I’m a big fan of blues music from B.B. King to Muddy Waters. As long as it’s got that old and soulful flow, I’m in music heaven. I was recently introduced to a more modern version of blues with Kelly Richey; now that was something I really enjoyed. She is the best female guitarist in my book, hands down. The best part is that you can definitely see the passion and the love she has for the music, and I believe that is powerful.
I was fortunate enough to interview Ms. Richey and talk to her about her exciting and inspiring journey with music, and how she took a year off doing what she loves to help find herself.
Smile Politely: When did you decide that you really wanted to make music?
Kelly Richey: I’ve played music my entire life. As soon as I was old enough to stand up and reach the keys on our piano at home, I was playing the piano. My mom was classically trained, and it’s just been a part of my life. I grew up in church where my mom played the piano at church and my aunt played the organ. I would play and sing at church in choir. Just, music has always been a centerpiece.
Then, it was also a rebellious part of my life when I was a teenager — finding my own voice and kind of breaking away from traditional music and playing rock music. But blues-based rock was where my love was. Guitar players really caught my attention and so I transitioned from playing the piano to playing the drums. I had a neighbor that had some drums I used to play on until he gave them to me. Then I got a guitar; my dad said that if I got rid of the drums, I could have whatever I wanted. He thought it would just be a phase, but it wasn’t; it wasn’t, clearly.
SP: I saw that artists like Nina Simone and Albert King influenced your sound, but what about them really attracted you to their music?
Richey: I had an opportunity to play with Albert King, just very shortly before he died, when I lived in Nashville. When I got a guitar at the age of fifteen, I didn’t set it down. I didn’t realize that the bands I loved most like Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix … I just didn’t know that they were playing blues on steroids [laughs]. And I didn’t realize until I played with Albert King; it was like that a-ha moment that I was like, ‘Oh.’ And then when I started looking back into the archives and really learning who all the great blues players were, I began to connect the dots and that’s when I realized, ‘Wait a minute. What I’m playing and what I love most is blues, but it’s in a rock format,’ and then I really gained an appreciation.
And then, during that journey of putting my own band together and playing a number of years, someone turned me on to Nina Simone, someone in the crowd. They yelled out, ‘Play some Nina Simone!’ and I was like, ‘Who? I’ve never heard of her before.’ They said, you need to get Nina Simone Sings theBlues, that record. I think it has about seventeen tracks by her and I flipped out; I couldn’t get enough of that record. And some of her stuff is jazzier and a little bit more out there, but this record just really hit home every single song. Not to say that I don’t love all of her stuff. I think a lot of times we’ll have an artist that we like and there’s that one record and Nina Simone Sings the Blues was that for me. She really influenced me vocally, not that I sing like her anymore than I play guitar like a lot of my heroes, but the passion and the emotion and the way in which she poured herself into every single note she played and sang, she just embodied the song. I just couldn’t get enough of her and I just really appreciate her as an artist.
SP: You said you opened for Albert King and you played with him. How did that make you feel, opening for these big names? You’ve also opened for James Brown and I’m pretty sure that was quite the experience.
Richey: Well, the Albert King experience, I didn’t open for him. I was working in a bar in Nashville and I had the nerve as a young person to ask to sit in and he said yes. I was actually on stage with him for the entire show. He sent me out there before he started and he left me up there when he was done and we had a long talk backstage because I could get to him because I worked there so I had all access. So that was a unique experience.
James Brown happened before I put my band together In the early nineties. I kinda got my start; I toured with a band that was called Stealing Horses, and they were based out of Nashville. It was a folk rock band; we called it acid bluegrass, but really it was folk rock. I played electric guitar, and there was a singer-songwriter who played acoustic guitar, and we did the Daytona Beach Spring Break show for MTV and opened for James Brown that day, and that was huge. When you’re young, everything is far out, ‘Oh this is great; it’s just another experience,’ but as I look back on all those experiences in my life, that’s obviously one of those things. I mean, he’s James Brown! [laughs] Wow, to get to play on the same stage before him was quite an honor.
SP: Who was your favorite artist to open for?
