"You sing like a nightingale." - Finnian, Spirit Store spectator, Dundalk, June 2007
'This isn't background music; it is too beautiful: this is art.'
-Amuze.me, November 2008
".an exceptional voice." - Stuart Bailie, BBC Radio Ulster, May 2008
"Her words are open and heartfelt, and melodies linger, creating a perfect balance of emotion and light." - Sentimentalist Magazine, NYC, Spring 2007
"Standing head and shoulders above any of her contemporaries, if there's any justice in the world it's only a matter of time before Austin commands a higher profile. . . [she] performs what can only be described as ethereal, heartfelt music in the Martha Wainwright or Joan As Police Woman vein."- Patric Baird, 24/7 (Belfast Telegraph), March 2007
'Rachel Austin has a magical ability to combine melody and emotion.'
-State Magazine, July 2008
"Your voice is something special." - an old guy, Rotterdam Bar, Belfast, April 2007
"A logical progression for a musician with a twisted, criminal mind." - Commissioner Gordon, Gotham City
Hi! I'm from Virginia & have been living for a lotta years in Belfast.
My parents were:
-New York implants in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I grew up listening to the echoes of music from neighbours' porches, yards and tent meetings.
At night:
-some neighbours used to stay up late playing fiddle, bass and banjo. (I'd drift into sleep with the music drifting in my window. Or up from the basement where my parents' band was practising.)
Besides singing up & down the hills as a kid, I've played in numerous pubs, clubs, coffee shops & concert halls in the US, Europe, the UK & Ireland
I've supported: Duke Special, Devon Sproule, Iain Archer, Declan O'Rourke, Juliet Turner, Eric Taylor, POD, The Believers, & Steve Forbert.
