I’m visiting my dad in California on the beach!

Okay here i am in Oceanside California with my little girl visiting my dad Kent Harris. He hasn’t aged a bit from 18 months ago. I guess i expected him too because he is 78 years old. But he hasn’t - glad to know I have good genes. heheheh. The sun is shining but its been overcast for two days. Haven’t been laying on the beach as a result. But in the last couple of hours the sun has broken free, i hope that means that tomorrow which is Independence day we will have some sunshine. We are all going down to the Oceanside county fair which Ty is so excited about. one of my nephews is here with my kid brother who are both 17 and really lovely boys. I hope they come out to London next summer. my twin bro is coming with his wife and baby daughter and so are a couple of other family members so its going to be really special. Fireworks and everything.

I left my bikini in London which means i’ll have to go nude. hehehe.

Looks like we are heading to L.A in about a week to hang with the guys. That would be five of my brother’s and a couple of guys that I was a kid with. Should be a blast! Also Sallie and Katherine so blast off its all going off!

I should have some adventures to share over this long holiday so those of you having a look at my blog stay tuned!

Celibacy too this holiday…… ah its worth it!!

Love Karime 

computer, cleethorpes, and Mark Lamarr!

Well firstly the reason i haven’t been blogging is because my computers hard drive gave up the ghost. that really sucks because it’s a Mac and its suppose to be better than PC’s, so my friends told me. I had to buy an external hard drive to save all my stuff so Apple told me. it was under warranty having only been purchased in january last year but they still managed to get £100 quid out of me. But i am going to make a complaint to get my money back, the bastards.

On June 7th we performed at Cleethorpes Northern Soul weekender to  a thousand people! Performing my parents songs, it was awesome and emotional at the same time. I felt like mom was with me spiritually. I met some really wonderful people that are fans of moms voice and fans of the songs dad wrote for her. To be performing and watching the people sing along was so surreal. I felt like I had arrived. I wouldn’t have changed a thing about the performance. One thing i have learned about northerners in that scene is that they are loyal and appreciative and wear their hearts on their sleeves. In the south it’s different. Londoner’s seem to be more self conscious like caring who is watching them. I kind of feel more like a Northerner because i have always been that way, like if i see a famous person i have to say something cause I’m a fan. To each his own. Whoa Cleethorpes!

Yesterday we performed at BBC 2 Radio on the Mark Lamarr’s show called God’s Jukebox. It was also awesome. What an amazing experience to perform like that. The space is big like a 300 capacity space. there is a grand piano on one side of the room which Jessica Lauren warmed her fingers up on. Actually so did Nick, Verge, and Stephen. I didn’t dare do that. But i did lay on it and take a photo looking rather hott. should be on the gallery page soon. So, we were spread out which was weird because i am use to being right up close to everybody, usually ducking the guitar or bass. We had to wear headphones when we played which initially everybody thought would be weird but the thing is that it wasn’t because it meant we could really hear each other like being in a session. It was really pro and Mike the engineer was well impressed with us so Mark Lamarr said when he phoned me last night. We played like we were hungry, with every bit of our passion for what we do. And the wonderful thing is that that was just it. We are hungry for this, we want it and nothing is going to stop us. We are going for it big time. Breakin Bread records will be releasing a double A side on us this autumn. So stay tuned for details on that. Mark Lamarr goes out this friday night at midnight! and if you miss it you can catch up for a week on BBC Live online. So check it. Please.

Virgil and Jen are getting married today! I hope the weather breaks. Then it’s Stephen and Susan’s turn in November! whose next?

Stay tuned!

love kk

cyber nut here!

Here I am sitting in front of the computer feeling like a cyber nut. Do you know what i mean? its like we are all apart of the fast moving cyber world where not being connected is almost a crime. I check in throughout the day and evening on the various sites I’m on and feel if i miss a day then its a crime. But I can’t help it cause its how things are now.

do you ever get a bit panicky when you leave your mobile at home and can’t go back. It’s like i forgot what it was like before it was compulsory to carry a mobile. Or is it compulsory? I dunno. I rush around most days getting loads done usually on foot, bus or the tube and when i get home i feel as though i could do more. So now here i am exhausted from a day that started at 8am with me checking in online, listening to my parents music i have to master for a tribute performance in June, then heading out the door for a doctors appointment for 11:15 waited in the waiting area for half an hour, then rushed off to paddington to the breast clinic which is stressful in itself. My mother died of breast cancer so i go in for screening every year. I was a week to early for the appointment so  on one hand it was a wasted trip but on the other it was the right thing to do. Women we must check our breast. Anyway from there headed back to Ladbroke Grove to pick up garments I am wearing for a photo shoot, then jumped on a bus and went into sainsburys to stock up. I dropped the grocery’s off and had an hour to chill before picking up my little girl from nursery. Phew! Not able to just chill what did i do, I went online to check in. Ugh…i can’t help it.  The day was in no way done. before i left, i had to pack a snack bag and my little girls ballet outfit. I picked her up 10 minutes late, but i was greeted by two fabulous pictures she made for me and she got huggs and kisses. Then we jetted off to Woolworths and then to ballet! Fooking ‘ell no wonder I’m exhausted. I still have to read a few books to her before bed, then I have some me time. But this time I am goin’ to chill…well maybe i’ll check in one last time before bed.

