MOJORISING
KASSI VALAZZA STAYS ON THE MOVE TO TRANSCEND AMERICANA
Street-smart: Kassi Valazza embraces the new.
Kait
IT’S A MINOR miracle that Kassi Valazza’s third album even got made. Not only is this gorgeous record,From Newman Street, miraculous in itself, but it was forged during a time of huge upheaval for a songwriter who has at times found herself almost derailed with anxiety.
Change and reinvention have always been part of Valazza’s life. Now in her early thirties, she spent much of her childhood moving between her mother in Phoenix, Arizona, and the smaller city of Prescott where her father lived. It was his record collection that created the bedrock of her musical interests. “His taste was very specific and he was very much, ‘These are the good things, you can listen to them.’ The music my friends were into just didn’t hit me as hard. So I was listening to The Beatles’ White Album and Neil Young, but I think the first CD I bought for myself was Shaggy.”