Sara Jean Kelley was born into music.
The Nashville, Tennessee, born and raised, Fort Lewis College graduate has been around the music business her whole life, raised by a songwriting and professional-musician mother who ran with other songwriting greats who also called Music City home. So it was natural for Kelley to follow in her mother’s footsteps, which she’s been doing since returning to Nashville from college in Durango in the early aughts.
Kelley will make a return to the Southwest next week, performing June 18 in Ouray as part of the town’s summer Mountain Air Concert Series; also performing is The Sweet Lizzy Project.
“It was just the water we swam in, you know, it was just what life was. And then I just picked up a guitar because she did and I wrote songs because I watched other people writing songs. Like, when mom was at work, she was up in her office writing songs. When her friends would come over and they go write songs, that was mom at work,” she said. “So it just started me imitating what I’m hearing. And it developed into this kind of a compulsion. I kind of can’t help it. I feel like I’ve tried a couple times to do something else and every time it’s just like, nope.”
File Kelley under folk, but don’t keep her there, as she lives in a musical world where folk, soul and left of the dial indie-rock all rub elbows, the result of having a healthy dose of varied listening while growing up, which included everything from classic rock to folk to hip-hop or grunge.
“I got a very eclectic music introduction growing up because my mom was in the singer-songwriter world. She introduced me to Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin and Jackson Browne, all these incredible songwriters,” Kelley said. “Then of course, it was the late ’90s, so we were listening to modern radio, Boys II Men, Dr. Dre, all that stuff. And of course, throw a little Nirvana in there. Then my dad was always introducing us to The Beatles and the Stones, all this great classic rock.”
She is currently pushing her latest single, “It Gets Better.” Recorded in Atlanta with producer David Ryan Harris, it’s a tune with a 1970s radio rock vibe that also treads into the indie-folk world, a singalong cut ripe for the festival world.
“I wanted to release this song, not just because I love it, not just because it’s timely, not just because I love working with David, but also just to showcase other things that I can do,” she said. “Just to kind of be like, ‘oh, I can do this too.’ It’s fun to experiment in other genres and kind of push outside of my boundaries or what is expected of me. It was really fun.”
Call that single a dose of forward thinking, positive mental attitude, a tune that addresses the current state of the world, while also acknowledging that things change, time passes and all will ultimately be OK. It’s a message that lives in the title of “It Gets Better.”
“When David and I were writing it, it was just like ‘oh, this is happening in the world and the election and the aging parents and all this stuff, and at one point, the conversation turned to just being like, ‘I honestly think it’s going to be OK,’” Kelley said. “We both believe that. And that’s actually way more interesting to me. It’s like against the odds and against the terrors of the world. I think that everybody thinks it gets better, because you have to. I mean, it’s a survival mechanism, but I also think it’s true.”
The single is available on all streaming platforms.
Bryant Liggett is a freelance writer and KDUR station manager. Reach him at [email protected].
