TravelStream™ news feed for member kellin on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kellin en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:01:58 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/3/1226465400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/3/1226465400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/3/1226465400/tpod.html Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:01:58 -0500 OCTOBER 2008

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Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Played Smith's Olde Bar opening up for The Duhks. So much funnnnn.
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Asheville, North Carolina, United States

This past October was a busy month as usual! It all started with a show in Greenville SC with Jimmy Brown. We both played to an almost empty house!! It was the same weekend that the gas prices were ski rocketing. There was literally no one out in Downtown Greenville, it was very odd.
The following night, in Flat Rock NC, Myself, Aaron Price and Zack Page all played the Flat Rock Wine Shoppe as part of a benefit for the Flat Rock Playhouse. There was a great crowd there and it was a nice time.
The next weekend I went to Charlotte to take part in one of my best and oldest friends from childhoods "bachellorette party". Let me start off by saying that I truly love my friends and I'll always be there for them, but I think this made the 3rd weddings I'd been in this year. And I gotta just say, if I have to go to another wedding, or bachellorette party in the next year, it will be to soon. It was a great weekend though none the less. Each night held a very entertaining surprise and shananagan for sure. Upon my return I went to work to learn the song I was assigned to sing for my friends wedding. And get this...guess what song I was assigned to sing..."I'm Gonna Love You Forever" by Randy Travis. If you've never heard this song, you should def. go to youtube to check it out. It was hard to act serious when I sang the lyrics, "Baby I don't care, I'm not in love with your hair, and if it all fell out, I'd still love you anyway"... However, I managed to put together a sweet little acoustic version that everyone seemed to enjoy, so mission accomplished.
The same weekend I was involved in this wedding, I was beginning my little mini tour with The Duhks. So it was a hectic weekend, but it all worked out luckily. I opened for The Duhks in Montreat NC at Gaither Chapel with my band. It was a bit stressful because they insisted on putting my drummer behind these glass sheilds for "sound purposes", but to be honest...the girl in charge of the sound seemed to be a bit flustered and out of touch with how these things actually went down. She was in her 20's and very very frustrated with the two guy who where trying to help her out for some reason... Anyway, so my drummer had trouble hearing anything because of these walls, and it messed with the mojo for the band as a whole too because it seperated us from our backbone basically! Ah well...that's just my behind the scenes point of view of course. I had an entire front row of rockers dancing and singing along with me, which made me feel reeeeally really great! Thanks girls! Then I had Sarah Dugas and Christian Dugas of the Duhks join me on stage with my band for Chains of Love, and it was sooooo much fun. I love those two so much and all of their sick talent. They're wonderful people.
The next night we were in Charlotte NC at The Neighborhood Theatre. I opened for The Hackensaw Boys and The Duhks solo acoustic!! I always get so nervous when I'm solo! I suddenly feel boring up there. However, it was far from boring I'm sure. Everyone was very sweet, and I even got an encore which was wonderful. You can actully watch a couple of the videos from that show on youtube I believe! There's one of me solo, and one of myself and the duhks doing Chains of Love acoustic as well. Check those out if you're bored.
Monday Night we went to Atlanta Ga and played Smith's Olde Bar. I had a great set that night, and Tania Elizabeth jumped on stage with me for the last 3 or 4 songs. It was amazing. I love playing with that gal, she's a musical geniuos! The Duhks later called myself and Odessa Jorgeson up to sing Travelin Shoes. It was hot and we sounded great. I also got to catch up with my good friends who live down there, Josh Lamkin and Eliot Bronson of The Brilliant Inventions and of course my dear friend Dave McDonald as well. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them. It reminded me of how much I miss those fools.
Tuesday we rolled down to Athens Ga to play The Melting Pot. I did a short acoustic set and it sounded the best of all three nights. The more I play solo, the more comfortable I get...it always takes me a min. though.
After opening those four shows with The Duhks I headed down to Mag Fest with them. We had a great time together and I truly cherished my time with them. I didn't want to leave!
After Mag Fest, I continued south to play a couple other shows in Florida that were great, and I even made a couple new connections, so all in all it was a rather productive trip.
I'm back home now and working on booking once again. It's such a frustrating process to do it all yourself, but I just keep trying to remind myself that the payoff will make it all worth while. My next show is going to be in Johnson City TN at the Acoustic Coffee. I'm looking forward to playing there seeing that I've never played Johnson City before! We'll see how that goes. After that I have a few other things that should be nice, but the day after christmas will be the date to save. I'm playing Jack of the Wood Dec. 26th. Tania Elizabeth will be playing with me as well, so I hope everyone who lives in the area will be able to make it out for that.
I hope everyone makes the best of the rest of 2008. till next time...xox
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206724140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206724140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206724140/tpod.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:41:44 -0400 NEW YORK 2008

