Kismet

Texas-born, South Dakota raised Ginger Mackenzie's music is warm, intriguing and rich with textures. Her pop musical education began one Christmas Day when she received a stereo as a gift. This marked the start of Ginger's habit of buying one record a week from the small town drugstore. She would learn each album end to end and this became her musical self-education. Ginger took home Patsy Cline, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Billy Holiday, big bands, Steely Dan, Kiss and the Beatles, among others. "I am lucky that the drugstore owner had great taste, I did not know what the popular music was, I bought what he sold, there was only one radio station that did not play country music and no cable TV." says Ginger. "He would tell me The Beatles, all the kids are listening to the Beatles. "It was not until I was much older did I realize that most of the kids at that time were listening to Madonna and Wham. At 16, with her parents in the middle of a divorce, Ginger felt her spirit was being confined by Small town life, so she boarded a Greyhound bus to Texas, and moved in with her aunt and finished high school. She lived the life of an artist by night, and worked within the music industry by day. She began singing professionally with a variety of bands, acting in the theater, and working as a disc jockey. Ginger eventually built a successful career in radio promotion for major labels at a very young age, running an entire department at 22, but this was not the career that could fulfill the needs of her spirit. Finally after moving to Austin, the creative surroundings of life in this creative city gave Ginger the support and focus she needed to write and play full time. In 1997 Ginger Mackenzie recorded her debut solo album for her own label, Earthnoise records, Earthbound, a bright mosaic of original songs, sold over 5,000 copies in Austin alone. Since Earthbound was mainly acoustic guitar and vocal, Ginger, who had support form Atlantic Records by this time decided to record five fresh songs and remix five songs from Earthbound to create Kismet. Kismet, another word for destiny, was released in March, 2000. The lead track, "The Garden of You and I", garnered airplay on numerous hot AC and AAA stations across the country, including over 1000 spins on Austin's Mix 94.7. Since the release of Kismet, the record has sold nearly 20,000 copies. Ginger was named MP3.com's pop/rock artist of 1999, developing a fan base worldwide. She went on to #1 worldwide on MP3.com in 1999 out of 300,000 songs and 100,000 artists. Songs from Kismet were also featured twice on NBC's hit show Providence, the Miramax film and soundtrack, Down To You and ABC's That's Life. In addition to becoming a respected musician, Ginger has become valued member of the Austin community as celebrity spokeswoman for Aids Walk Austin, a supporter and spokeswomen of Girlstart, dedicated to encouraging young girls to be excited about technology, math and science. She is also an advocate of Safe Place and The Faith Home. Ginger's goal is not only to take her music to the world, but also to be a good role model. With such boundless energy, undeniable songwriting talent and unique style. Ginger is sure to be a force in the music business for years to come.