Brenda Kahn

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Brenda Kahn

Background information
Born	1967, Connecticut
Genre(s)	pop, rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter
Years active	1990–1999
Label(s)	Chaos
Associated acts	Bob Dylan Jeff Buckley
Website	brendakahn.com

Brenda Kahn is a NYC-based singer-songwriter known for her poetic lyrics. Her career began in 1990, when her first album, Goldfish Don't Talk Back, was released to critical acclaim. The album showcased Kahn as an important voice of the anti-folk movement of the early nineties, a movement she was an important part of from the beginning. Her punk-tinged folk music led to a major label deal with the Chaos label at Columbia Records, and in 1992, Kahn released Epiphany in Brooklyn. This album, which featured Kahn's darkly humorous stories of love, confusion, and tragedy in urban America, was heralded by critics and fans throughout the United States (People magazine compared her to the Violent Femmes and Patti Smith) and Europe (major French press heralded the coming of "La Baronne de Brooklyn.") Creem dubbed her "the high priestess of the apocalyptic relationship". Kahn was selected to open up for Bob Dylan and The Kinks, toured the US and Europe, and seemed on the brink of stardom.

Unfortunately, Chaos Records folded just two weeks before Kahn's awaited third release, the rock-tinged "Destination Anywhere," and Kahn was dropped from the major label support. She released her next two albums - both of which featured more electric guitar - under the small independent label Shanachie Records, and continued to tour Europe (particularly Germany), the east coast and midwest through the late nineties. She performed at Lilith Fair in 1998 and 1999. In 1999, Kahn founded Womanrock.com, Inc, an online magazine and music store designed to unite and empower female artists and give tips on how to navigate through the record industry. That same year, she released her 5th album, the acoustic and spoken word Hunger, which was a tribute to her late friend Jeff Buckley, on her own record label Rocket 99 Records.

Kahn led Womanrock.com for five years, and now lives in Pennsylvania, where she is writing, working in real estate, and, occasionally, performing and recording.