February was a great month, and it was def. action packed full of crazy
shenanigans and stories to share, but I'll try not to babble on to much
for this entry. I have expierianced 77 degree weather this month, AND 10 inches of snow too...talk about whacky weather. This type of whether isn't suppossed to start till next month I thought right? Anyway, to catch up to speed on the past couple months I'll start with January.


I had a couple of amazing shows right at the end of January in
Asheville at The Grey Eagle and in Davidson at the college. The show I
did in Asheville was with The Lovell Sisters and The Duhks. We had a
great turn-out, and a super warm and enthusiastic crowd at that. The
Lovell Sisters warmed up the stage with an acoustic bluegrassy country
mix, and then myself and my band took to the stage and rocked it out
and sounded excellent of course. We had a lot of fun together up there,
and we had Tom Leiner join us again on electric, and if you haven't had
the chance to hear him with us yet, you should def. try to do it soon.
The Duhks took the stage after and were out of control of course and
set the stage on fire and had everyone on their feet dancing and
smiling and singing along. It's always such a treat when I get to play
with those guys and each time it only gets better.


The next day my band and I played in Davidson at Davidson College in
the student center. Another great turn-out, complete with my very own
band-aids who made posters and signs for me and everything reading:
"Kellin's Gellin" and "Kellin Rocks Our Earballs off". It was very
amusing, and very flattering and sweet. Truth be told, the two girls
who made the signs are friends/fans of mine who made me the exact same
signs about 3 years ago when they were in high school, and they decided
to bring the thrill back since I was now playing at their college 3
years later! They passed the signs around, and had their cute guy
friends hold them most of the time. Those boys owned the sign holding
task for sure too. I'm lucky to have such cool people in my audiences.


The last week of January, I had to motor my busy body straight to
Charlotte NC to begin working on Amerwrecka, the play I had been asked
to take part in for the month of February. I stayed with the director
and his family along with two of my other cast mates. From the moment I
walked in the door, one of my cast mates, Kevin Patrick Murphy and the
director/writer J.D Lewis were both already hard at work. I was super
nervous coming into it because I was coming into the rehearsals a
little late in the game due to all the gigs I had leading up to it.
However, once I was finally there, I was ready to work. We jumped
straight into the "blocking" and such for my part. Between the director
and my partner in the play, Murphy, I instantly felt at ease and
supported and all my nervousness began to ease a bit. To be honest, it
was kind of exciting facing this little fear of doing some acting
again. The cast was a group of very talented and warm-hearted people
who made the entire expieriance very memorable and fun. We did songs
from the 60's like Four Dead in Ohio, Woodstock, For What it's Worth,
The End, Deja Vu, Living For the City, etc. We had a live band to back
us up that was made up of some of Charlottes finest musicians, and they
truly helped bump the production up a few levels. It was a lot of fun
singing with those guys, and I had a lot of fun doing it.


One of the most amazing things happened to me while we were doing the
play. We did a total of 9 shows, and on our 6th show, after the show
was over, I saw my father, and a woman standing near the stage waiting
to talk to us. I learned that the woman was my characters best friend
and roommate from Kent State. She gave me unforgettable complements and
gave me such a wonderful sense of accomplishment that night by simply
being there and letting me know that our work on the production gave
meaning to the 4 senseless deaths that occurred in 1970 at Kent State.
To make the situation even more crazy, after speaking with her, I
learned she's from Flat Rock NC, which is only about 20min. outside of
Asheville! Talk about coincidence.


The last weekend of the production, I completely lost my voice!!! I had
one of the worst cases of laryngitis I've had in a really long time! It
was like a really bad dream coming true when I found myself in the
middle of trying to sing the opening song of Woodstock, and I could
barely get the notes out, and I sounded like a bad female version of
Joe Cocker in my mind, but everyone said it was fine. I screeched all
of my lines out, but by the end of the play, I found a range in my
voice where I could hold a flem free note for moments. I just
remembered all of the tricks I'd learned over the years and just
started doing crunches so to speak, while I sang the more demanding
parts...by the end of the night I was exhausted, but at least I was
able to get through it. I was super bummed I still had no voice on
closing night, however, I was able to control and manipulate my vocals
at least a little better than the night before on closing night, so all
was not lost in my over-critical mind. It was a really amazing time,
and I sincerely miss all of the people I spent the last month with.


