Kelsey Waldon

Kelsey WaldonKelsey Waldon in Concertw/ Sean BurnsMonday, August 12th, 2024The Park TheatreDoors 7 pmMusic @ 8 pmKelsey Waldon is one of Country musics most singular voices. Across four acclaimed full-length albums full of both heavy twang and spitfire pedal steel and coffeehouse confessionals (Rolling Stone), shes brought listeners into her world and shared her own experiences and perspectives. Her new project, Theres Always a Song (out May 10th via Oh Boy Records/Thirty Tigers), however, is about the singular voices that shaped her into the artist she is today.Its like, I kind of was able to find my voice through these voices, you know? Waldon says. A part of me doing this album is expressing so much gratitude for the music that I love, for music that has meant a lot to me and helped me.These eight songs, from the earliest pages of the country and bluegrass music songbooks, helped the singer-songwriter from Monkeys Eyebrow, Ky., find her place in the world before she became an artist whose own work generates buzz, lands on year-end best-of lists, and, in 2019, led Waldon to become the first artist in 15 years to sign a deal with John Prines Oh Boy Records. These days, they remind Waldon of why she wanted to make music in the first place. Theres a lot of bullshit out there, and sometimes our goals and dreams get clouded by competition or become jaded. [These songs are] like something tapping into me and being like, Thats why you love this. It feels like home to me; it feels like the truth, Waldon shares. It just brought me so much joy to work with my peers, my friends, people I really admire.Theres Always a Song might not even exist, in fact, if not for S.G. Goodman, who in addition to also being a fellow western Kentuckian has been one of Waldons good friends since before they were making headlines with their music. During one of their frequent catch-up phone calls, Waldon told Goodman she would love to find a reason to collaborate and asked Goodman if shed be up for recording a song together. Goodman suggested Hello Stranger, specifically citing the 1973 version by Hazel Dickens and Alice Gerrard.Waldon didnt stop with Goodman, though. Fellow John Prine devotee and kindred spirit Amanda Shires joins Waldon on fiddle for the Bill Monroe classic Uncle Pen arranged in half time like Goose Creek Symphonys version from 1971 while Isaac Gibson, lead singer of 49 Winchester, helps Waldon honor his fellow Virginian, Ralph Stanley, on the devastating I Only Exist. Margo Price, one of Waldons first friends in Nashville, rounds out the list of guests, singing with Waldon on Traveling the Highway Home, which Waldon selected from fellow Kentuckian Molly ODays catalog.For information on The Park Theatre, please visit https://myparktheatre.com/faq/.