World of Bluegrass 2019

Irene Kelley’s love for country music runs deep. She remembers hearing it for the first time in her dad’s basement TV repair workshop as a young girl. That music resonated in her soul, so when she started writing songs on her own, she already had a head start. At 15, Kelley began her journey as a professional musician in a rock band, but when she brought a Dolly Parton album to band rehearsal one day, she was fired on the spot. It was, perhaps, the best thing that could have happened to her. Fast forward to 1981 when Jerry Williamson asked her to move to Huntington, West Virginia to join the bluegrass band Redwing. She found herself fronting the band as the lead singer and playing some pretty big festivals, not the least of which were Bill Monroe’s Bean Blossom and Tarheal Festivals and the Carter Family Homeplace in Bristol, Virginia. After a stint in country, she has focused on bluegrass, calling it “the last frontier of country music.”