Taylor Dallas Vidic's "Cat and Mouse" Is Two Records in One, and Both Are Juneau
Some debut albums arrive; this one unfolds like a scrapbook someone kept for a decade. Taylor Dallas Vidic — born, raised, and, in her words, "still breathing" in Juneau — released "Cat and Mouse" in April 2026, and it's built as a deliberate split: the Cat side is jazzy, big-band, dressed-up; the Mouse side is stripped down, folky, sparsely instrumented. One artist, two rooms. If you've watched Vidic move between big bands, Motown groups, and singer-songwriter bills around town, the format isn't a gimmick — it's an honest map of how she actually works.
The record's backstory is its own argument for how Juneau makes musicians. Vidic built it with support from a Rasmuson Individual Artist Award and 267 Kickstarter backers, and told KTOO in March that some songs date back to her early 20s — "Muse," the oldest, written at 20 after a night at the Rendezvous. The Cat half was largely arranged by Spencer Edgers, whose horn charts turn her lyrics into what she called a "jazz instrument conversation" on the standout "High." Her first single, "Trash Birds," is already streaming.
What makes "Cat and Mouse" land isn't the concept — it's that both halves are unmistakably about here. Vidic has described the songs as chronicling "falling in and out of love in your 20s, in small communities, in a bizarre state where you will continue to have relationships with these people." That's not a metaphor in Juneau. When you can't drive away from anyone, when the person a song is about is going to be at the same three bars this weekend, heartbreak becomes a civic skill. The album is a study in navigating that — thoughtfully, lovingly, and with a great trumpet solo.
It also doubles as a thesis on scene economics. A Rasmuson grant plus a crowd of 267 neighbors is how ambitious records get made in a town with no label infrastructure and no cheap way out. Vidic put it plainly to KTOO: her career is "what can happen when a community invests in a young artist." "Cat and Mouse" is that investment pressed to vinyl — special-edition vinyl, in fact, with the dedication hidden inside the gatefold.
You'll have chances to hear it live: Vidic is among the performers billed for the inaugural Southeast Summerfest concert on Aug. 15. But the album stands on its own two feet, or its own two sides. Start with Cat if you want to dance, Mouse if you want to feel found out. Either way, you're hearing a specific young musician and the specific small city that raised her, refusing to be simplified into one genre. Buy the vinyl. Read the dedication.
Sources: Taylor Dallas Vidic's first album (KTOO, Mar 9, 2026); Taylor Dallas Vidic on Bandcamp; Southeast Summerfest (Juneau Empire, Aug 2, 2026)