Bluegrass beginnings: Loving Dolly Parton may have gotten Irene Kelley kicked out of her first rock band (she was fired for bringing a Dolly album to practice), but in the 30 years since, her bluegrass sensibility, songwriting talent, and instrumental know-how have made her an accomplished musician. Moving from Pennsylvania to Nashville at the start of her career, Kelley worked on the famous Music Row and penned songs for Alan Jackson, Ricky Skaggs, Sharon White, Loretta Lynn, and Trisha Yearwood, but her own project, 2016’s These Hills, reflects her early inspirations. “Bluegrass is the last frontier of country music,” says Kelley.
Related stories
“Grace & Glorie”
Combine the arc of personal growth with a fish-out-of-water story, and add the tension and humor of an odd-couple narrative, and you’ll have something similar to Grace & Glorie. Performed by arrangement with Concord Theatricals, this two-act play by Tom Ziegler places the title characters into an unlikely alliance. Grace, a 90-year-old cantankerous cancer patient, […]
H. G. Dierdorff explores the personal and the perilous
When University of Virginia creative writing MFA alumnus H. G. Dierdorff’s debut poetry collection was published in December 2024, the timeliness of its themes of climate collapse and human connection was undeniable. However, these first weeks of 2025 made it all the more relevant, as Richmond, Virginia’s water crisis and the Los Angeles fires reminded […]
Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes
Follow the beats of a life lived on stages and screens across the world with Patti LuPone: A Life in Notes. This solo show takes audiences through the ages and eras of the three-time Tony Award winner as she reflects on her life through the songs that made an impact on her. From the rock […]
