Kelly Hunt

press release: After Kelly Hunt's debut album “Even The Sparrow” dropped May 17 it consistently charted top 10 on both national folk radio charts for about a 12 week cycle and made a dent on the Americana radio chart (really tough for a folk album).  She’s gotten some crazy national press, including Greil Marcus in Rolling Stone, The Rolling Stone Country 10 Best Country and Americana Songs To Hear Now list (“Across The Great Divide”), Spotify Fresh Folk playlist, Pop Matters, fRoots, Bluegrass Situation, John Schaefer at WNYC Weekly Roundup/Sound Check, No Depression premier and a ton of other sites, publications, premiers and writers who have lined up behind the album.  So she’s on the move.  A gifted songwriter who brilliantly combines traditional reference points with a vivid original identity.  Critics are calling her a “neo-traditionalist”, although labels can sometimes be nefarious things.  Her approach to banjo isn’t bluegrass, it’s the voice of her various banjos as support and coloration for her songs and arrangements, at times reaching back to the percussive origins of the instrument.  On these shows she plays tenor and 5-string banjo and acoustic guitar.  She’s touring in duet format with multi-instrumentalist Stas’ Heaney (mostly violin, some keys and percussion) who co-produced the album with her.