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Think of it as the photo album to the wedding that never was.

It’s a sonic collage of emotion, a collection of emotional snapshots that capture some of the most heartfelt moments in the young life of local singer-songwriter Christina Horn. Tonight, Horn and her bandmates in Hudson K will celebrate those songs — gathered together on the new CD “Safety Line” — with a show at World Grotto in downtown Knoxville.

It’s moody, atmospheric and tinged with melancholy, but “Safety Line” also represents a turning point because it captures a woman on the verge of seizing her destiny and forging a new path for her life.

“I’m really happy with ‘Safety Line,’ because it’s honestly where I was emotionally and musically at the time I recorded it,” Horn told The Daily Times this week. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to reproduce that same vibe again. The whole premise of the album was in making a huge life change. I was about to get married and settle down, and instead I broke off the engagement, sold the house, moved and decided to pursue music instead of teaching full-time.

“Really, all of the songs on it were as a direct result of me making those decisions. He and I had two different visions of what we wanted out of life, and I felt like I had been lying to myself throughout that whole time. I was not really doing what I wanted to do. I wasn’t following my heart, and so I blamed it on my situation and my relationship until I realized it was always in my hands to make that change and take that jump.”

Repeated listenings to “Safety Line” are proof that it was a successful leap. Horn has come far from the days as an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, where she obtained a degree in solo piano repertoire and immersed herself in a background of classical music. Funny thing is, she said, the impetus to pursue such a degree came from a childhood love of pop and rock.

“I studied classical as just a means to play the piano well enough to do something with it,” she said. “Classical music was not my original intent; I just got sidelined. But then I realized that was all I was doing — I hadn’t forgotten what I originally intended to do; I just hadn’t made the time to do it.”

In 2005, Horn began experimenting with songwriting and attempted to incorporate her original material into her particular style of playing. She drew on her childhood inspirations — radio-friendly pop-rock she listened to as a kid; her parents’ music; and songs that spoke to her on an emotional level.

“It’s not always the piano players who influence me the most; it’s people like (singer-songwriter) Jeff Buckley who have had a tremendous impact on me emotionally,” she said. “I have to say that I played the trumpet first, but that was somewhat limiting, because I couldn’t sing and play at the same time. That was my initial interest in the piano, to get away from that and into something that had the ability to play more parts.”

Initial exposure to Hudson K calls to mind piano-playing singer-songwriter Tori Amos, who’s definitely an influence, Horn said, but not the only performer from whose style she draws. P.J. Harvey is another female performer she cites as having influenced her heavily over the years, as well as Chan Marshall, also known as the singer-songwriter Cat Power.

Shortly after moving away from strictly classical, Horn joined her Hudson K bandmate Nate Barrett in Telescope, a roots-rock/experimental pop outfit fronted by singer-songwriter Matt Urmy. After Urmy left the band to pursue other interests, Horn and Barrett attempted to keep the band going but ended up moving in a different direction altogether.

“I started writing seriously, and I decided I wanted to record solo piano and voice,” Horn said. “Laura (Bost) was the production engineer for my record, and she started adding harmonies on some of the backup tracks, and I thought it sounded perfect. I asked her to join the band, and it was kind of history from there.”

(Incidentally, the band’s name was the product of audience members’ suggestions during a show at Stir Fry Cafe in Turkey Creek — one patron suggested Hudson, because of Horn’s connections to the Hudson Valley area of New York and Connecticut, where she was raised, and another simply said, “K.” The musicians combined the two out of a lack of anything better, she said.)

As an album, “Safety Line” is very much Horn’s vision. It builds with a subtle melancholy, the piano wandering down dark avenues and rain-soaked streets behind her vocals, which call to mind a variety of female singers — Fiona Apple, Cat Power and Natalie Merchant, just to name a few. Bost adds gorgeous harmonies, while Barrett’s minimalist percussion work helping to weave a tapestry of swirling emotion. The album builds to a hopeful summit on “In Line,” a song exquisite in its poetic urgency, like the sun’s demand to break through clouds after a storm.
As good as “Safety Line” is, however, it’s only the first step in Hudson K’s journey, Horn said.

“Laura is a phenomenal songwriter, and the songs we do of hers definitely have a different feel — more folky and Billie Holliday-sounding,” Horn said. “We’re developing stronger three-part harmonies, and Laura plays electric and slide guitar that’s a part of our live show but didn’t make it onto the album. And Nate isn’t on the album quite as much as I would have liked him to have been, but right now, we almost have enough new material between the three of us to record a second album.”