Katarina Pejak - Pearls On A String (2024)

With ‘Pearls On A String’ Belgrade-born singer, keyboard player and songwriter Katarina Pejak announces her second release on Ruf Records.

Or rather her third, if you take the live recording from Ruf’s 2019 Blues Caravan into account that she played together with her colleagues Ina Forsman and Ally Venable.

While her 2019 label debut ‘Roads That Cross’ was recorded at Mike Zito’s MARZ studio in Texas, with Zito also acting as producer, the recording sessions for the new album took place in France where Katarina Pejak has since taken up residence. Her husband, Romain Guillot, played an important role as co-producer and sound engineer on the record.

Apart from ten originals two covers can be found on the tracklist: the Pink Floyd classic “Money” written by Roger Waters and “Honey Jar” by the US roots band The Wood Brothers. “My version of ‘Money’ was fun to record, with an ironic and spooky twist that will hopefully question the message of the song. And ‘Honey Jar’ is just a beautiful song that I love to play.” As far as the themes of her own songs are concerned, the musician adds, “they are about saying goodbye to the past, joyfully questioning love and relationships and enjoying what we have. After a period of starting new songs but not being able to finish them, it was like a levee broke, after I had written the title track of ‘Pearls On A String’ and songs just started pouring out.”

Tracklist
1. Pearls On A String (4:23)
2. Jeremy's Boat (4:01)
3. Woman (2:22)
4. It Only Takes A Song (3:13)
5. Notes On Boredom (4:11)
6. Excuses (4:54)
7. Witness (4:28)
8. Money (4:44)
9. Sunglasses (3:55)
10. Honey Jar (5:02)
11. Too Late (3:17)
12. Slow Explosion (4:30)