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Charlotte, North Carolina, United States

Early departure...
I came home early from NY to attend to a couple health matters (nothing to worry about) and had to cancel my last two shows. While I was dissappointed to have to cancel those shows, I was happy to arrive home in time for Easter. Some of my family lives in Charlotte NC, so I spent most of my first day back catching up with family.
My dad and Aunt played some music together and it was a pleasent and relaxed Sunday afternoon. A nice change of pace from the city for sure.
Now I'm back in Asheville preparing for all of the upcoming shows this spring and summer. I have a lot of great festivals coming up that I think most of you would really enjoy! So try to make it out to one of these great festivals this spring or summer...
In April:
The Artisphere International Arts Festival in Greenville SC
4.19.2008
5:30pm-6:30pm
(Opening for Susan Tedeschi!)

In May:
LEAF (Lake Eden Arts Festival)
Black Mountain NC
5.10.2008, 5.11.2008
7pm, and 12pm (times are a bit tentative at this point)

AMJAM
Deer Fields, Horse Shoe NC
5.25.2008
7pm

Femme Festival
Charlottel NC
The Double Door Inn
5.31.2008
time is tba

MORE TO COME...check website for updates
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Philladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

So one of my favorite friends by the name of Amos Lee helped me score an opening slot for a great artist by the name of Mutlu. Mutlu has an amazing voice, with a sound very reminiscent of Marvin Gaye or other soul Gods as such. I brought Aaron Price along with me to Philly to play keys, but they didn't have room for the keys on stage with all of Mutlu's stuff there too, so Aaron played bass instead! And it sounded just fine. If it makes musical sounds, Aaron can usually play it, or at least fake his way through it enough to look like he can play it! We had to take the Greyhound to Philly from NY. Now, I don't know if any of you have taken a ride on a Greyhound before, but it was personally my first time. I never have exactly wanted to jump on a bus at night, based off of the piddledinks I see hanging around the Greyhound Station at night, but it was truly our only option $ wise. So, we hoped onto a FULL bus, (or what we thought was full), and started our journey to Philly. Aaron was a bit sleepy since he stayed out all night the night before, so he started nodding off and began to sprall out. I never thought I was clostraphobic before until I boarded that Greyhound! It was nuts! I usually can handle crowds, but for some reason, on that bus, I felt extremely sufficated. sheesh. Not to mention that AP continusouly kept falling over on me, which was actually kind of hilarious when he would jerk himself awake. But finally, we arrived, and got off the bus, and joyfully stretched out and walked about 6 blocks up to The Tin Angel. It wasn't exactly warm out, but the sun was shining, and the part of town we walked through in Philly seemed really nice. So I automatically began to feel better.
Once we arrived to the club, we walked up a long stairway and saw a stool and desk with a potato sliced 7 or 8 times and sitting under a hot lamp. (I still never figured out why that was there...very random) I could hear Mutlu warming up and he sounded amazing already. The soundguys were futzing around with stuff as they should be, and Mutlu was going over his set in the meantime. While we waited for the soundcheck to end, I drank some hot tea and made a quick 20 min. set list. We preformed Red Flag, Judgment, Wooed, Paper Bird, and Everybody Says. I don't know why I chose those songs,other than the fact that those were the ones that seemed to work best with only guitar and bass, thus, those were the songs we went with. The crowd was truly warm and kind and seemed to be into what I was putting out, which made my job so much easier! I could truly feel the love beaming off of the audience that night. Thanks Philly!





After I finished, a guy named McGowan got up and did a couple songs and he sounded great as well. I then walked out to the side of the stage to listen and make my way back to the bar where I was keeping my CD's and stuff. After McGowan, there was a short break and I began to walk back through the crowad and a man named Russel stopped me to buy the first CD of the night! I was thrilled, because I was thinking I wouldn't sell to many. But it turns out, I ended up selling around 6 CD's that night, which in my mind was great, all things considered.
After I made a few sales, and continued to make my way back to the bar, I heard someone call my name, and it was Amos! He gave me a hug hello and we chatted for a few moments before Mutlu started his set. Once Mutlu began, his voice set all my anxiety and nerves at ease and I started to sit back and relax a bit more.
At the end of the night, I passed my CD's onto Amos, and his bass player Jaron (i think is spelled that correctly), and said my goodbyes. The people I met after the show seemed to be such colorful and big hearted individuals. I felt truly blessed and honored to have the opportunity to share my music with such a dynamic crowd in Philly. Plus, I think opening up for someone like Mutlu is really what brought that group of people into the Tin Angel that night. He embodies positivity, thus, how can you go wrong when you open for someone like that?!
After we left, we were hanging with one of AP's old college buddies who made sure we made it onto our bus safely. We first made a pit stop at a place called Wawas. Oh my goodness, they let you custom order your sandwhich's on this cool little touch screen, but get this...I ordered a philly cheese steak and waited forever for the flippin' thing, and the girl working says, "we don't got no cheessteak!" I was like..."what? we're in Philly, how can you not have a philly cheesesteak?!" But alas, they had none, so I opted for a chicken sandwhich that was icky gross. But better than nothin' I suppose.

As we boarded our final bus, we realized that we had it made in the shade on the first ride. You see, on the first ride, we actually got to sit together. On the second ride, we had to not only split up, but I was sitting in "the sleeping section". On my right, the guy I was sitting next to was trying to sleep, and his legs were all stretched out as he slept up against the window. He actually wasn't even all that bad. The guy to my left was hanging over the side of his seat with his head on his knees slepping, so I had to be careful not to fall on him. But even he wasn't that bad, what made the entire situation difficult was the guy in front of me who had his seat laid alllll the way back to a point where he was basically in my lap, not to mention I had to hold my back pack in my lap since there was no more room in the carrier racks above. So I really couldn't move. Between the guy to my right, the guy to my left and and dude in front of me...I was forced to hold my body in one single position akwardly the entire time! I did actually have one variation, but that was just moving my arms from the top of my bag, to my chin every now and then! sheesh, it was an expieriance. Luckily for me though, we were only two hours from our destination! So once we arrived to NY, the guy in front of me FINALLY popped his seat up and I could move! Phew! It was definatly worth it though, Philly was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed hanging out and listenting to Mutlu too. So when all was said and done, I look back and laugh at how difficult the riding part of the trip was!
At any rate, I am trying to get back up to philly very soon, until that time though, I have a few other shows down South to attend to. Thankfully though, I won't be riding in any Greyhound buses! wooohooo!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206395640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206395640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/2/1206395640/tpod.html Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:37:23 -0400 NEW YORK 2008

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New York City, New York, United States

