lintie.com

Lintie is Kim Hughes and Christa Burch, a vocal duo generating a buzz along the west coast with their selection of celtic and contemporary songs in intricate a cappella harmonies. A quick listen to any track on their new demo CD reveals why their fan base is growing fast. (Click here for an 8" x 5" color 72 dpi .jpg of the picture to the right, and here for a 300 dpi version of the same picture, 663K.)

Lintie was born in the wee hours at a singer's session at the San Diego Highland Games in 1998 where Kim and Christa, who had been singing celtic music independently, met and formed a fast friendship based on mutual admiration of one another's voices. Since Kim lives in northern California and Christa in the south, they spent the ensuing year traversing the state to rehearse and polish a repertory.

The first fruit of their efforts is a self-titled demo CD with material ranging from Scottish ballads and Irish bawdry through Australian mining stories and a Rudyard Kipling poem, all performed a cappella in tight harmonies. Each also takes a solo track; Kim with a foot-tapping medley of mouth music, and Christa with an up-tempo rendition of an old ballad.

Kim Hughes

Kim was raised in Princeton, New Jersey, then moved to Scotland where she spent six years at the University of Edinburgh where she learned to sing "mouth music" as a side effect of doing a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. She then moved to the Chicago area where she was a frequent performer in folk clubs and coffeehouses, as well as more unusual venues such as a mausoleum, a golf tournament, the Chicago Botanic Gardens and the Glasgow Departure Gate at O'Hare International Airport.

Kim sang for many years at both the Illinois St. Andrews and the Milwaukee Highland Games, and was a familiar face at local folk festivals including the University of Illinois Chicago Folk Festival and the Lake County Folk Festival. In 1998 she released her debut CD, "Cattywampus," on the Just Folks label, and shortly thereafter relocated to the burgeoning Scottish scene in northern California. Her day job as a graphic designer allows her to continue to pursue her solo career in addition to singing with Lintie. Kim also plays a 48-key Lachenal Edeophone concertina and (recently) the dhoumbeck.

Christa Burch

Christa grew up roving about Europe, thanks to her parents and the US Army. The experience left her with permanent wanderlust, a love of Things Old, and an ability to quickly adapt and integrate herself into new and strange situations. This proved useful when the family relocated to southern California, and she graduated to become an archaeologist, moving from dig to dig.

At that time a friend gave her a Silly Wizard album which fired her musical imagination. When she finally succumbed to the travel bug, Scotland was her first destination in an intended 'round-the-world' trip. But the world had to wait as instead she immersed herself in music, floating from festival to festival and from pub to pub throughout Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, reveling in late-night jam sessions and song circles.

Once addicted, she made repeat trips to Scotland and Ireland to feed both her musical and archaeological appetites. Returning penniless from her last walkabout, she decided she'd better cultivate her local music scene (i.e. stay home for a while), and so she began hunting up celtic musicians and singers in California. While performing at coffee shops, pubs, folk circles and local music/ art/ multicultural festivals, she searched for and met her heroes-and jumped on stage with them whenever they let her. Christa also plays guitar, bodhran, whistles, and flute, and performs with the band TamLyn.

More photos! Click here for an 8" x 5" low-resolution color .jpg of Lintie (69 k).

Click here for a high resolution color version of the same picture (a 605k RGB .jpg, 8" x 5" at 300 dpi) or click here for a black & white version (312k).

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