Kristie Stremel
Danny's Bar and Grill
01.23.2001

Review by Danny Alexander

Last night, I saw Kristie hit her stride without a band. After over a year of searching for the rhythm section and playing a ton of regular acoustic gigs, Kristie and her brilliant (conservative word choice, mind you) lead guitarist, Chris Meck, have grown enormously as a duo. The objective difference in last night's show was simply that Meck alternated between electric and acoustic guitar. The dynamics of the show leapt to reflect the best of everything the pair can do and to highlight the visceral power and sophistication of her new material.

In a tight 19-song set, Stremel and Meck played 12 unreleased songs, many of them the best things she's ever written, as well as their staple covers of Prince's "I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man," Big Star's "September Girls" and Creedence's "Travelin' Band." It was intimate and soulful and thrilling.

Right now, the pair are working with Lou Whitney (Morrells, Skeletons) on a rock album with a studio rhythm section. What I've heard so far captures just what's made her growth (after Exit 159) so exciting. A demo should be finished soon, and they are shooting for the album in the spring.

Not representative of the full-on rock stuff, but just as wonderful in its own right, an acoustic performance of one of Kristie's more recent songs, "You'll Never Know," is available for downloading at her website at http://www.kristiestremel.com. It's well worth it.

--Danny Alexander