Stephen Kellogg

Stephen Kellogg has described how his childhood musical tastes split between his father’s stack of 1970s singer/songwriter LPs by Jim Croce and Cat Stevens and his sister’s hair-metal collection led by Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe. His own songs somehow fuse those two worlds, balancing intimate personal storytelling and themes of love and celebration with arrangements that remain intelligent yet crackle with rock & roll energy. The Early Hits 1992-1997 captures his earliest recordings, which sat between contemporary singer/songwriter fare and relaxed roots rock. Once he formed the Sixers, whose muscular sound is best represented on the 2007 album Glassjaw Boxer, the music grew louder and incorporated heartland-rock touches; Tom Petty has long ranked among his favorite artists. Returning to solo work with 2013’s Blunderstone Rookery and 2016’s South, West, North, East, Kellogg broadened his palette further, folding in rock, folk, Americana, blues, and roots rock.

Born November 28, 1976, in Westchester, Pennsylvania, Kellogg first sang in the hard-rock high-school band Silent Treatment. He entered the University of Massachusetts in 1995 to study communication and theater, yet continued performing on weekends alongside Darian Cunning, Tim Edgar, and Tim Newton. During those years he also began writing songs and cutting solo acoustic demos, a handful of which circulated informally, including 1994’s Invest in Us and 1995’s Rain Summer. After graduation he took a job at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton, Massachusetts, an experience that convinced him to pursue music full-time. He booked shows wherever possible and, in 2000, used earnings from a newspaper-advertising job to self-release his debut proper, South of Stephen. A second album, the more pop-leaning Lucky 11, appeared in 2002, and steady regional touring helped build his profile across the Northeast.

The decisive shift came when he assembled a backing band. Drummer Brian Factor, bassist/keyboardist Keith Karlson, and guitarist Chris Soucy supplied fresh drive onstage, and the resulting momentum turned 2004’s Bulletproof Heart into Kellogg’s breakthrough. Heavy roadwork drove strong independent sales, attracting Universal Records, which signed the group to its Foundation imprint and issued Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers in early 2005. Some early pressings included the bonus EP One Night in Brooklyn, cut in a single day with friends that included former Whiskeytown members Mike Daly and Caitlin Cary. After parting with Universal, the band moved to Everfine Records—home of jam-band favorites O.A.R.—for 2007’s Glassjaw Boxer; Kellogg would later co-write “Caroline the Wrecking Ball” for O.A.R.’s 2014 album The Rockville LP and frequently tour with the group. On 2009’s The Bear, now on Vanguard Records, they reached the Billboard Top 20 for adult-album-alternative radio with “Shady Esperanto & the Young Hearts.” In 2010 the band was named Armed Forces Entertainers of the Year for performances for U.S. troops. The 2011 album Gift Horse maintained their heartland style while pushing into more emotionally expansive territory, and Kellogg kept a relentless touring schedule, sharing stages and occasional vocals with Rosanne Cash, Josh Ritter, and Sara Bareilles.

Kellogg placed the Sixers on hiatus in 2012. The following year he issued his first solo album in a decade, Blunderstone Rookery, which featured Travis McNabb and Annie Clements of Sugarland, Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek, and Jerry DePizzo of O.A.R. Also in 2013 he delivered a TEDx talk at Concordia University Portland on job satisfaction. February 2016 brought another solo release, South, West, North, East, drawn from separate sessions in Nashville, Atlanta, Boulder, Woodstock, and Washington, D.C.; filmmaker Peter Harding documented the process in the short film Last Man Standing. In 2017 two Kellogg co-writes appeared on Where We Left Off, an EP by American Idol winner Nick Fradiani, while another song he co-wrote, “Got Soul,” served as the title track of blues steel guitarist Robert Randolph’s Grammy-nominated album. 2018 saw the one-week Nashville sessions that produced Objects in the Mirror, recorded with producer Will Hoge. In 2020 Kellogg published his first book, the essay collection Objects in the Mirror: Thoughts on a Perfect Life from an Imperfect Person, and issued the single “Love Me as I Am” in May.