Karen Blake began her singing career while studying at the
Athenian School in Northern California. Launched by the
sudden and unexpected applause of her classmates while
she was absent-mindedly singing along with a Joni Mitchell
song on the radio, Karen progressed quickly to weekend gigs
in Berkley CA playing guitar and singing with one
of her schoolteachers. Moving back to her stomping grounds,
Karen continued to sing all over LA with a trio called Souvenirs,
creating tight three-part harmony to Andrews Sisters songs and
other tunes from the 30's and 40's. During this time Karen began
singing songwriting demos for publishing companies, becoming
the singer of choice for many of LA's top songwriters.
It was during this time that Philip Giffin fell in love with Karen's
voice as he had the job of transcribing the music to these
songwriting demos that Karen was singing. Giffin immersed
himself in Karen's beautiful performances for over a year
before having the opportunity to finally meet the singer in
person. Soon after their introduction, Giffin not only became
Blake's producer, but her husband as well.
Karen's first album, "Just One Heart," was co-produced by
Philip Giffin and Kyle Lehning. She had the privilege of
working with such musicians as James Newton Howard,
Steve Lukathur, Peter Wolf, Dan Huff and Nathan East as
well as vocalists such as Christopher Cross, Karla Bonoff
and Wendy Waldman.
Karen pursued not only a solo career, but a sucessful studio
singing career as well. Some of her credits include:
Singing with Michael McDonald on Christopher Cross's
album "Rendezvous"
Singing with Kenny Edwards on Karla Bonoff's "New World"
Chris Hillman (of the "Byrds" ) "Like a Hurricane"
Larry Carlton "Christmas at my House"
Karen has diverse accomplishments singing on national jingles,
TV shows and movie scores. She has worked with a range of
composers including Randy Newman, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny
Elfman, Mike Post and the list goes on.
Some of Karen's TV and movies credits include:
The Simpson's
Family Ties
Star Trek
Cheers
LA Law
Strong Medicine
Boomtown
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
It's a Bug's Life
Beethoven's 3rd
Karen Blake's latest CD, "Small Potatoes," produced by
her husband, Philip Giffin, was a labor of love. When their
first child, Willa Grace, was born, they recognized that
there were few records that could be enjoyed by a child but
was also satisfying to the adult ear. "Small Potatoes" is a
wonderful and sophisticated compilation of songs about
unconditional love and hope. The sincerity, wisdom and
vocal clarity of this CD have won it immediate success. It
has sold out five times in Hear Music and was declared
the fastest selling CD in their "new discoveries" section.
"Dawson's Creek" featured one of the selections from
the CD, "Why Walk When You Can Fly," on an episode in
April, 2001, and Hilary Swank mentioned "Small Potatoes"
in "In Style" magazine describing it as a CD she "really
really loves".