Bio
There's a lot of sweet, lovely, delicate female singer songwriters around.
Then there's Sofie Reed.
Reed's music is soulful, aware, and truth-seeking, but it's definitely not delicate. Her songs are moving and beautiful in the mode of looming mountains and churning oceans. There is nothing fragile about them.
Her signature song, "Funky Rattle" begins with a blast of blues harp and quickly transitions into a blues stomp —literally. The only other instrument aside from Reed's sinewy voice and harmonica is her feet stomping. "I don't do no funky rattles," she sings, "I prefer me one good drum." Even the breaths she takes into the microphone before bursts of harmonica resonate with musical backbone.
Raised in Ludvika, Sweden by parents who played jazz into the night, Reed abandoned theatre school at the last possible second to do what she really wanted. To pursue a living making music.
The grit and emotion of American blues was the music that inspired her most, so she headed for the States, ending up Minneapolis. Although at odds with America's oddly uptight attitudes on issues like nudity and religion, Reed quickly felt at home with the wide open spirt of the country and decided to stay awhile, picking up her first industry job, singing backup for Sheila Charles, daughter of Ray Charles. Seemingly born with a fashion sense, Reed also worked as Charles' stylist. Soon, she found herself at the hub of the professional Twin Cities music scene, picking up continuous session work at Prince's Paisley Park Studios.
Meanwhile, she fell in love with guitarist Preston Reed and the two were married. But after 7 years, he moved to Scotland, while Reed kept writing songs and picking up new skills (blues harp playing). She recorded her first record "Baby Boo Got Gone", featuring 11 original tracks, the cd became a top-seller in the blues-folk category of CDBaby.com. It was the excitement of what she was able to achieve by herself in a song like Funky Rattle that inspired her to cut her next record without any other musicians.
"There's rhythm, peace and harmony in music.. I'm drawn by all that, so music is what I do and it's what I'm going to keep doing," said Reed while sipping coffee in the woods just outside her home in Colorado. An avowed fighter for nature, Reed supports her passion for music by working in the environmentalist community, most recently with Wild Dolphin Foundation.
Jerry Stifelman
