Kathy Rimm

Pottsville Republican Herald - July 2010


It's Just Rock & Roll to Rimm
By Gina Tutko-Usalis
Published July 16, 2010
Riding around in the grocery store shopping cart, Kathy Rimm, at the age of 2, was singing the advertising jingles for all the products as her mother pushed her through the aisles. Playing 8-track tapes in his 1966 Mercury, her father exposed her to everything from Elvis to polkas.

And by the age of 8, Rimm had taught herself how to play piano; by age 13, the guitar and by age 18 was playing clubs.

"Nobody knew I was underage," she said.

Rimm mostly plays electric and acoustic guitar but also bass guitar, keyboards, mandolin and, on rare occasion, drums. She owns a lot of instruments but her favorites are two electric guitars - a homemade solid Koa Strat and a Schecter C1 Classic. She plays the Schecter most times in her cover band, Category 5.

Rimm, Tamaqua, said she doesn't want to be pigeonholed into a genre.

"I don't think I ever fit into one genre. I guess I am adult contemporary, but there's so much more to it. It's all just rock 'n' roll to me but with many layers, stratified like a sedimentary stone," she said.

She plays covers from Pink to Billie Holiday and writes original songs that she believes are sophicated and classy.

I caught some of Rimm's performance July 8 at the Tamaqua Area Chamber of Commerce free summer concert series at the Tamaqua Train Station, which had a nice turnout. Chamber member and fellow musician Jack Kulp announced Rimm and interacted with the crowd to hand out fliers and take photos.

Rock, blues, jazz, country, classical - Rimm listens to everything. She enjoys dusting off old Boston albums because the strong vocal harmonies are very appealing to her. Lately, she has been listening to Michele Malone, a blues-rock singer from the South and the latest Indigo Girls.

I asked Kathy who inspires her musically or otherwise.

"The Indigo Girls are huge inspirations, not just for their music but also for their political and environmental activism. Otherwise, I'd have to say Rosa Parks. She was an unlikely person to take a stand and fight for freedom. Also Julia Sugarbaker, Dixie Carter's character on the TV show 'Designing Woman' has inspired me immensely. Of course, she's fictitious, but I think of her as if she were a real person. Reassuring me that it is indeed right to stand up for my principles and not conform to society's decreasing quality of respect and morality," she said.

So does being a female in the music scene prove to be more difficult? Kathy said that in some ways, it's to her advantage.

"Most people have never seen a female that can play a guitar as good as the guys. They expect me to just strum a few chords. Then I start soloing and the heads turn," she said. "On the business end, being a female has made it more difficult. It seems that many club owners don't expect me to be able to drive a crowd all by myself all night. They'll say things like 'Do you have enough material to fill the night?' or 'Can you sing a whole show by yourself?' Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get booked. Hardly any place will sign a contract and there are a few owners out there who think it's OK to cut your pay if they want to," she said.

Rimm believes that since clubs are struggling to stay in business and can't afford to pay for live entertainment, they will book a DJ or karaoke because it is cheaper.

"That's the kind of thing that is killing the live music scene right now. Music has pretty much been how I make my living, it's all I know. Now, even with doing things on the side like fill-in work and teaching guitar lesson, I'm still barely getting by," she said.

Rimm doesn't care where she plays as long as people enjoy what she's playing.

"There is an upside and that is seeing the reaction of people. It doesn't matter if it's by playing originals or just by pouring out emotion into their favorite song. When they connect with your music as if you are singing just to them and they let the music consume them, later they thank you again and again for touching their hearts and souls. That's what it's all about," she said.

More information on Rimm can be found at www.KathyRimm.com or www.MySpace.com/listentokj

(Tutko-Usalis is creator of PAMusicScene.com)