Wisdom comes with age. Professionalism comes with experience. But, natural talent cannot be gotten through age and/or experience. Rather, it flows from within. Katharine Whalen has shown such an ability in her debut album, entitled "Katharine Whalen's Jazz Squad," where she takes command of her talent, and the end-product is nothing short of passionate and inspired recordings.

Katharine Whalen is a member of Squirrel Nut Zippers. Until just six short years ago, she had never had any kind of musical training. It was when she met her (then boyfriend) husband James (Jimbo) Mathus that she began to take interest in music, not just for listening and enjoyment, but for actually performing the music. She began to take banjo lessons from Jimbo and secretly practiced singing in her car. Eventually, they founded Squirrel Nut Zippers in 1993 and, as we all know today, the rest was history!

"Katharine Whalen's Jazz Squad" consists of classic jazz songs from the first half of the 20th century, as well as an original instrumental piece, entitled "Badisma", written by Jimbo Mathus. The album takes a romantic theme. From discovering love ("Deed I do") to reminiscing about an old love ("That Old Feeling,") Katharine takes us into the heart of every person, young and old, who has ever been in love. So, I welcome her honest ambition with an unbiased perspective and expect nothing less than continued growth from her in her pursuit of jazz music performance.