Kelly Willis

Admired by reviewers and devotees of alt-country along with Americana circles, Kelly Willis possesses remarkable talent as both a vocalist and composer, capable of shifting her delivery between bright lucidity and intense rawness to suit each composition’s demands. She entered the studio for her first recordings in 1990 on the album Well Travelled Love, yet her songwriting and interpretive voice reached a new peak with the independent 1999 release What I Deserve. From that point forward she has maintained a measured schedule of writing and recording that suits her own rhythm, frequently joining forces with her husband Bruce Robison on the 2013 album Cheater’s Game and the 2014 set Our Year, while Easy in 2002 and Translated from Love in 2007 both displayed her distinctive warmth and skill.

She was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on October 2, 1968, and first absorbed a love of music from her mother, who sang and performed in local amateur productions. After her parents separated during her childhood, Kelly and her brothers and sisters lived with their father, a colonel in the United States Army. Frequent relocations followed, and by age nine she had begun composing songs and singing as a way to process the family upheaval. She finished high school in Annandale, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and one afternoon stepped into a coin-operated recording booth to capture her version of Elvis Presley’s “Teddy Bear.” Her boyfriend at the time, Mas Palermo, who would later become her husband, promptly invited the sixteen-year-old into his rockabilly group; her commanding voice proved so popular that the band was soon rechristened Kelly & the Fireballs. Once she received her diploma the ensemble relocated to Austin, Texas, only to disband half a year later.

While she taught herself guitar and Palermo refined his songwriting, the pair assembled a new lineup called Radio Ranch that also included guitarist David Murray, steel player Michael Hardwick, and bassist Michael Foreman. A performance by the group caught the ear of singer Nanci Griffith, who urged her own label, MCA, to offer them a contract; the result was Willis’s 1990 debut Well Travelled Love. Although the full band participated, only Willis’s name appeared on the cover, and despite enthusiastic notices the album sold modestly. Her second effort, Bang Bang, arrived in 1991 and again earned favorable press without generating radio play or chart placement.

For her third album, a more autobiographical collection built largely from her own material, Willis worked with producer Don Was; the self-titled 1993 release once more drew strong critical response yet limited commercial returns, prompting MCA to end the relationship. After a period of reduced activity she resurfaced in 1995, harmonizing with Son Volt’s Jay Farrar on the benefit collection Red Hot and Bothered. The following year she issued the independent EP Fading Fast, which featured musicians from Son Volt and the Jayhawks, and she began preparing a 1997 album for A&M. That agreement dissolved before any new tracks were completed, though A&M did re-release Fading Fast in limited form. In late 1996 Willis married Austin-based musician and songwriter Bruce Robison.

As the decade closed she signed with the independent label Rykodisc. What I Deserve appeared in 1999 and marked both an artistic and commercial breakthrough; Time magazine called it “the smartest, most consistently worthwhile country CD” issued that year, and its sales surpassed those of her earlier MCA efforts. Three years later she delivered another Ryko album, Easy, which featured guest contributions from Vince Gill, Union Station’s Dan Tyminski, and Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile. In 2006 she and Robison recorded the seasonal collection Happy Holidays, and in 2007 she returned with her seventh studio album, Translated from Love, produced by Chuck Prophet.

In 2008 Willis stepped away from touring to devote more attention to her family; she and Robison were then raising four children. She made occasional appearances, most often alongside Robison, but otherwise maintained a low profile until the 2013 release of Cheater’s Game, a collaborative project with Robison produced by Brad Jones. The album contained songs by Dave Alvin, Robert Earl Keen, Hayes Carll, and others and reached stores in time for Valentine’s Day. Its strong reception encouraged the pair to record a second set of duets with the same producer, resulting in Our Year, which arrived in spring 2014. In 2018 Willis issued her first solo album since 2007; Back Being Blue contained ten tracks, six of them written by Willis, with Robison serving as producer.