American singer-songwriter Kelley Smith is a hopeless romantic who fancies old poetry and grandpa sweaters. All at once whimsical and haunting, Smith delivers deeply affecting lyrics with wry charm and a time traveler's voice. Prone to melancholy and daydreaming, Kelley spent her childhood roaming the woods of Minnesota and singing to forest animals. To this day, her longing for that landscape runs deep and seems to find its way into her songs in one way or another.
Raised by musicians, Smith always had music in her bones, but it wasn't until she was 40 and a mother of four that her first record, Moon Child (2022), came to be. As an insomniac, she wrote this first batch of songs by moonlight. They evoke a sense of belonging, juxtaposed with escapism, as she croons about long-term love, grief, and her draw to the night sky. ”Her authentic, rootsy sound, falling somewhere between country, folk, bluegrass and old-time music, is a pitch-perfect vehicle for the themes she explores...” - Adventures in Americana
Since 2022, Kelley has been lucky to share stages with the likes of Charlie Parr, Dave Simonett, Wild Horses, Drew Peterson, Erik Koskinen, Storyhill, Good Morning Bedlam, Tina Schlieske, Molly Maher, Sarah Morris, and more. Often performing solo or as a duo, Smith interprets old-time folk songs on guitar and banjo, in addition to her original music.