WE'RE ABOUT 9: PRESS

... catchy songwriting and intense harmonies ... They know how to connect with their audience instantly. Their songs could be very well about you or your best friend ... especially if you or your best friend are just a tad bit quirky. Get out and hear these fantastic singer/songwriters as soon as possible!

FOLK We're About 9
One moment they're covering Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," the next they're singing from the point of view of a reincarnated parking meter. Brian Gundersdorf discursively details time spent working at a mortgage firm just to justify using the word "concatenate" in a lyric, while Katie Graybeal bounces with glee and kicks her shoes into the crowd. If nothing else, contempo-folk trio We're About 9 keeps its shows lively and its crowds guessing about what happens next.
--John Vettese
Fri., March 4, 7:30 and 10:30 p.m., $15, with Fruit, Tin Angel, 20 S. Second St., 215-928-0770, www.tinangel.com.

Don't you just love it when something completely exceeds your expectations?

Last Friday, me & the wife attended an Ellis Paul show. Ellis was his usual fantastic self. However, he was nearly overshadowed by his spectacular opening act: We're About 9. This ultra-fun trio (Katie Graybeal/vocals & bass, Pat Klink/vocals & guitars, Brian Gundersdorf/vocals & guitar) sounds like, well, I'm not sure. The Nields would be about the closest to their sound as We're About 9 can produce some otherworldly harmonies. Those harmonies pushed me over the edge a couple of times. There are certain times when I can get overwhelmed by music. During the countryish "Another Love Song", the harmonies coalesced during the chorus and brought tears to my eyes.

We're About 9 finished the show by stepping in front of the monitors to sing a gorgeous acapella piece (and, this being the year 2005, somebody's freakin' cell phone went off!). I tell ya, this extremely talented group deserves to be famous.

I picked up a couple of CDs at the show including Katie Graybeal's solo album and the We're About 9 live record (on which they have the good taste to cover Springsteen's "4th of July, Asbury Park").

Check 'em out. You won't be disappointed.

"Stretches of imagination seldom seen anywhere ... I've just gotten that explosion in my chest that I get when someone new has walked into my life and lit the fuse to another thrill."

"Wildly Entertaining"

"On their latest CD, Engine, WA9 offers up a studio collection that is every bit as good as their live performances. Their lyrics weave haunting, occasionally open-ended tales of reality and life, of love and losses and searches for freedom and peace. With a sound that colorfully blends acoustic guitar backed harmonies with pop, blues, and coffeehouse rock, this trio from Baltimore delivers a positively enthralling performance."

"Profound and fun at the same time!"

"Musical prowess, careful writing, an engaging stage presence and dynamic vocals that blend or stand alone...like pressing Richard Shindell's next edas through a 20-something cappuccino machine. If Engine is where contemporary folk is going, you'll want to be on board."

"I have rarely, if ever, heard any three voices blend together to make such a wholly constant chorus."

"Engine, the new release by the Baltimore-area trio We're About 9, is a thoroughly enjoyable CD that is a stellar refutation of the fallacy that young performers are not making music with the quality or sensibility of the supposedly golden days of 1960 folk. The twenty-something threesome's abilities as songwriters and performers is downright superb. Their material is literate, tasteful and often charmingly wistful, and their musicianship and vocal harmonies are world class."