I heard Kat Edmonson on NPR a few weeks ago and made it a point to suss out her site a bit. As a guy who caught Dar Williams playing for tips, received Jane Monheit’s first autograph (or so she wrote) and lead Imogen Heap to the ER 12 minutes after her first U.S. tour ended.

Then today, randomly (even by “Plastic Alto” standards) I was flipping thru the 2009 SXSW book — from more than three years ago — and tried to ring the number she listed therein, before she had Paradigm Agency, Mick Management and a very good publicist on her team.

It rang through and the voicemail sounded like her. We’ll report back if she responds. I didn’t remember she had such a powerful hookup, or would never had had the nerve to dial.

(I did this trick with Kip Berman a few months ago to no avail; I had rang Kip in March, 2009 because I liked the name of his band, and we spoke. But timing is every thing, right? Four other numbers I tried today from SXSW 2009 got me next to nothing).

Meanwhile, Kat used crowd-sourcing to raise $50,000 for her cd.

The above video is from SXSW a year ago.

I spent a month in Austin, in 2009, renting a little house in South Austin (there’s a difference), but have not been back since. So much for “offices in Palo Alto and S.Austin” as my cards said for a whiles).

Another funny thing that only a former editor of a high school newspaper would notice: Kat Edmonson is filed in the SXSW log as if her name were spelled “End” not “Ed” — not sure if that hampered her.

Nate Chinen lauds her “honey-flavored, light-gauge and slightly crinkly” voice. He actually said “honeyed, light-gauge and faintly crinkly” which is why he is where he is and I am here.

It’s been a long time since I got to check the “austistic” box, plus “words”.