PopSyndicate.com

This cafe singer is powerful.

This is an album that should be all over the map. Not because Kelley arrived in Brooklyn by way of Baltimore, Dallas, and Starkville, Mississippi, but because she, like everyone, makes a daily commute through joy, despair, gratitude, doubt, hope, fear, shame, and the rest. Big cities like New York have a way of uprooting us existentially and daring us to call them home. In many ways, HighrisesInBrooklyn is Kelley’s answer to that call. She chides Brooklyn’s highrises in the album’s title track, confesses co-dependence on late-night bars and diners in “Last Call Town” and “Long Walk Home,” both rues and needs the BQE—the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in the pop number “BQE.”

Her music draws you in and you become enrapt first by her voice and then by the story she is telling in her song.  I’d love to be in the audience watching and listening to her perform live. She has a steady following at the cafes and coffee shops where she plays in NYC.  Kelley breaks past the usual sensitive singer-songwriter limitations with a booming, R&B-influenced voice and by supplementing her acoustic instruments with sweet, quartet-style harmonies and soulful touches of organ and accordion.  Her voice is strong and has 3-octave range that serves her well on songs that are torchy and full of passion.

Two of the best songs on the CD are:  “HighrisesInBrooklyn,” and “MoreOfNothing.”  “Highrises” sets the tone for the rest of the music on the CD and Kelley’s voice shines throughout the songs.
Kelley lists as strong influences on her the likes of Nina Simone, James Baldwin, Johnny Cash, Otis Redding and Joni Mitchell all of whom she says, “It like they dare you not to believe them.”  It’s evident in her music which ranges from indie to folk to soul as well as blues, harmonies and simple Americana.  There’s some gospel also thrown in the mix which only helps round out this up and coming singer who finds more reflection of herself as a singer than she ever did as an actress.

Whether she remains on the local circuit or goes national, those who hear her will never forget her voice and the types of songs she sings.

4