Kirk Kelly
Encyclopedia
Kirk P. Kelly is a folk
singer, songwriter
and labor activist from New York City
. In the mid-1980s Kelly and a group of like-minded musicians started calling themselves "anti-folk
" and started a small but intense movement. Kelly's music has been infrequently recorded over the years. His work has often included topical songs. Some of Kelly's early songs dealt with the labor movement and were based upon his own work experience. A decade or so after starting his musical career Kelly was accepted to and attended an AFL-CIO
organizer's training school and began working throughout the United States
as a union organizer
.
circa 1960 and grew up listening to (among other things) Irish musicians such as the Clancy Brothers. In the early 1980s he began performing performing music that was influenced by both the folk revival
artists and punk
bands such as the Ramones and the Clash
. In the mid-80s Kelly found that the old guard of the Greenwich Village
folk scene were unwilling accept this combination as legitimate folk music. One night Kelly was banned from the open mics at Gerde's Folk City
for handing out flyers for a performance at an East Village venue.
As a result, Kelly banded together with like-minded musicians, Lach
, Cindy Lee Berryhill
, and Roger Manning
to form the roots of what became known as the "anti-folk
movement." Kelly's first recording was in a duo with Lach (regarded by many as the father of anti-folk) as "The Folk Brothers" in 1985 on their cassette-only release called, All Folked up with Nowhere to Go.
Kelly's first solo release, Go Man Go, appeared in 1988 on the punk label, SST
(Black Flag
, etc.). Allmusic calls the title song "hard driving and great, typical of Kelly." In the same year that "Just Do It!" first appeared in commercials for Nike, Inc.
, "Go Man Go" seemed to be something of a slogan among anti-folk scenesters. The phrase is quoted in a couple of songs on Roger Manning
's debut release in that same year. Nearly the entire album features Kelly performing solo with guitar
and harmonica
(producer Brian Ritchie
plays acoustic bass guitar
on one song). Kelly's sound clearly shows the influence of early Bob Dylan
and Phil Ochs
. The later is paid a tribute on "Heroes of Tomorrow" (both a call to action and a look at figures of the past including Joe Hill
, Eugene Debs, and Ochs). One reviewer of Kelly's first album called the work "so derivative of Bob Dylan that maybe A.J. Weberman should consider rooting through Kelly's trash.
A number of Kelly's earliest songs dealt with labor issues (e.g. "Corporation Plow"). Kelly's own experience working as a fruit picker on Long Island's East End planted the seed for his song, "Working in the Vineyards". Over time Kelly began performing at union
rallies and would get called to play at picket lines. Later, while working in an airline's reservation office Kelly worked as a "white collar
member" of the machinist's union. After several years on the job Kelly applied to an organizer's training school with the AFL-CIO
. Soon he was helping to organize campaigns all around the United States, such as a Teamsters
local on the waterfront in Seattle, Washington
.
Kelly's socio-political second album, New City (1997) was released nearly a decade after his first. Kelly put it out on his own, Mugsy Records, a label that grew to include a handful of artists in the early 2000s. The "Mugsy Records Manifesto" laid out the labels mission to "fight for social and economic justice" saying:
In 2003 Kelly's cover of "Downbound Train
" was chosen for the Springsteen
tribute album, Light of Day. Allmusic called his arrangement "radical" as Kelly stipped the song down to simply vocals and ukelele.
Although a 2004 interview quotes Kelly discussing songs to appear on his "next album" (including a song about patriot Nathan Hale
) as of 2008 no recording appears to have materialized. Kelly continues, however, to make appearances where he both sings and speaks out for workers rights.
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
singer, songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and labor activist from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In the mid-1980s Kelly and a group of like-minded musicians started calling themselves "anti-folk
Anti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
" and started a small but intense movement. Kelly's music has been infrequently recorded over the years. His work has often included topical songs. Some of Kelly's early songs dealt with the labor movement and were based upon his own work experience. A decade or so after starting his musical career Kelly was accepted to and attended an AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
organizer's training school and began working throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as a union organizer
Union organizer
A union organizer is a specific type of trade union member or an appointed union official. A majority of unions appoint rather than elect their organizers....
.
Biography
Kelly was born on Long IslandLong Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
circa 1960 and grew up listening to (among other things) Irish musicians such as the Clancy Brothers. In the early 1980s he began performing performing music that was influenced by both the folk revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
artists and punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
bands such as the Ramones and the Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
. In the mid-80s Kelly found that the old guard of the Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
folk scene were unwilling accept this combination as legitimate folk music. One night Kelly was banned from the open mics at Gerde's Folk City
Gerde's Folk City
Gerdes Folk City was a music venue in the West Village in New York City. Initially opened as a restaurant called Gerdes, by owner Mike Porco, it eventually began to present occasional incidental music. It was located at 11 West 4th Street , having moved in 1970 to 130 West 3rd Street before finally...
for handing out flyers for a performance at an East Village venue.
As a result, Kelly banded together with like-minded musicians, Lach
Lach
Lach is a musician associated with the anti-folk movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was trained as a classical pianist from an early age only to abandon it once he heard The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. Realizing he was a songwriter, Lach backtracked and explored...
, Cindy Lee Berryhill
Cindy Lee Berryhill
Cindy Lee Berryhill is a singer-songwriter. Berryhill was born in LA's Silverlake, and grew up in various parts of California. Her debut album, Who's Gonna Save The World came out in October 1987 and was followed by the Lenny Kaye produced, Naked Movie Star in 1989...
, and Roger Manning
Roger Manning
Roger Manning is a New York City based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music.He was also host of the short-lived syndicated radio program "Soho Natural Sessions" ....
to form the roots of what became known as the "anti-folk
Anti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
movement." Kelly's first recording was in a duo with Lach (regarded by many as the father of anti-folk) as "The Folk Brothers" in 1985 on their cassette-only release called, All Folked up with Nowhere to Go.
Kelly's first solo release, Go Man Go, appeared in 1988 on the punk label, SST
SST Records
SST Records is an American independent record label formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California by musician Greg Ginn. The company was initially called Solid State Transmitters through which Ginn sold electronics equipment...
(Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
, etc.). Allmusic calls the title song "hard driving and great, typical of Kelly." In the same year that "Just Do It!" first appeared in commercials for Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc.
Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...
, "Go Man Go" seemed to be something of a slogan among anti-folk scenesters. The phrase is quoted in a couple of songs on Roger Manning
Roger Manning
Roger Manning is a New York City based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music.He was also host of the short-lived syndicated radio program "Soho Natural Sessions" ....
's debut release in that same year. Nearly the entire album features Kelly performing solo with guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
(producer Brian Ritchie
Brian Ritchie
Brian Ritchie was the bass guitarist for the alternative rock band Violent Femmes.In addition to his bass playing, Ritchie is proficient at the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute...
plays acoustic bass guitar
Acoustic bass guitar
The acoustic bass guitar is a bass instrument with a hollow wooden body similar to, though usually somewhat larger than a steel-string acoustic guitar...
on one song). Kelly's sound clearly shows the influence of early Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and Phil Ochs
Phil Ochs
Philip David Ochs was an American protest singer and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and haunting voice...
. The later is paid a tribute on "Heroes of Tomorrow" (both a call to action and a look at figures of the past including Joe Hill
Joe Hill
Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
, Eugene Debs, and Ochs). One reviewer of Kelly's first album called the work "so derivative of Bob Dylan that maybe A.J. Weberman should consider rooting through Kelly's trash.
A number of Kelly's earliest songs dealt with labor issues (e.g. "Corporation Plow"). Kelly's own experience working as a fruit picker on Long Island's East End planted the seed for his song, "Working in the Vineyards". Over time Kelly began performing at union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
rallies and would get called to play at picket lines. Later, while working in an airline's reservation office Kelly worked as a "white collar
White-collar worker
The term white-collar worker refers to a person who performs professional, managerial, or administrative work, in contrast with a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor...
member" of the machinist's union. After several years on the job Kelly applied to an organizer's training school with the AFL-CIO
AFL-CIO
The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, commonly AFL–CIO, is a national trade union center, the largest federation of unions in the United States, made up of 56 national and international unions, together representing more than 11 million workers...
. Soon he was helping to organize campaigns all around the United States, such as a Teamsters
Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of several local and regional locals of teamsters, the union now represents a diverse membership of blue-collar and professional workers in both the public and private sectors....
local on the waterfront in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
.
Kelly's socio-political second album, New City (1997) was released nearly a decade after his first. Kelly put it out on his own, Mugsy Records, a label that grew to include a handful of artists in the early 2000s. The "Mugsy Records Manifesto" laid out the labels mission to "fight for social and economic justice" saying:
"America belongs to those who build it, fix it, run it, clean it, protect it, feed it, care for it and educate it. In the work we do we forge a common identity and it is the work of its most progressive artists to give voice to that identity. America's popular culture must tell the real story of its people and reflect its true identity."
In 2003 Kelly's cover of "Downbound Train
Downbound Train
"Downbound Train" is a song that appears on the 1984 Bruce Springsteen album Born in the U.S.A.. The song is a lament to a lost spouse, and takes on a melancholy tone....
" was chosen for the Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
tribute album, Light of Day. Allmusic called his arrangement "radical" as Kelly stipped the song down to simply vocals and ukelele.
Although a 2004 interview quotes Kelly discussing songs to appear on his "next album" (including a song about patriot Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was a soldier for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for an intelligence-gathering mission in New York City but was captured by the British...
) as of 2008 no recording appears to have materialized. Kelly continues, however, to make appearances where he both sings and speaks out for workers rights.
See also
- All Folked up with Nowhere to Go (1985) - cassette only release by Kirk Kelly and LachLachLach is a musician associated with the anti-folk movement. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was trained as a classical pianist from an early age only to abandon it once he heard The Sex Pistols, The Jam and The Clash for the first time. Realizing he was a songwriter, Lach backtracked and explored...
as "The Folk Brothers" - The Political Song (May 1983, CooP/Fast Folk Musical MagazineFast FolkFast Folk Musical Magazine , was a combination magazine and record album published from February 1982 to 1997...
) - compilation included "Nineteen Miles from Shoreham Town" - Quixotic (1984, Fast Folk Musical Magazine) - compilation included "I Pity the Poor British Soldier"
- Cross Country (1988, Fast Folk Musical Magazine) - compilation included "Dead Aid"
- Broome Closet Anti Folk Sessions (1989) - compilation that featured Kelly, Roger ManningRoger ManningRoger Manning is a New York City based singer-songwriter who plays an aggressive acoustic style of music.He was also host of the short-lived syndicated radio program "Soho Natural Sessions" ....
, Billy Syndrome, PalefacePalefacePaleface is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and artist who has been active in the music business in the United States since 1989.-Early career:...
, Susie Unger, John S. HallJohn S. HallJohn S. Hall is an American poet, author, singer and lawyer perhaps best known for his work with King Missile, an avant-garde band that he co-founded in 1986 and has since led in various disparate incarnations....
, Cindy Lee BerryhillCindy Lee BerryhillCindy Lee Berryhill is a singer-songwriter. Berryhill was born in LA's Silverlake, and grew up in various parts of California. Her debut album, Who's Gonna Save The World came out in October 1987 and was followed by the Lenny Kaye produced, Naked Movie Star in 1989...
and others. - Legacy: A Collection of New Folk MusicLegacy: A Collection of New Folk Music- Legacy II: A Collection of Singer-songwriters :The second volume was released several years after the first. As Will Ackerman's liner notes explain:...
(1989 Windham HillWindham Hill RecordsWindham Hill Records is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment specializing in Acoustic, New Age and Folk music. Originally founded in 1976 as an Independent record label by guitarist and carpenter William Ackerman and his then-wife Anne Robinson, Windham Hill was a successful and well-respected...
) - compilation that includes "Go Man Go" - Detours (1991, Fast Folk Musical Magazine) - includes "Stephen Foster"
- SST Acoustic (1991, SST) - includes "Go Man Go"
- Light of Day: A Tribute to Bruce Springsteen (2003, Schoolhouse Records) features Kelly performing "Downbound Train"
- A Century of Labor Songs (2004) - 100 year anniversary compilation by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
External links
- Paddy on the Railway at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Mugsy Records, label founded by Kelly