A day in the life of a nice diva.

New tunes!

I haven’t been blogging for a minute cause I have been writing the new album with the guys, It’s so exciting to be recording fun and funky soulful material. I have sang in different genres but this is where i belong. I remember years ago talking to Gilles Peterson and and him asking me where i wanted to be in terms of music and i said I want to be like the greats- like singer Betty Davis, Tina Turner, and Millie Jackson but then i didn’t know how to get there. That has all changed because of a chance meeting with Verge our amazing drummer. One by one I met the guys when we were working on music in Verge’s messy bedroom when he and Nick, our guitarist, were roommates. Kez, then Henry and then Stephen all lined up when it was time to take the Killer Meters live. We were a tribute band of the Meters,  but now we are doing our own tunes as well and its awesome and what is even more awesome it that the audience no matter where we are playing party hard! Athens showed us how great it can be. So we are putting our heads down and doing it. New tunes on the way everybody. 

love Karime Kendra

Mariah Carey

I am at home chilling on a sunday night. My little girl is at her dad’s so i got a night off. I was going to go to Passing Clouds but really its cold outside and I am not in the mood to travel out east. So what I am doing is watching MTV Base featuring Mariah Carey greatest hits. They had a concert she did last year and lets face it she can fookin sing! She has had a bit of cosmetic surgery but who wouldn’t with all that cash. Right now the Honey video is on and i really like that song. Its when she let herself embrace her blackness and then got boobs. Actually come to think of it when she got divorced from Tommy Matola who made her a super diva, is when she really let the world know she was a black woman. THe only thing is she seemed to also find her freaky side with a bunch of madd rappers. Bad mistake because then came all the barely there dresses on the red carpet which my girl Victoria Wilson James reminded me of. Oh well to each there own, when you got it like Mariah the world is your oyster. Go on Girl get your freak on!

Love karime kendra

In Stereo

My days are usually hustle and bustle constantly running here and there. Today was not different except for one thing. While listening to my IPOD I was thrust into a very deep experience I didn’t expect. My mom was singing in my left ear. No, not losing my mind, let me explain. See like i mentioned I gotta learn my moms tunes for Northern Soul weekender well one of the songs came on and it was in stereo. So my mom is in my left ear and the band in the right. It was like she was singing to me. I was shaken to the core with emotion. Imagine not hearing your mom singing around the house for 25 years and then you hear her directly i

your ear as if she is singing to you. By the time i got up to my flat I was crying uncontrollably. Luckily Ed, my daughters dad, my ex-hubby was there so I wasn’t alone to deal with that moment. My little girl was shocked to see mommy crying and Ed just gave me a big hug and listened once i got my composure together. I must say I am happy within myself but the loss of a parent is the hardest to endure and although I have closure it still never amazes me how i cry as though it were yesterday. I miss her so much some days but I know I’ll see her again. And hey at least I have her music which is her legacy. I’m lucky to have had such a talented mother. Tears are dry now and the day is not done because i am a mommy not just a funky diva. Well thanks for reading and i’ll keep blogging. Till another moment. Ciao for now. Love Karime Kendra 

My late mother’s songs

I was asked recently to perform with the band at Cleethorpes Northern Soul weekender. I will be singing the songs my mother recorded and is famous for. My father wrote the songs years ago and produced and composed them. As you can imagine it is an honour to sing 6 of your parents recordings. My mother died back in the 80’s but i remember some of the songs as a little girl and i remember singing them around the house with her and dancing on her feet as she held me up. so tonight i have been writing the lyrics out cause that is the way i’ll remember them. One of her big songs was “lighten up baby”. When i listen to her sings these lyrics my father penned I can’t help but feel he is speaking to her and asking her to stay. she left him when i was really little but he never got over her and he never really settled with anyone else or rather gave over his heart to anyone else. They continued to work together up until she died. He didn’t go to the funeral and when i asked him why. He answered he didn’t want to remember her like that. he wanted to only remember how they were. That is special. so when I sing those very special songs I will sing them from my heart and hope he will be able to feel her love in his all the way to Oceanside California. My parents were both very special people. His name is Kent Harris and hers was Ty Karim check them out when u have a moment. Or come hear us sing at Cleethorpes Northern Soul Weekender on June 7th.love karime Kendra