By Courtney Grimes

Gibson rocker KT Tunstall is the latest and greatest on the scene of singer-songwriters. Hailing from St. Andrews, Scotland, she began songwriting when she was just a child. Adopted at birth, KT used the ‘unkown’ to fuel her songwriting. “It fires up your imagination,” she explained. “As a child you grow up knowing you could have had a thousand different lives.” Before she was 10, she began piano and flute lessons, and eventually developed her vocal skills as well. “I began playing guitar when I was 15,” she remembered. “I used to steal a guitar from the music room at school and taught myself to play using a busker’s book.”

Earning a scholarship to Kent School in Connecticut, KT formed her first band, The Happy Campers. After finishing up at Kent, she enrolled in a music course at The University of London’s Royal Holloway College, where she won a Battle of the Bands contest. “I managed to win Battle of the Bands with one mandolin player! It was me and eleven goth bands and I won.” KT soon signed with Stimulus Records and released her debut album, Eye to the Telescope. “My music is strong, alternative, acoustic, stomp-blues, boom-boom,” she explained. “(Eye to the Telescope) is my first album. I love it…but not as much as playing live!”

Tracks like “False Alarm,” “Other Side of the World” and “A Place to Fall” show remnants of KT’s musical influences, such as PJ Harvey, Carole King and Fleetwood Mac. “My favorite track is “Suddenly I See”,” she said. “I couldn’t stop jumping up and down when I heard it…”

KT’s first Gibson was a Dove, which she bought after hearing a friend’s. “A friend had an old ‘60s water-damaged Dove and I fell in love with the sound,” she remembered. “My favorite is the Dove, but the BluesHawk is waiting…” KT loves her Gibsons and makes a point to use them at gigs as well as in the studio. For live performances she uses both the Dove and the BluesHawk, and for recording tracks, she said “I used a ’62 Starfire Guild as well as my Dove.”

KT has had incredible success, opening for Joss Stone, touring Europe with hip-hop band Oi Va Voi, and currently touring on her own all over England. When asked where she sees herself in five years, KT replied, “Gigging my fifth album at Glastonbury,” where KT has already made a debut appearance. And according to KT, life right now is “sweeter than honey.”

KT performs with her Dove.   photo by Phil Bull - © 2004 eFestivals.co.uk