Irene Kelley in Concert
Venue: Floyd Country Store, Floyd
Organizations: Irene Kelley
Date: Saturday, August 10, 2019
Time: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
Event Types: Music
Cost:

Description:
Floyd Country Store presents Irene Kelley in concert on Saturday, August 10, 2019.

Irene Kelley’s love for country music runs deep. She remembers hearing it for the first time in her dad’s basement TV repair workshop as a young girl. That music in her family home resonated in her soul, so when Irene started writing songs on her own, she already had a head start. At 15, she began her journey as a professional musician in a rock band, but when she brought a Dolly Parton album to band rehearsal one day, she was fired on the spot. It was, perhaps, the best thing that could have happened to her.

Fast forward to 1981 when Jerry Williamson asked her to move to Huntington, West Virginia to join the bluegrass band Redwing. She found herself fronting the band as the lead singer and playing some pretty big festivals, not the least of which were Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom and Tarheal Festivals and the Carter Family Homeplace in Bristol, Virginia.

When Irene Kelley left her native Pennsylvania to move to Nashville in 1984, she brought along her guitar, a handful of original material and a love for traditional and bluegrass music. She was signed to MCA Nashville’s country division and was adamant about having Carl Jackson, Sam Bush, Mark O’Connor and other bluegrass musicians join her on her first recording project. As she puts it, “The record was country, but the heart and soul was bluegrass.” This was at a time when bluegrass instrumentation had fallen out of favor along Nashville’s Music Row, so Irene concentrated on the songwriting that exposed her music to millions through hits like “A Little Bluer Than That,” for Alan Jackson, as well as songs performed and recorded by Ricky Skaggs & Sharon White, Loretta Lynn and Trisha Yearwood.

More than three decades later, Irene has assumed her place in a long line of great American songwriters. Of her musical influences, she says: “Jean Ritchie’s songwriting to me was so amazing, especially for someone just learning to write. Some of my other early favorites were Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard, Rodney Crowell, Pete Goble, Greg Allman and, of course, always Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.”

Links:

• https://www.irenekelley.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/IreneKelley615
• https://www.twitter.com/IreneKelley615
• https://www.instagram.com/irenekelleymusic/

Tickets are $12.00 in advance and $15.00 at the door. To purchase tickets online, visit: https://www.floydcountrystore.com/event/irene-kelley-live-2019-08-10.

For more information, visit: http://www.floydcountrystore.com or https://www.facebook.com/floydcountrystore or call 540-745-4563.