Kelley Hunt debuts new CD next week
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:42 p.m., June 6, 2008
Updated 02:42 p.m., June 6, 2008
As Kelley Hunt is hitting it bigger and bigger, so are her musical horizons.
Already an acclaimed performer in the blues/jazz press, the Emporia native recorded her new fourth album, Mercy, as a conscious attempt to hack away at any style constraints and make boundary-free music. A listen to a few tracks off Mercy make it seem as though she succeeded.
Mercy dropped on May 15, and on June 14, Hunt will commemorate its release with a performance at Crossroads KC, an outdoor venue in Kansas City, Mo. This fall, Hunt will return to Emporia to play with another performing credit — an acting role — on her resume.
The new album weaves together elements of blues, jazz, boogie woogie, pop and R&B. The drawn-out ballad “Love” could be seen as jazz, R&B or just blues. Social and political commentary were a focus of Hunt’s songwriting for the new album, as tracks like the bluesy, piano-driven “Emerald City” show.
“Emerald City” was written as a comment on people who are happy to live in their own world while an unseen man behind a curtain — as in “The Wizard of Oz” — acts in his own self-interest. The eclectic mix fits with Hunt’s view of her own work; she said she doesn’t really categorize herself as an artist.
“I write on a very regular basis anyway, but the songs that were picked for this were songs that I felt were some of my best work,” Hunt said. “I just decided that it’s time for me to not worry about any kind of particular style, anything. I just wanted to focus on what it was I had to say, and also do the best possible writing that I could do, and have fun doing it.”
She’s gaining exposure not only through her albums and from touring, but also in movie theaters. Her song “Mountain to Move” is the theme song for “Bunker Hill,” the new independent film from director Kevin Willmott, best known for “C.S.A — The Confederate States of America.” Hunt also has a small role in the film.
Hunt said her Emporia roots play a role in her music. She went to Walnut Elementary School beginning in first grade and stayed in Emporia through high school before heading off to college at the University of Kansas. She now lives just south of Lawrence.
“There’s a lot of songwriting I’ve done in the past, and continue to do, that has a lot to do with my experiences growing up,” she said. “I think there’s something really unique about growing up in a town where you can walk to school, where you know a lot of people, where I had the opportunity to be there my whole growing-up years and just forge all kinds of lifetime friendships and have a real strong tie to that community. ...
“It was a really soulful environment for me to grow up in, and I value that a lot.”
Her only performance in Emporia in recent years was during last year’s sesquicentennial festivities at Albert Taylor Hall — but she’s been invited back to play at the restored Granada Theatre on Oct. 10.
“And I’m really excited about that, because that’s a beautiful venue,” she said. “And the fact that they asked me to come does my heart good, I gotta say.”
srochat (Scott Rochat) says...
Keep up the good work, Kelley -- you've hit the high notes in more ways than one.
June 6, 2008 at 5:19 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )