Rachel Kate @Hang Fire 

RACHEL KATE Gillon describes herself as “a rainbow circus ninja dream catcher soul kite flying smiling river flower and a lover of all things people, music, and arts.” And if you know her, or have seen her perform—as a solo artist or with her now-defunct rock ‘n’ roll band, The Shaniqua Brown—you’re already thinking “Yep, that’s as good a description as any.” The Nashville native makes music that eludes easy categorization, but is easy to love.

“Who doesn’t want to jump around in a tutu, and roll around in their own spit, and wail at the top of their lungs?” Gillon says about those wacky Charleston-based band days. “That’s the best time. But I was thinking maybe I wanted to try something else.”

Something else turned out to be Rachel Kate With Love and Hate, a set of highly personal songs that straddle the fence between dark folk, alt/country, pop and blues (and there we go with the genre/label thing again). She is a powerhouse vocalist and, most definitely, a unique individual.

“I’m really, really proud of it,” she says about Love and Hate. “Especially for it being my first endeavor into something that’s mine. It’s scary and it’s exciting.”