About
Kelly Riley and Zugunrue at One World Cafe September 2006
Doug Park, Kelly Riley and Henry C. Willard doing what they love to do!
Review by Jeanne McHale from the Moscow Food Co-op Newsletter
January 2007
The citizens of our Palouse are an amazing breed. You may know them as co-workers, longtime friends or local merchants. Then suddenly one of them decides to shine a previously hidden creative light - and WOW! The latest addition to the Co-op’s CD collection is just such an example. Maybe you’re acquainted with Kelly L. Riley because she stocks the bulk food bins at the Co-op, or because she has sold you peppers at the Moscow Farmer’s Market. But check out Kelly’s debut CD, ‘My Kind of Road’, and you will find that she is a prolific songstress who keeps a long tradition of Western music alive and sparkling. Like the peppers at the market, you get a lot for your money with this album: 12 original tunes driven by Kelly’s rhythm guitar pulse and richly embellished with lead guitar, bass, mandolin and the occasional harmonica, fiddle or piano.
One of my favorite tunes is ‘These Words’, a sorrowful tune that displays Kelly’s vocal strengths and the main currency of her songwriting - heartfelt thinking. Like all the tunes on the album, there are some fine solos from Henry C. Willard on guitar and Paul Anders on mandolin. Ned McElroy, in whose studio the CD was recorded, plays bass, and along with Paul Anders adds other instruments on some of the tracks. Many of the tunes use Kelly’s skillful poetic style to describe connections to landscape and the journey to self. Several songs harken back to the days of freight-train whistles and travel by pony, such as ‘Ride Back to Your Side’ and ‘Wyoming is Calling’. The style and the cowboy themes of these tunes make them sound as if they were written a hundred years ago, but they resonate nevertheless with timeless topics of heartbreak, life’s changes and the solace of wide open spaces.
I met with Kelly to ask her how she came to unleash a river of tunes, about 70 in the last 3 years, from which 12 gems have been diverted to her new CD. Kelly explained that she always felt strong ties to the the land. Born in Wyoming and living in the Pacific Northwest most of her adult life, she has the credentials to play and sing these tunes, having worked farms, raised sheep and shared her life with horses. While Kelly started playing the guitar at age 13, she put it down when her daughter was born and rarely played for a span of more than 20 years. She was fortunate to meet guitarists David Vollmer and Henry Willard and they formed the band Zugunrue. Kelly describes herself as a naturally shy person, and explains that it has taken her a while to develop as a performer. Kelly told me that she could not have composed these songs earlier in her life, and indeed the songs have a genuine feel that springs from experience. The songs are intimate, as if she is taking you along on her personal journey.
Many of these songs have similar structures with easy tempos and spicy instrumental breaks. Kelly has a lovely lilt to her voice at the end of a phrase, and a lot of the tunes have a characteristic break which seems to accent the theme. “Saying Goodbye to a Dream’ is a waltzy tale of uprooting old plans. ‘Tequila Tonight’ honors Jimmy Buffet and the beverage that is there for us when no one else is. This is a number with excellent rhythmic drive including Kelly playing a half-full water bottle. ‘Where the Landscape Runs Deep’ is a swingy tune with fiddle support which tells the life story of a woman with deep connections to the west. Many of the tunes are about travel and feature roads.
I first met Kelly about 20 years ago, but on hearing her play and sing at the One World Cafe recently, I saw a whole new side of her and found myself totally charmed by her musical gifts. Kelly is interested in expanding her repertoire with new styles and more variety and I am looking forward to hearing more from her.
Jeanne McHale is the Co-op listener. She also enjoys being on the other side of the equation, playing piano for parties and events.
