Tonight we feel jubilant to host the exclusive video premiere on Last Day Deaf of LP Kelly‘s lead track ‘Heaven Ain’t Heaven‘ from ‘Love Songs For Loners‘ album. Despite the fact Kelly is a sincere devotee of americana/country/roots music, and maintains his art free from any trends, he is talented enough to sound fresh and catchy. ‘Heaven Ain’t Heaven‘ ‘chronicles the year that the artist spent living and traveling in a converted Sprinter van, criss-crossing the American landscape in search of local music dives, late night dancing and iconic American vistas, all while keeping one eye toward the Appalachian mountains that he calls home. It showcases Kelly’s prowess as a multi-instrumentalist, featuring Kelly on vocals, guitar, bass, pedal steel, and percussion‘.
The warm & descriptive vocal performance gradually builds a harmonious relation with the naughty, old banjo and the wondrous slide guitar, to climactically unleash the sense of freedom, most of us have missed the past few months. Bona fide music for free spirits!
Bio:
The sound of LP Kelly comes broadly from the early days of American roots music: when bluesmen sang from front porches on hot afternoons; when swing bands played dances in speakeasies late into the night; when troubadours were tradesmen and not celebrities. From his base of operations in the Appalachian Mountain town of Blacksburg, VA, Kelly has worked tirelessly to encourage a renaissance in music that has a history and a place – not a watered-down Americana that could exist anywhere on the Internet, nor a rigid recreation of the past, but original music that demands the listener dig deeper to find its roots in geography and time. It’s original music that still sounds familiar. A couple of guitars, a banjo or two, a suitcase of harmonicas, and a whole lot of guts.
A veteran of other recording bands (The Jugbusters, The Don’t Tell Darlings), LP Kelly (formerly Old Man Kelly) released his first solo album, Songs, Stories, Shanties, and Shenanigans in 2013 and his second album, Off My Lawn, in 2016. The start of 2021 brings Love Songs For Loners, a new collection of ten original songs. In the intervening time, LP Kelly has made hundreds of public appearances at bars, festivals, swing dances, square dances, radio shows, house concerts, and on any other stage run by folks who understand that American music has both a past and a future, and that being there matters.
Photo by: Rick Krajnyak