" (translated New Jersey) and at 15 years old, began to play in coffeehouses &
festivals in the region. She established her place in the folk story with her original songs and a voice that people
loved to hear. From NYC to Woodstock, she was an active player in the NYC area folk scene until she moved to the Pacific Northwest.
In Portland, Oregon, Kate stepped onstage as the lead singer & multi-instrumentalist in the Portland Irish band, "Wildgeese"
(1982, produced by Micheal O'Domhnaill). Kate came into the forefront of the folk scene in the Great Northwest while
growing her audience worldwide through recordings with Hearts O'Space (Celtic Twilight 3, Lullabies; Celtic Twilight 4,
Celtic Planet, Celtic Woman 3: Ireland (2008)), A&R Italy (Celtica), as well as independent releases with Steve
Einhorn (Dancing in the Kitchen, Harbour, Now & Then, Tales from Puddletown, Pearls: The Tribute Collection).
Kate found Artichoke Music two weeks after she arrived in Portland. Her friendship with owner, Steve Einhorn,
blossomed into a life partnership in 1994. They have been working and playing together ever since.
DADGAD guitarist, banjo frailer, ukulele picker and percussionist, Kate's first instrument a voice that sings from a
deep heart. Warm, expressive and full of life, Kate's song shares more than words; her dusky voice moves close in
and echoes the heart beneath the story. As poet, Kim Stafford, likes to say, Kate "writes from the beginning of time",
rendering songs that inhabit universal experiences with the feeling of tradition that crosses the borders of place and time.
In tandem with Steve, Kate continues to explore life through music, writing, art and teaching to promote community, peace, goodwill and harmony.
Steve Einhorn - Singer, Songwriter, Guitar, Trumpet Lips, Ukulele
Steve Einhorn swings from Jugband favorites to original new folk without missing a beat. The sound of his guitar
lends a rich and elegant background to a voice that growls warm with the comfort of molasses and a shade of grit.
New folk, old folk; Steve produces a sound that holds all the ingredients in balance with perfect seasoning, subtlety
and panache. A spicy and extensive vocabulary in the ways of the world, his repertoire refreshes the ear with new
takes and old tales. Genuine, warm, funny and sensitive, Einhorn carries music to fresh heights while shooting
straight from the core to reveal complex matters of the heart held close from inside the simplest song. A musician's
musician, Steve's songs come alive through the door of the heart.
As a teenager, Steve Einhorn founded and gigged with "The Appalachian Philharmonic Jugband" at the Bitter End in New
York City in the mid-60's, and "Foxfire" the popular Boston-based bluegrass band in the 70's.
He brought his music and east coast sensibility west to roost in Portland, Oregon in 1978. Woodshedding with his
buddies, he was a memorable figure busking at Saturday Market with his cronies as "Compton, Doherty & Einhorn" under
the Burnside bridge on weekends in the early 80's. He bought a small folk music shop, Artichoke Music and as his
life morphed into a family man behind the counter helping connect people with music, Artichoke became a legend in the Pacific Northwest.
Dubbed the iconic "Mayor of Hawthorne" from his twenty-five year tenure running the Portland folk center, Artichoke
Music (1981-2006), Steve can recount the names, stories, families and songs behind the countless people thrumming
through the doors at Artichoke Music on SE Hawthorne Boulevard. Steve taught thousands of people their first three
chords in the shop and has a deep rooted and enduring reputation in the region for bringing people of every age into making music the fun way.
In 2007 he passed the shop on to new owners.
Steve is exploring synthesis at the crossroads between art and music while pursuing ongoing adventures as performer,
recording artist, visual artist & teacher, both at home in the Great Northwest and on the road with Kate.