Americana Alt.Country CD Reviews

Kelley Hunt
'The Beautiful Bones'
(88 Records, 2014)
www.kelleyhunt.com

Kelley's BIO:

In some ways Lawrence, Kansas based Roots R&B / Americana singer-songwriter / piano player / guitarist KELLEY HUNT is a rarity and a challenge to the music industry's penchant for easy artist definitions - a woman who has muscled her way onto the scene on her own terms with an identity steeped in blues / roots / gospel traditions and a refreshing originality. She makes music with it's righteous roots intact that also crosses boundaries, has an open-minded, exploratory attitude and takes on social and political issues. Together with a commanding, passionate stage presence and superior vocal, keyboard and songwriting skills she has earned the respect of critics and fans across North America and Europe.

Born in Kansas City, Kelley Hunt’s love for her craft was ignited listening to early blues, R&B, roots rock, jazz and Gospel influences - artists like Ruth Brown, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday, Ann Peebles, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Aretha Franklin, Charles Brown, Wanda Jackson and a cross section of the New Orleans / St. Louis / Kansas City piano traditions of Professor Longhair, Toots Washington, Johnnie Johnson and Kansas City masters Jay McShann and Mary Lou Williams among others. Before that came the sound of her mother singing jazz and blues - her first musical memories - and the influence of her New Orleans Gospel singer grandmother.

Reminders of these very traditional influences are evident in Kelley’s live performances and recordings but the lyrics, soul and passion are all her own. Her career path so far has been a story of fierce independence, incredible will, unassailable cred as a blistering live performer and hard-won accomplishment. That narrative includes 1500+ performances with appearances on a long list of premier North American and International festival stages, nearly 150,000 indie units sold on her own label and critical praise reflecting her conviction from the outset to make her path in the roots music world not just as a performer, but as a forward-thinking songwriter as well.

In 1998, Kelley's song "If I Don't Dance" from her debut album, was used in the film, 'Dance With Me'. Hunt made her debut as an actress in Bunker Hill (2008), where she also contributed music to the film's soundtrack.

She has variously performed at the Omaha Blues, Jazz, & Gospel Festival, Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival (2013), Memphis in May, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and Thursday at the Square. In addition, she has appeared six times on American Public Media's 'A Prairie Home Companion'.

Kelley's ALBUM:

Kelley Hunt’s new album, 'The Beautiful Bones', offers a dozen superbly crafted songs that blend timeless music with a contemporary perspective - drawing a bead on modern life with grace, humor and gravity through the earthy poetry of her lyrics. Those songs are buoyed by a performing style that balances Hunt’s virtuosity with the down-home Gospel, Soul and R&B that’s part of her DNA.

The title track is a perfect example of Hunt’s art, with its shimmering guitar and B-3 organ providing a gorgeously textured canvas for her haunting, soulful voice. And its storyline is an equally deep illustration of her multi-faceted writing, celebrating both the joy of life and its impermanence, while quietly reminding that the earth is a delicate and mortal place that must be tended to flourish. “That song was the key to the album’s identity”, Hunt explains. “I had already written most of the songs, and felt they were about the things that are important to us all as people, but "The Beautiful Bones" connected them. I was inspired by looking out my kitchen window while I was playing guitar and seeing the bare branches of a tree covered in snow, and I started to think about the layers we all have in our lives and the possibilities that come with each of them. Fifteen minutes later the song was done”.

The album repeatedly returns to pivotal moments, from the central question 'what will we do with this truth and these tears' asked in “The Beautiful Bones” to, in “Gates Of Eden,” the flash when a glance off the road nearly causes a cataclysmic accident to, in “Let It Rain,” the realization that - whether we know it or not - life truly does give us everything we need. “As human beings, we get so attached to the material world that we forget the most important things”, says Hunt. “The pivotal moments give us clarity. They help us understand that at the end of the day the only things we really have are our lives and our souls”.

Both heart and soul are in abundance on 'The Beautiful Bones', Kelley Hunt’s sixth album in her outstanding catalog and an evolutionary step in her songwriting and arranging. The set’s seamless integration of her influences - from the wooden-church-pew gospel of Mahalia Jackson that resonates in “Release And Be Free” to the classic Memphis soul of “The Sweet Goodbye” to the boogie-woogie of the Tea Party skewering “I’ve Got A Good Feeling” to the driving rhythm & blues anthem of self-realization “This Time” - captures Hunt at the apex of her skills, abetted in her performances by the A-team of session musicians she assembled in Nashville’s 16 Ton Studios.

Some of those players are already familiar to Hunt’s growing legion of fans. Drummer Bryan Owings played on 2011’s 'Gravity Loves You' and 2008’s 'Mercy', and has toured and recorded with Justin Townes Earle, Emmylou Harris, Delbert McClinton, Shelby Lynne and a host of other roots music legends. Veteran Hammond B3 player Mark Jordan (Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Taj Mahal) was a stalwart on both 'Mercy' and 'Gravity Loves You' and is a regular on Hunt’s live stage, and Detroit transplant bassist Tim Marks, who claims credits ranging from roots music stars and eminent singer songwriters to Taylor Swift, also had a previous role on 'Gravity Loves You'. The McCrary sisters, the three daughters of Sam McCrary, the founder of the historic gospel group the Fairfield Four, also appear, lending their angelic voices to three numbers. Regina McCrary is also a veteran of Bob Dylan’s touring band and sang on his album 'Shot Of Love'. Another former Dylan band member, John Jackson, is a new addition to Hunt’s studio ensemble. “He was a perfect fit, with that rare combination of chops, an authentic roots vocabulary and the ability to work right on the edge”, says Hunt. Typical of Hunt’s open-minded studio aesthetic, a slide guitar line Jackson improvised after the band played through “Golden Hour” for the first time quickly became the song’s bloodline, working as a foil for Hunt’s own New Orleans-style piano.

Hunt’s versatile keyboard and guitar playing provides the album’s own beautiful bones, connecting all its songs with the limitless architecture of her style. “My goal is to continually grow as an artist, and 'The Beautiful Bones' is part of that”, Hunt says. “I’m also aware that my music exists to serve other people, the way that the music of all the artists that I loved while I was growing up served me. Ultimately, that’s really what is most gratifying”.