Kelley Mickwee is returning with her first new solo album in ten years, after being immersed in various other projects, titled Everything Beautiful. The album was recorded at Church House Studios in Austin, TX and was Produced, recorded and mixed by David Boyle. It arrives on September 27, 2024. The song “Force of Nature” is out now.
She shares:
I enlisted an amazing cast of characters, from Pumas to Gary Clark Jr. members to Heathens; it was a killer studio band.
In 2014, Mickwee released You Used to Live Here, her solo debut, after spending five years touring and recording with the Texas-based Americana band The Trishas. She spent several years hosting her own “River Girl Radio” show on Austin’s Sun Radio, and from 2017-2021 performed as a Shiny Soul Sister in Kevin Russell’s band Shinyribs. She also sang on a whole bunch of records by friends including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Charley Crockett, Silverada, Owen Temple, and Reckless Kelly, and for the last dozen years (going on 13) has also co-hosted the Red River Songwriters Festival.
Speaking about her time with Shinyribs:
It was fun to just be a goofball for awhile, but mostly I was so grateful for that experience because it definitely helped me become a better singer and performer, just pushing myself every night to match (fellow Shiny Soul Sister) Alice Spencer’s power and intensity — not to mention Kevin’s! But as much as I enjoyed the whole ride, at the end of the day I realized I finally wanted to get back to doing my own thing. And this time … I was ready.
In the end, three days was all it took to record Everything Beautiful. The whole project, Mickwee’s second solo album, came together in well under a year. The album is a collection that is best heard on a home stereo system, and ideally on “wax.” Mickwee credits the album’s organic sound to Boyle’s decidedly old-school engineering and mixing sensibilities.
She says about the album’s sound:
People ask me a lot, ‘Where did your singing style come from?’ And a lot of it is from growing up in Memphis. Because not only was that music on the radio there a lot, but I was going out to hear live music in Memphis at a pretty early age, like even in high school, using my fake ID to sneak into clubs, and a lot of those local musicians had a big influence me. So I really tried my best to ‘represent’ by making a record that sounds like a girl from Memphis, because that’s who I am — even though I made that record in Austin, Texas.
Tour Dates:
# full band show
% solo show
SUN, 8/18 Red River, NM – 8750 Fest #
TUE, 9/04 Boerne, TX – Free Roam Brewery %
FRI, 9/13 Kalorama Heights, DC – Lucky Penny Concert Series %
SAT, 9/14 Chester, MD – Macum Creek Concerts %
SUN, 9/15 Fruitland, MD – Delmarvalous Americana Concerts %
MON, 9/16 Annapolis, MD – 49 West (Kelley Mickwee and Mark Douglas Berardo)
THU, 9/19 Nashville, TN – The Nations Bar (Torrez Music Group AmericanaFest Day Party) %
FRI, 9/20 Nashville, TN – Bowery Vault (East Coast Social Club AmericanaFest Day Party) %
FRI, 9/20 Nashville, TN – Basement East “Tribute to 1974”
FRI, 9/27 Austin, TX – Waterloo Records In-store #
SAT, 9/28 Austin, TX – The State Theatre album release show #
THU, 10/03 San Antonio, TX – Sam’s Burger Joint #
FRI, 10/04 Waco, TX – Texas Music Cafe #
SAT, 10/05 Dallas, TX – Poor David’s Pub #
THU, 11/07 Clarksdale, MS – Jason Eady’s Way Down in Mississippi Fest 2024