I have returned from the big apple, and I have a few stories to share!
Since I took so many pictures, I have decided to move my stories along with the photos. So if you get lost, my apologies! I booked my flight via usair, printed my ticket out, and left for NY on March 8th 2008. When I arrived to the airport, the trip got off to a bit of a false start since all of the flights had been delayed into NY due to weather. It was raining like cats and dogs in NY the day I decided to head up there. After a two hour delay, I began to feel a bit of relief as we boarded the plane. However, I was exhaling all to soon as I heard the captain come over the speaker announcing that the Laguardia Airport had closed the runway until further notice, and the next update time wouldn't be for another two hours. My neighbor kept falling asleep and almost falling on me, and then he'd jerk himself awake just as I thought he was about to fall on top of me, it was actually kind of amusing. However, after a while, that amusement got a little boring. So in my boredom, I began messing with my phone, text messaging people, checking emails, and taking pictures of my view from the plane window...PHOTO_ID_R=3xthedelayview.jpg] Finally, four hours, after our original departure time, The captain came back over the speaker and announced we were go for take off! FINALLY! As we climbed higher and higher, the clouds got cooler and cooler since it was a bit of a stormy day along the eastern coast. So I took a few more picture of the clouds up high. They looked pillowy and beautiful as you can see... As we descended, it was extremely cloudy , I was looking out the window and I saw a big bunch of red balloons fly past! Then just like that, there's the water, and NY...I got nervous for a split second because I forgot the runway was right along the water. But then I could see the runway, and I was relieved. We had a smooth landing, into a very rainy and chilly NY.
I was planning on meeting my boyfriend Jonathan up in NY being that it was his spring break and he had decided to come up to NY and spend it with moi. I arrived on usair, he was arriving on delta. Our flights were supposed to be arriving right around the same time, and had both been delayed due to weather. So I claimed my bags and began to wait alone, as the baggage claim area cleared out pretty quickly. After about 30 min. of waiting, I got a call from Jonathan! He explained that they had circled the city, waiting for clearance to land, and finally had to land in RICHMOND VIRGINIA! I couldn't believe it! On top of all that, they told all of the passengers that their flight in to new york wouldn't be arriving until the following day at 6pm, arriving into JFK, which was a completely different airport than originally planned! To make matters worse, they wouldn't even give any of the passengers a complementary room, or rental car, and basically told them all to just deal with it. Crazy! So, my boyfriend, being the social charmer that he is, had somehow scored a ride into the city with an older couple he was sitting with on the flight! So I went ahead and headed over to my friend/producer/keys player, Aaron Price's apartment so that we could go out a get a bite to eat in the meantime. Aaron's place was in the Upper West Side right off of Broadway and within walking distance to the subway, so it was very convenient. He was doing a house swap with a friend, so there wasn't much room, since it was really a single room apartment, but it was cozy and free! So I was just fine with the size. So, after arriving and unloading all of my stuff, we hopped on the smelly subway and went down to this little Latino restaurant in the east village, and it was SO good and affordable. On our way there, the subway had all sorts of music and performers about, and most of them were actually very good. It was a sweet little slice of the culture to kick off the trip I suppose.
So after we ate, we buzzed about the East Village checking different venues out. Aaron brought me to some of the staple venues that were the "hot spots" for my style of music. He first brought over to The Living Room, which is also said to be one of the clubs Norah Jones likes to hang out. (Aaron in fact met her one night while he was hanging out there as well!) We went upstairs to see the venue I was scheduled for at the end of the month which was called Googies Lounge. It was a bit smaller, but a quaint little room.
After The Living Room, we went right next door to Pianos which used to be a Used Piano Store, and whenever it closed down, the new owners just kept the old sign up, thus the name. It seemed to be a very popular little place as well, with lost of people swarming inside and outside of it.
