On Pinto, the queer, biracial, songwriter Kristen Ford blasts beyond the point of caution and unveils a wild landscape of visceral emotion.Ford’s world is one of the deepest feelings: whether fuming at queer repression, falling head over heels in love, or learning to practice true self-acceptance. Pinto is a place where she can be share her losses while being mindful enough to acknowledge her wins. In revealing both her scars and her successes, Ford raises a cry that invites the listener to boldly embrace themselves, to take up space, and to loudly state that “enough is enough”.
The lessons that Ford explores on Pinto are those learned the hard way: from helplessly watching the suppression of queer rights in the US, through finding new love after a gut-wrenching divorce, and from the daily microaggressions that come with being sold a patriarchal expectation of ‘womanliness’.
With a series of acclaimed releases under her belt, no one could accuse this veteran songwriter of lacking poetic nuance, but it is hard to ignore the raw messages that are contained within Pinto. Undoubtedly, this is Ford’s most political, most pointed, and most energizing outing yet.
---
Since founding her own label MPress Records two decades ago, NYC-based Billboard charting alt-pop artist Rachael Sage has steadily released a slew of vibrant, dynamic albums described by Goldmine Magazine as "mesmerizing...thoughtful, pensive and flush with an emotional flourish, all carefully and adeptly executed." She has toured with an eclectic list of artists including Ani DiFranco, Beth Hart, Howard Jones, and Grammy® winners Shawn Colvin and Judy Collins – with whom she also recorded a critically-acclaimed duet of Neil Young's "Helpless".
In addition to being a six-time Independent Music Award-winning musician and producer, Sage is also a John Lennon Contest Grand Prize winner who has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, SXSW, and toured globally from Japan to Berlin with her band, The Sequins. Sage is also a visual artist and former ballet dancer who performed with the New York City Ballet. She is additionally a philanthropic advocate who has raised money for a wide range of causes, including WHY Hunger, American Refugee Committee, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital and National Network For Youth (NN4Y).
Her 2020 album Character yielded the Billboard-charting single "Blue Sky Days"; her latest project Poetica, an adventurous fusion of poetry with jazz, classical and Americana musical elements in the vein of Leonard Cohen and Laurie Anderson debuted in October 2021. Her full-length album The Other Side including her current single "I Made A Case (feat Howard Jones)" is out now on MPress/Universal/Virgin, and the companion acoustic album Another Side was released May 2024.
"One of music's most inimitable iconoclasts." — BlackBook
"Her keen, ironic sense of humor and quirky sense of the profound is what makes her special as a songwriter" — Billboard
