Dave's Music #87 Introducing Kelsey Waldon
I'm so excited to see a musician I started following well before 2009 when I posted this on my old blog.
"I've known this cute girl from Kentucky for a while, Her name is Kelsey Waldon.
She's a 20-something, yr old from Barlow, KY, about 20 minutes outside of Paducah, KY; and she tried the Nasheville scene for about a year. I have a few of her songs from iTunes, she has a strong twangy folksy appeal. For someone so young, she has great old tastes in the Band, Dylan, and Melanie. She's always smiling, she's a good Christian girl, and I've always teased her that she's too cute."
Here are quotes she has on her MySpace site.
"Honest, pure and full of southern charm." - Isaac Chapman, drummer and MTSU student
"Crystal, clear voice and unique country sound" - Jack Montgomery, Java City - Western Kentucky University
"I absolutely love what you have done. I normally hate everything I hear (I'm a egregious music snob). It makes me happy." - Brandon, the Mother Superiors - Murfreesboro, TN
"One of the things I'm thankful for this year, is 'meeting' you :) You're amazing and talented, and I hope you reach your goals :)" - Jess, from Australia
"We never lie. You are REALLY, REALLY GOOD. Lyrically and musically precise." -Blind Ambition Music
"your music gets me really good every time.." -Aaron, from the Bowery Boys -San Diego, CA
"I tripped over your myspace page and when I got up, I noticed the wondrous beauty of your music." -Tommy, from Murray, KY
"I've been listening more intently to your words, like an ode from a girl of 20 with insight (Ballad for Modern Times) way beyond her age." - Mike from Split Pea/ce, Cleveland, Ohio
"I teach preschool and today one of my kids puked all over the place. And I thought of you." - Gina, from Memphis, TNThis is about as close of the time period I first met her in MySpace, love how she said she doesn't listen to modern country but to Emmylou & Johnny Cash... now tell me isn't she a sweetheart, and wrote old sounding songs.
While her ABOUT on the website is heavily on the new release, this is a great paragraph on her history:
Originally from the tiny rural town of Monkey’s Eyebrow, Waldon has long relied on music as a lifeline. “I’ve always used songwriting as a way to process the world around me and also process my own thoughts and feelings,” she says, naming classic country artists like Loretta Lynn, George Jones, and Merle Haggard among her early influences. “If I didn’t have the ability to put all that down on paper, I think I’d be pretty lost today.” After penning her first song as a small child—“My mom still has lyrics sheets I made when I was about nine, everything laid out in verse and chorus”—Waldon continued sharpening her craft and eventually left home for Nashville, where she further honed her chops by playing local bar gigs. Over the coming years, she put out a series of EPs before making her full-length debut with The Goldmine: a self-released 2014 effort that earned abundant praise from leading outlets like Rolling Stone, who hailed her as “Tammy Wynette on a trip to Whiskeytown.” Arriving in 2016, Waldon’s sophomore album I’ve Got a Way drew even more acclaim and appeared on such coveted year-end roundups as the Top 10 Favorite Albums Of 2016 list from Ken Tucker of NPR’s Fresh Air, with its lead single “All By Myself” featured on NPR’s Top 100 Songs of 2016 list. Several years later, she performed at the Grand Ole Opry with the likes of Sturgill Simpson and John Prine, who invited her to join the Oh Boy Records family while up onstage—making Waldon the label’s first new artist signing in 15 years. Co-produced with Dan Knobler (Allison Russell, Della Mae), White Noise/ White Lines delivered such standouts as “Kentucky, 1988,” which later topped Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Country and Americana Songs of 2019 list.
Here's John introducing Kelsey as the new addition to Oh Boy RecordsAfter I rediscovered her, I fell in love with this duet she put out with John. For some reason, they have the streaming turned off, but I really love having it.
Of course I'm expecting her to cover this infamous Prine song because she is from KY, wish she had these wonderful musicians with her.
Now sometimes I know I'll love a musicians music without owning everything they have; ultimately I do end up buying more after seeing them. So I put a playlist together of everything I own of Kelsey's for the two hour drive, and ended up running into AGAIN a song I bought on iTunes with an old account and password I've forgotten... frustrating, but I found the song on YouTube. Love the channel, B Sides and Obscure music. It's so obscure Kelsey doesn't have it on Apple Music to buy any more. Enjoy early Kelsey:
