Soul HitchHiker's KARAN ANDREA:
Originally from Kentucky, Andrea migrated north to Buffalo from the Southern states and is heavily influenced by the raw power of Southern music: R&B, gospel, blues, country, and bluegrass. She is partial to the sounds of Memphis, from early Sun Records rockabilly, to Stax/Volt soul. However, she is also a self-proclaimed ‘prisoner of rock ‘n’ roll’: Equally present in her own work is the influence of rock from various periods...

Soul HitchHiker has taken various forms with various personnel; however, the newest incarnation is one that Karan believes will prove to be the most inspiring. She has teamed up with Ed Supple - a Niagara Falls native who is a formidable guitar player, songwriter and arranger. He has done a great deal of session work in LA and Nashville.

"The problem I ran into with my music is that I work from a broad pallet - much broader than anyone else I have worked with, outside of Mike Amico who arranged my CD. So finding a player who can handle the stuff I throw at him has been extremely difficult. A lot of players really don't like being challenged, but to me that's what sparks the creativity. And I really like working 'over my head.' I'd rather be the one who has to work the hardest because that 's the way I get better as a person and as a musician. When I first met Ed, we had a 3-hour conversation about music that left me absolutely breathless. I knew that I could learn so much from him just in conversation.

"We didn't decide to work together musically right away, but we always kept the possibility open. When the timing was right, we started pushing a few things around and all of a sudden we'd written a song together. I try not to think about the caliber of people he's worked with previously in LA and Nashville - but he's a consummate player in any style, on anything that has strings. Beyond that, he is a terrific arranger, which is a completely different skill. Good players are not always good arrangers. And he's a walking, freaking dictionary of music, so all I have to do is say, 'OK on this I hear a Phil Spector-like texture channeled through a rock & roll attitude.' And he slams it out. Or he'll get this funny look on his face and then come up with this guitar part that I would have never thought of, but it's perfect. This is the true partnership I have been searching for - he's not my guitar player, and I'm not his singer - we're creating together, so this is gonna be fun!"