VICTOR, Idaho — Music on Main heads to the hills of Kentucky tonight with Kelsey Waldon, an alt blend of country, bluegrass, and old-time sounds driven by honest downhome lyrics rooted in Waldon’s upbringing and a focus on personal expression and healing.
Inspired by songwriters like John Prine, and gospel singers like the Staples and the Stanley Brothers, Waldon finds a way to blend her love for NOLA with country ballads for a sound that is all her own.
For Waldon, soul, jazz and blues are just as much country as twangs, and in the six years since she signed to John Prine’s Oh Boy Records, Kelsey Waldon has earned wide praise for her “self-penned compositions [with] the patina of authenticity” (Rolling Stone). On her new album, Every Ghost, she confronts addiction, grief, generational trauma, and even herself — and comes through it stronger and at peace.
“There’s a lot of hard-earned healing on this record,” Waldon says of the nine-song project, recorded at Southern Grooves studio in Memphis with her band, The Muleskinners. As she sings in the record’s title track and first song, “Ghost of Myself,” she’s put in the work not only to better herself and leave behind bad habits, but also to learn to love her past selves.
Doing so wasn’t easy, Waldon admits. “It took time and experience,” she says, adding that she can now find compassion for her younger self. “I think you’ve gotta respect her,” Waldon says, “because she was trying as hard as she could for where she was at, and she was doing a damn good job.” Compassion is a throughline on Every Ghost, whether it’s for Waldon herself, for the person in the throes of addiction in “Falling Down,” or for a suffering world in “Nursery Rhyme.” The people in Waldon’s songs aren’t irredeemable — they’re struggling.
“You’ve got to have compassion; you gotta stay humble and have gratitude,” Waldon says. However, she’s learned that you also can’t let people take advantage of an empathetic heart. “Comanche” — which Waldon jokes is her very own truck song — finds Waldon grappling with the loss of a loved one, not to death but to boundaries she’s set for her own good. Waldon owns a 1988 Jeep Comanche, and driving it serves as a kind of therapy for her.
“I love the whole aspect of when design mattered,” she says, “and owning your car was an expression of yourself.”
Waldon’s fearlessness is among the reasons she landed at Oh Boy Records in 2019, as the independent label’s first new signee in 15 years, and she’s prompted artists like Tyler Childers, Charley Crockett, Robert Earl Keen, Margo Price, and Lucinda Williams to invite her on tour.
Music on Main asks for a $5 donation from concertgoers to help underwrite the community-driven concert series. Be sure to check out the 20th Anniversary Music on Main playlist here. For information about shuttles, bike valet and food vendors, head to the www.TetonValleyFoundation.org. Get there early and catch The Balsamroots kick off the evening. Venue opens at 5 p.m.