While we were doing the play, my two roommates, Cher Ferreryra and Kevin
Patrick Murphy and I all became very close as we lived like we were at
summer camp. They both kept me laughing hysterically the whole time,
but they also helped me tremendously in some of my acting skills, and
truly made my month in every way. J.D Lewis's children are such cool
kids as well, and Cher and Murphy were so great with them. I ended up
nicknaming the two of them mom and dad because I def. wasn't much help
when it came to any type of disciplining or comedic relief for the kids
while babysitting.


I'm so grateful that I was able to meet and make new friends through this experience.


While I was living in Charlotte I played a few gigs of my own as well.
I played at Summit again, having Zach Blew open for me, and he was
amazing of course. Then I played with a full band at The Evening Muse
as well, and had a great turn out with great people there to show
support, which is always a blessing. The night after closing night of
our production, I played at The Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte
opening for The Nitty Gritty Dirt  Band. Magically, since I rested my
voice and invested in a little homeopathic cure for laryngitis, my
voice was half back, and instead of sounding like a dying cat, I
sounded a bit more like a sexy kitten! I kept thinking of that Friends
episode where Febe gets sick and starts sounding all sexy, and then she
gets better and she loses her sexy voice so she trys to get sick
again...any other friends fans remember that one? Anyway, it was much
easier to work with the songs because I know them like the back of my
hand since I've been singing them for years and years. While inside the
neighborhood, a mini blizzard began to fall outside, and we got
somewhere around 10 inches of snow...or something crazy like that. It
was awesome. I enjoyed meeting those guys from The Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band, they were all very sweet to me, and gave me some very interesting
tips on solving larygintus in a pinch...Their roadie was a bit of a
jerk, but they were totally cool. It was a good time, and good way to
wrap up my time in Charlotte.


Tomorrow I head to Nashville TN to do a show at 3rd and Lindsley with
Sarah Siskind! I'm excited to head over there and catch up with old
friends, hopefully make some new ones as well.


I'm also headed to New York City at the end of the month to play at
Rockwood Music Hall, so if you know anyone up that way, or if you live
up that way, help me spread the word! It's on a Sunday night...so I'm
worried it might be a slow night for music, but I could be totally
wrong! Who knows. From what I hear, it's a show with Vienna Teng, so
maybe it'll actually be a big turn out regardless. Either way, come
hang out if you're around there.


After that, in April I'll be gettin' my beach blanket bingo on in
Charleston SC and Edisto Island SC on the 9th and 10th, and then back
to Black Mountain NC on the 11th to open for Cyril Neville! I'll be
doing that show at The White Horse in Black Mountain, which is a really
great new music venue.


I have a few other shows worth attending as well in April that you
should def. check out if you have time, opening for Amy Lavair at the
Grey Eagle, and then I'm doing Greeville SC's Downtown Alive again at
the end of the month.


I'm working on getting some booking's out West and up north more, so
hold tight if I haven't hit your city yet, I'm working on it I promise!
But it also helps to be sure and let me know if you want me to come by
clicking my "demand it" box here:


The only other news that I can remember to share right now is something that I may have already mentioned...but since I can't remember, I'll tell you anyway. So if you remember, one of my songs was selected to be on Degrassi: The Next Generation, When Is Enough Enough, a few months ago...so they decided to use another song as well, this time, Ship. So, if you watch that show and you happen to hear Ship, let me know! I'm always the last to know it seems otherwise.
Thanks for reading...I hope you're doing well and having a good 2009 so far.
I'll talk to you soon.
xo
kw