Nancy Kelly
SHORT VERSION:
GENRE:
My live performances resonate with layers of Indie Folk with a smattering of Jazz whispers and haunting classical surprises.
PERFORMANCE
I've enjoyed playing my original tunes in local venues since 1998 - coffee houses, stores, art galleries, parks events and festivals. Now that the kids have grown I'm looking forward to gigging far and wide. As Walt Whitman says "Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free, the world before me..."
SONGWRITING
I've been honing my singer-songwriter craft since age 17. My very first song was about tea-drinking candlelight hours on the sultry Cape Cod shores of Massachusetts. Since then I've documented my life in songs, the subject matter reflecting the current phase I am in. I love painting 3-minute pictures of what I see, feel, love and yes, even an occasional ode to what I hate; after all life is the entire package, not merely the fine wrapping. However, I'm not quite ready to produce an album called "Ode to What I Hate" !
BAND
Currently playing solo but I'd gladly welcome a bass guitar player and a percussionist to my live performance. Please contact me if you are interested.
RECORDINGS
CDS:
A CHRISTMAS DREAM ~ 2006 Folk-Pop, Soft Rock
VESSEL OF GOLD ~ 2004 - Delicate Pop, Soft Rock
SIMPLE THINGS ~ 1998
ANCIENT PATH ~ 1998
The following projects were on cassette only (look for remixes of some of these songs on upcoming records):
SPRING COLOR ~ 1993
ORIGINAL ~ 1985
Nancy Kelly
LONG VERSION:
MY STYLE has seemed to evolve with my life phases but I eventually settled down into a folk nitch with my songwriting. It seems to blend my musical roots and the kind of music I like with the type of voice I have. Simplicity and honesty are at the heart of folk songs that evoke that sitting-on-the-porch type of feeling. More than ever, I want to convey that hominess with my songs and my aim is to let it come through more in my next recordings.
PERFORMING: I mainly perform in coffee houses, shops, art galleries and festivals in parks. I'm usually happiest out and about in the city soul or in a small town getting to know interesting people.
SONGWRITING: When I was 16 the idea and phrasing for "Your Voice" (which eventually ended up as track 9 on my Vessel CD) began to form. I was living in Klamath Falls, Oregon at the time and felt very close to God (even though he wasn't a integral part of my life at the time) surrounded by the elegant seasons of the Northwest.
My father retired from 30 years of the AirForce the next year so we migrated back to the East Coast where my parents are originally from. The inspiration of living on Cape Cod in Massachusetts was at the heart of all my first songs. Lots of beach walks then--and another beautiful backdrop for the creative gene that seemed to be emerging in me. So at age 17, I wrote my first fledgling but complete song, meager as it was, accompanying myself on the piano singing about tea-drinking candlelight hours. I remember the moonlight coming into the window illuminating the black and white keys.
Instead of giving you a song by song biography though, I'll just say that the years ticked by one by one, and I began to document my life in songs. Everything inspired me. Nature, my husband, the birth of my children, my children growing up, God, my house, my grandma's house, our ocean trips, my friends, the northend of town, the distant mountains, visiting the mountains. I guess it's my way of taking pictures. I never have been too preachy in my songs, having great causes and such. I guess it's because I really am more of a painter than one who rallies around a cause.
Painting isn't always about happiness and light however. There is a lot of pain in the world and to ignore it would be to live in lala land as my friend Sharon says. One of my favorite songwriter duos, Over the Rhine, puts it this way "Pain is our mother--she makes us recognise each other." Pain is often a point of reference for us. It's hard to be around someone who pretends they have no pain, because it makes you feel like you are somehow broken and unfixable. Some of what I write reflects my own layers of pain, what I am learning from it and how I process the pain other people feel.
My more recent writing forays reveal the secret of how to keep good friends, the funny rompings of our dogs, and a few more ways to tell my husband I love him; not to mention the process of letting go of my children so they can truly fly, saying goodbye to my oldest brothers who left this earth without my permission (the entire family is pretty upset about THAT), moving house, my garden, the ongoing spiritual journey of contending for my faith, the list goes on. My main concern is figuring out what to record next and how much to put on one cd. There may have to be 2 or 3. And if I could figure out how to do that without fundraising (i.e. hitting up my family and friends), THAT would be like Heaven to me. Ok, to be continued for sure but will keep you posted.
MY FIRST MEMORIES OF SINGING: I'm five years old swinging on the backyard swingset at early dusk and this little song 'I am with you always' is coming out of me like a chant. Or I am in the storage closet underneath the stairs singing 'Just as I am' alone in the dark. I really loved that song. My poor mother trying to find the little girl who discovers closets to sing in...
In the 4th grade I'm sitting at the dining room table working on an art project humming "Greensleeves" over and over. I really loved that song too and still do.
Also in 4th-6th grade, I used to harmonize with my best friend, Glenda. We sang at church, on the way to summer church camp, joined in on the singalongs at camp, and then sang all the new songs on the way home. Harmony seemed to come easily to me. It still does and makes me wish for other people to sing with. I didn't ask to be a solo artist but somehow the singer/songwriter in me outshines anything else I can do musically.
In high school I sang "Midnight at the Oasis" alot. Even though I listened to a plethora of other songs, this one I sang and learned on the piano. I'll never forget Maria Muldare and 'put your camel to bed'. I was also known to belt out a little Janis Joplin (depending on how free I felt at the time) and I especially thrilled to her version of Gershwin's 'Summertime', which revealed her long-time love affair with songs that came before her time particularly anything sung by Bessie Smith.
PIANO PLAYING: I began to learn piano in the 4th grade when my mother purchased a piano but only if I would promise to keep taking piano lessons till I graduated from high school, which I did. I had recitals and various teachers because we moved here and there (we were in the Air Force). My favorite teachers were Chris Olsen of Mountain Home, Grace Watkins of Falmouth Massachusetts, and an old jazz man, who's name illudes me, from Klamath Falls Oregon. He taught me jazz and blues chord progressions in 11th grade. I use alot of what he taught today. Back to Cape Cod again in 12th grade where I studied at the Cape Cod Conservatory of Music for a year. Then back West for the last time to Boise Idaho where I majoried in music performance at BSU till I quit and moved south to Dallas for a few years. Meanwhile I was writing songs that surfaced as epiphanies along the way. Some to roll the eyes at, but some to keep. Some to pass on to you.
RECORDINGS
COMPACT DISCS:
A CHRISTMAS DREAM ~ 2006
VESSEL OF GOLD ~ 2004
SIMPLE THINGS ~ 1998
ANCIENT PATH ~ 1998
CASSETTE TAPES:
I did these before CD Days
SPRING COLOR ~ 1993
ORIGINAL ~ 1985
Thanks for taking time to read how I came to be a singer/songwriter! If you are still reading this you've taken A LOT of time and I consider it an honor that you care enough to find out.
Bye for now and keep in touch,
Nancy K