Richey: Wow, that’s a good question. Every artist that I’ve opened up for has had its own unique experience. Ones that kind of stand out: Johnny Winter, getting to open for him. I’ve opened for him a couple times. Once they wouldn’t allow a band; they just wanted a solo artist and I had to just get on the stage before Johnny Winters without my band. Just me, my electric guitar, and an amp. I was scared to death, but it was so good for me because I just had to do it, you know? And that was early on — right after I put my first band together. But that really challenged me to step up, push through some fear of playing alone without my band and just to take the guitar and go. Because when you open for someone, a guitar hero, not only your guitar hero but everyone else’s in the crowd, but when you don’t get to go with the security blanket of your band, and you’re up there naked, that was something that really helped me mature and develop and take things to the next level. And then a few years after that, I got to open with my band. That was special too. It’s hard to say anyone, obviously playing with Albert King was a lifetime experience to actually get to play with him.
SP: If given the chance, who would you like to collaborate with?
Richey: John Mayer. I’m a big fan of his. He’s such a deep well and I think that people view him as the pop artist that played acoustic, but I know for a fact that he is a monster guitar player. And he’s a brilliant songwriter and I think he’s a brilliant artist. We have so much publicity today that people can say something and the next thing you know, poor judgment can cause a big stir, which is unfortunate when people use poor judgment, but it’s also unfortunate when it causes such a stir and I don’t believe that anything gets dealt with. I love his work; he would definitely be one. Now if it were anyone dead or alive, it would probably be Jimi Hendrix.
SP: What influences your music? What do you want your listeners to get from your music?
Richey: I’m in a real transition as an artist. I’ve always wanted to take people on a journey because music for me was a point of escape. It was a goal of mine that I made a record that wasn’t very self indulgent as a guitarist, but that really hit hard with everything that I had on the guitar, but then made its statement in as few words as possible instead of going on and on and on and making that be the journey. I wanted an album that was a journey, not so much the guitar solo being multiple journeys. I really think that any artist should constantly be growing and that’s my new challenge: to take a look at my performance and what it is that I’m presenting on stage. My goal is to take people on a journey, but not so much as a guitar slinger, but as a performer.
SP: I know that you’ve taken a year off to become a life coach. So do you make any music to incorporate you being a life coach?
Richey: When I took a year off, my goal was to get certification and to really step into that next phase into my life to get some balance because I’ve been on the road so much. I wanted to do music and coaching. When I stepped away from music, I allowed myself to step away and I didn’t know if I would go back. I discovered a lot of things. One, that I had been Kelly the guitar player and I needed to find out who Kelly was. Many things happened during the course of that year, one of which I realized that I definitely did need to be playing music and that the coaching process would be a process because I found out that my desire to help other people … a lot of times we want to save the world, only to discover that we need to save ourselves first, and that it may be easier to save the world.
I had some of those human epiphanies and I got 100% sober and lost a lot of weight, got really healthy, and I re-approached my career. My life coaching, I would kind of say, is kind of in that perspective as far as what I put to the public and what it is I’m selling and doing. I find that now as a healthy and sober person, coaching is a natural thing that I feel like I have a calling and a talent for. I also feel that I’m continuing to mature and continuing to be healthy and sober. I’m just embodying being a healthy and whole individual.
SP: You teach guitar lessons and you’re incorporating blues history in the schools, which is great. What else did you plan on doing within the community as far as teaching?
Richey: I started Music for Change and it’s just this huge dream that I have that is still coming into bloom. I would really like to take it to the next level; it’s been a lesson to really see where music is today.
SP: Where else do you see yourself in the next few years?
Richey: I’m really focused on getting The Kelly Richey Band this new rhythm section that I have and this new approach that I’m taking to the next level. Focusing in on The Kelly Richey Band, I took my sabbatical in 2010 and came back in full swing in 2011 and 2012, and this year releasing sweet spirit, having a new section. I want to see this through with this new section and I’m so excited by the response that we’re getting and I’m going to go where it goes.
Freekbass and I are also instructors on an online school call Truefire so I teach students from all over the world, and we do video Skype so I have private students from all over the world that I teach. I really want to build my guitar student base and really build my live show; that’s where my focus is. And being open to school programs, that and continuing my growth as a human being. Those are my priorities.
Kelly Richey performs this weekend at the Blues, Brews and BBQ Festival held in Downtown Champaign.