A couple of cool things

A couple of cool things going on right now in my little music world. First of all, I am thrilled to have been invited to play at the 30A Music Festival this coming January. It's a weekend filled with music on the beautiful NW coast of Florida. This year the line up is amazing. 150 performers at over 25 venues throughout the weekend of Jan.17-19 including RICHARD THOMPSON, ANI DIFRANCO, LOUDEN WAINWRIGHT III, DON DIXON, MARTI JONES, MATTHEW SWEET, SHAWN MULLINS, TEDDY THOMPSON, MARY GAUTHIER, MARSHALL CRENSHAW, ALLISON MOORER, GRANT-LEE PHILLIPS and MANY MORE. Including me! I still can't quite conceal my delight. At any rate I have already started rehearsing and getting my callouses on. The only thing left to figure out is....what to wear..... If you think a nice, mild weekend on the Florida coast filled with music and food and wine is for you--PLEASE COME! Here is a link to all the festivities. Did I mention that I am THRILLED?!!!!!

 Also, I am happy to say I have a track on the new disc, DEL SHANNON TRIBUTE: SONGWRITER VOL.1, out on RockBeat Records November 19th!! Again I am in amazing musical company, all of us trying to show our respects to Del as the excellent songwriter that he was. I am triple psyched to be on this for many personal reasons, one of which is because Del was a very good friend to me and has DEFINITELY affected my life in many positive ways. I miss him so much. The record is a wonderful, eclectic mix of Del's work, hand-picked by various musicians that just wanted to pay tribute to an excellent and sometimes under appreciated songwriter. Known mostly for his powerful voice and incredible guitar playing, his songwriting was sometimes a little lost in the shadows. We attempt here to shine a light on his wonderful words. Here is a link with the full track listing and details.

 I am currently in the studio writing and recording songs for myself as usual. I am also writing and putting together production ideas for Marti Jones next musical project, YOU'RE NOT THE BOSSA ME, a bossa flavored record of original songs. Don Dixon asked me to co-produce it with him and I couldn't say "YES" fast enough. It's first for me to be producing and writing specifically for someone other than myself. The fact the the "someone" in this case is Marti is just awesome. There are no two musicians I respect any more than I do Don Dixon and Marti Jones. I am pinching myself and hoping I never wake up from this dream!

Damn! I should have kept my eye on the potato. Things never turn out like I expect them to. Sometimes things turn out better than I'd imagined...sometimes they turn out worse...but they never, EVER turn out exactly how I'd imagined them to be. For example, in my wildest dreams, I would never have suspected the lowly potato to be my biggest competion as a musician. But it is true. A few days ago I posted a video for a song of mine called "Sugar On The Floor" on my facebook page. Now the video is nothing to write home about, and it wasn't the first time I'd posted it, but the song itself is something that took a lot of time and energy to think about, write and record. I also had help from a few other people who poured their precious musical energy into the making of that little 3 minutes of sonic joy. At the same time, I posted a funny little picture of a heart-shaped potato that had just happened to fall out of the sack in my kitchen cupboard. This is where I made my big mistake. The next morning I noticed that the potato had received much more attention than the song. Don't get me wrong, I love my potato, but it slightly depressed me that my potato garnered more observation and commentary than my song. I mentioned my slight agitation with this fact to my husband Dan. He looked at me and calmly gave me the perfect reply.."Well, Kelley, you've just got to find a way to beat the potato". Beat the potato. Not the reply I was expecting. Beat the freaking potato. He was right! Never in my wildest dreams as a 12 year old, guitar slinging, tom-boy girl did I expect to run up against such a powerful stumbling block in my musical expression. I was positive that it would be because there are many, MANY more talented and hard-working musicians out there that can play and write circles around me, and THEY would deserve to be heard more than me. Forget my 12 year old convictions, I still thought it to be true until this morning when I realized that the biggest hurdle to my songs being heard had NOTHING to do with musical ability, but was due to a tiny root vegetable hiding in my kitchen cupboard in a bag covered in dirt. It's my own fault for posting Mr. Potato Heart. He is a cute little spud. But the next time any one asks me, "What advice would you give to young, blossoming songwriters today?", I would simply reply, "Do it for the love. Be true to yourself. Practice. Listen. And, most of all, beware of the potato".

Some Angel

Whenever I hang out with Marti, I almost always wind up with an idea for a song, or she for a painting. It’s pretty much how we operate on our own anyway, and when we get together it seems to magnify. We don’t live close to one another so we end up traveling a lot in an effort to stay in touch. “Some Angel” is about the purest collaboration we have ever had on a song in my opinion. I love it so much I opened & closed my CD COCKTAILS with it. We took our time and really tried to get it right. This video is compiled from snippets from my camera over the last few years. We DO work hard, but as you can see here, sometimes you just gotta let loose and paint the town red. Just let all the heavy stuff that you deal with day to day fall away, and exist in the moment. And laugh. And cry. In other words…it’s just healthy to occasionally set one’s inner AB FAB free! To Patsy and Eddie…CHEERS!