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free EP download at www.katiewhyte.bandcamp.com (OR ORDER OF COMPACT DISK) Katie Whyte blends old-world songwriting techniques with modern-day anxieties, all couched in interesting arrangements which manage to compliment the vocal melodies without swamping them. The term 'songstress' is often used pejoratively to describe any female singer-songwriter who writes songs high on musical whimsy and low on insight. Joni Mitchell, for example, is not a 'songstress' and likewise, Katie Whyte shouldn't have this lazy term affixed to her name - at least as long as it suggests one who strums wistfully while saying very little. Performing a song about stage-fright in a live setting may appear to be a trendily meta exercise - but disregard for a moment the confident swing of the instrumentation and the non-wavering vocal delivery and focus on the lyrical content - Whyte writes songs of lost love, of no longer feeling sure-footed, of feeling ill at ease. Hitting the studio recently with ARIA-