Utah singer-songwriter Kate MacLeod's new record produced by Nashville pros

Thirty years ago, Kate MacLeod moved to Salt Lake City to study at the Violin-Making School of America.

So what was she doing playing guitar with Grammy-winning bluegrass and country musician Tim O'Brien in Nashville earlier this year?

MacLeod was recording her new contemporary folk album, "Blooming," a gorgeous, spellbinding album produced by the acclaimed O'Brien and played by a group of experienced Nashville session musicians that makes "Blooming" one of the best collections of songs made by a local musician in 2009.

The Salt Lake City-based MacLeod will celebrate the new Americana album with a record-release party this weekend at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center.

"Wow" was what MacLeod recalled

saying when O'Brien, an old but busy friend, agreed to produce her record using musicians he regularly works with. "They have a very wide experience with traditional as well as contemporary music," she said in an interview. "These guys are the specialists."

With MacLeod singing and on acoustic guitar, O'Brien not only produced but sang harmony vocals and played acoustic guitar, mandolin, bouzouki, banjo and fiddle on the album. He brought in Darrell Scott, Byron House and Kenny Malone, and they recorded the 12 songs in four days in a Nashville studio.

"I was quite impressed with her material," said O'Brien in an interview. "She's a real songwriter. It's part of her life. It's intrinsic to her being. It's a pure art form, what she does."

Classically trained in the violin, MacLeod grew up in Washington, D.C., before relocating to Utah to study at the Violin-Making School of America, where she ended up working for 10 years. She has since studied other musical genres, including traditional music of North America and the British Isles, lending her acoustic-driven music a taste of Celtic influence. With a multioctave voice reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, MacLeod has become an established solo musician woven

into the rich local tapestry in town; among other activities, she is an integral member of Red Rock Rondo, the sextet led by Phillip Bimstein that performed an award-winning Zion Canyon song cycle last year that was featured in a PBS documentary.

" 'Blooming' is such a great title for Kate's CD because there's a fresh, radiant quality to everything she does -- especially her music," said Bimstein. "Kate is a warm, wonderful songwriter. I love the way her melodies twine around her chord changes like graceful vines -- perfect vehicles for her searching lyrics full of memories and dreams. Kate has a generosity of spirit that shines right through."

"There is a certain grace that emanates from Kate when she performs," said Jeff Whiteley, producer of the local Excellence in the Community Series, which will present Red Rock Rondo on Nov. 14 at the Grand Theatre at Salt Lake Community College. "She might have been a dancer, maybe that's it; but on other levels, too, she seems physically and emotionally linked to the music she is playing. Through the Excellence concerts, I have seen her in different settings with different musicians and playing different styles of music, but always that note of authenticity and love for what she is doing comes through."

MacLeod got to know O'Brien when his sister Molly decided to perform some of MacLeod's songs. Impressed with her talent, he said, he told MacLeod that in the future he'd like to produce her.

That time came earlier this year. "I didn't have any trepidation because it can't hurt to ask," she said about calling O'Brien, who in 2005 won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album for "Fiddler's Green."

A bonus to enlisting O'Brien was getting to work with some of the best session musicians in Nashville. "I had never met them before," said MacLeod. "If Tim hadn't been in on it, they probably wouldn't have returned my calls." Scott has performed on songs by Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Randy Travis and Patty Loveless and has written songs performed by Suzy Bogguss, Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, Kathy Mattea and The Dixie Chicks, while House was nominated for Best Country Instrumental Performance at the 2005 Grammys. Malone has performed on albums by Béla Fleck and Alison Krauss.

Catch MacLeod at the record-release party because she will soon embark on a tour of the Midwest. But don't worry. She'll be back, because Washington, D.C., and Nashville are not her home.