Growing in up a rural area south of Madison, some of my first memories were spending hours
dancing and singing in the basement to an old record player. The Beatles and The Who were a few of the favorites.

Music was always there for me as expression and a joyous release of energy.

In elementary and middle school, chorus and art were my favorite classes. They let me have an individual class to further study art.

I was the leading role in the school plays almost every time.

Around the time of fifth grade, my hands had grown enough for my dad to give me beginning lessons on an electric guitar.

He was in a band throughout high school before getting drafted to the Vietnam War. I learned basic three chord rock songs, but was instantly inclined to invent my own riffs.

High school was a largely painful time, but smattered with jewels of talent shows, recordings for the "talent and gifted" program, and a state wide honorable mention for poetry. I was voted "best artist" in our yearbook. A few friends and I began to attract small audiences at private acoustic campfires. Bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam changed everything in music at the time. A lot more could have came out of performing in this creative time, but we were young, learning and experimenting.

I enjoyed performing live music occasionally throughout college with several bands. I graduated with a B.F.A. degree.

The fact that Eau Claire had a two-to-one female to male ratio seemed more important to me, after not having much success with dating in high school.
I brought my acoustic guitar on a study abroad semester in England and met great students from all over the united states.

One friend from Indiana, John Trainor, also brought an acoustic guitar and we played fluidly together. We wrote songs together, performed numerous times and recorded in the basement of a castle. He very tragically died after returning to the states, with much mourning from those who knew him. Of all the musicians I've been blessed to perform with, Johnny was probably the most talented.

After college, I had a few random and strange performances while living in Chicago. Later, I toured Wisconsin and Minnesota with the band Partly Cloudy, Anna Hill on vocals, guitar and keyboard, Brian Keller on drums, and I played bass and electric guitars in a very wide variety of venues. Sometimes we played at a bar for free if they were on our way while travelling, it was wild and impromptu. Opening up for Adem Tesfaye and Stonefloat with Partly Cloudy were great shows. I also continued doing solo acoustic sets.

Partly Cloudy disbanded when the other two members' partners and I all had babies within months of each other.

It was inspiring to me as I had quiet times at home, playing acoustic and creating melodies with the same sparkle as when I first began playing guitar.
Home recordings progressed, which led to me going in to a studio with a sound engineer to record a full length solo album. I performed all the instruments myself, primarily the acoustic guitar, also bass and electic guitar, harmonica, mandolin, bongos and the biddenbau, a Brazilian percussion instrument.

Recently a friend referred me to Scott Young, an older, experienced drummer and percussionist. I gave him a copy of my new album, he liked it and picked up the songs quickly. Derek Tessmann later joined us on bass to complete the three piece. We fell into practicing together with ease, and we're excited about playing out live at Mother Fool's.....

Description:

I'll be performing a solo acoustic set of mostly original songs. It could be considered a sort of retrospective, as I have been writing songs
from an early age... I think it's a blend of an old fashioned Americana rock that gives way to a tinge of grunge and world music fusion.
Although music is universal and acoustic guitar versatile enough to be played around the globe, I think when I play it feels like it captures some of the local spirit, and it feels like home.
The second set shall include my new bandmates and mostly new original songs. A quasi-acoustic set of vibrant music that has positive percussion and at times psychedelic jamming. A controlled artsy rock, with brushes on the drums, warm thumping bass and amplified, echoing acoustic guitar.

Okay, so maybe I got long-winded up there, but I had fun writing it.

Thanks.

Kevin R. Kiley