Catherine Campbell is an indie singer-songwriter who was raised in Lexington, KY and is now based in Chattanooga, TN.
Her new EP Outline follows the 2019 EP Young One and 2022’s Leave No Trace EP.
Featuring five Campbell originals and one well-chosen cover, Outline opens with the gentle folk track “Orion,” which sets a certain, melancholy mood. “Orion,” which was previously released as a single and premiered via the site Americana UK last Spring, features Campbell on vocals and Jon Estes is credited as the instrumentalist and engineer.
The EP’s title track opens with a mix of ambient sound and warm, acoustic guitar that cradle Catherine’s beautiful lead vocal. “Outline” was produced by Rebecca Rego and J. Tom Hnatow and their production features lots of subtle surprises that warrant repeat listens.
Another previously released track, “Too Late,” follows, and was lauded by the blog Music Defined as featuring “wonderful finger-plucking, laying the groundwork for Campbell’s breathy vocal to float over like mist on a mountain” upon its release early in 2024.
Campbell’s cover of The Beach Boys’ “In My Room” is a standout not just because of the song’s inherent beauty but because she brings something new to the table. Much like her cover of the Rowland S. Howard track “Shivers” that appears on the Leave No Trace EP, she gives “In My Room” her personal stamp.
“Long Hair,” another new track making its first recorded appearance on Outline, is the EP’s catchiest song, while “Everything But the Blood,” which closes out the EP, is her most challenging composition to date. It finds Campbell stretching out creatively and the composition truly benefits from Jon Estes’s ear for detail.
Outline finds Catherine Campbell in fine form and the EP is actually quite expansive despite its modest title.
