The Yellow Umbrella Tour featuring Kaki King

Kaki King has never been one for convention. Her third album, ...Until We Felt Red , is certainly no exception. Over the last few years, she has enjoyed well-earned status as the zeit-girl of instrumental acoustic guitar; a gifted young ingénue closing rank on the canonized heroes of the genre. Now, with ...Until We Felt Red , she bests herself and defies expectation again—ditching her acoustic for an electric, lap steel and perhaps, the most unexpected instrument of all: her own voice.

For King, the choice was one of artistic necessity. “I love the guitar so much, but I found myself running up against the limitations of the solo acoustic sound. I knew that if I ever wanted to return to that style, I would have to take a break from it and travel a different direction for a while.” A bold move in the wake of the success of 2003's Everybody Loves You (Velour) and her 2004 breakout, Legs to Make Us Longer (Sony), an album that won her vast critical praise and landed her a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman and other late-night staples. But bold has always been King's way, from her first appearance at NYC's indie-rock proving ground, the Knitting Factory, where she jumped up onstage as a last-minute fill-in for a no-show performer, to her debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, where she coolly reeled off some of the most jaw-dropping guitar pyrotechnics ever seen on late-night TV.