We next ventured over to a place called Rockwood Music Hall. It was tiny, and packed, but apparently, I hadn't seen it packed yet. After those three, we were just wondering around and these two Austrian sounding guys stopped us and told us to come into their club because it was "all about the music". They said, there's no cover, just great music, and good drinks, come in, come in. The place was called The National Underground which had a cool vibe to it. Before I walked in though, I got the feeling that it was going to be lame since the door guys approached us as if they had lotion for us to sample like at the mall.(you know those guys I'm talking about? Always trying to stop you as you walk past their kiosk of 500 different lotion scents) However, I was pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere. The band playing was a group of older men, and they were doing all old Johnny Cash songs and stuff like that, but they were pretty good. I later found out that the National Underground is owned by Gavin DeGraw for those of you who are familiar with that artist. Around that same time, we realized it was about time for Jonathan to be arriving into New York! So we jumped back on the subway and started to head back to Aaron's place. About 30 min. after we got back, Jonathan arrives right to the front door thanks to the extremely generous couple who gave him a ride. My boyfriend has been on this goofy mission to grow as crazy of a beard as possible for the past year now. However, since it's been a couple months since I saw him last, I had forgotten all about it, so when I saw him, I had to take a picture of the madness!!! The next morning, all Jonathan and I wanted to do was sleep since he had arrived at around 3am that morning, but Aaron had made it very clear to us before we all fell asleep that he fully expected us to make it to his church service in Harlem by 10am. And since Aaron was kind enough to let us crash at his place for free while we were in town, we didn't want to disappoint! So we woke up at around what we thought was 9am, but it was actually 10am because of the time change! Oh no! So we raced as fast as we could to a cab, and down to the church service! We made it in 20 min. and were greeted by a slew of friendly faces that were all very happy to have us there. So the positive side was that we made it before the service had actually started, but the down side was, we missed most of the music! Which is exactly what Aaron is responsible for as their new music director! We did get to hear a couple of tunes though, so it was all good, and Aaron was pleased we made it. The associate pastor for the church is a former NY Giants Running Back, and delivered the sermon that day. In addition, he sang one of the songs, and shared his gift of singing! I snapped a picture of AP as he packed up afterwards... As we were waiting to leave, I noticed that we were literally just around the corner from the Apollo Theatre! As we jumped in the cab to head back, we all made note of the fact that we were starving! So we stopped for some delicious NY pizza. It's the one thing that no one can match here in Asheville. We need a good NY pizza joint. Marco's is the closest I've found, and yet they're still no where near as good. The pizza got was so good that day, of course, the slices are ridiculous and I could barely finish mine. The next day we stopped in at a diner in AP's neighborhood and had another specialty in NY, which are the bagels! So good! As we ate, Jon and I discussed his beard further as I preceded to tell him to cut his zz top beard...and he declined my request promptly.
Later that day we decided to hit Times Square and be touristy. Jonathan and I stopped in the Hershey's chocolate store, and got free samples, which made us want to set out on a mission to see just how many free samples we could score in Times Square. Before setting out on our adventure though, I had to have my picture taken with my other boyfriend...Hershey Bar. Love! And with that, the search began... First there was the M&M store...sadly, no samples, but we did get to do our M&M color mood...Jon's was ELECTRIC GREEN, I didn't do mine because all the kids discovered the machine around the same time Jonathan did, and I didn't want to actually wait in line to find out my m&m mood.
So we headed to the ToysRus store and had fun looking at all the toys, but alas, no samples. Our last attempt was in the Godiva Chocolate Store. I was sure that of all the places, that Godiva wouldn't have a thing, but to my surprise, THEY DID! They gave us dark chocolate covered almonds. After that, we came across one of my favorite shoe stores, Aerosals! I made Jonathan stop and I bought a pair of shoes for $20. I was extremely proud, and he was of course, extremely bored. So afterwards we got a coffee and almond chocolate pastry of some sort and called it a wrap for Times Square. That place is overwhelming! Talk about ADD to the maximum. That night however, we rested up and met up with one of Jon's old friends, Dave at a weird Pirate Bar that I can't remember the name of that was in Greenwhich Village. After that, we headed over to the East village to meet some of AP's friends at this bar called The Edge. We met Jake, who is an amazing singer/songwriter performer, and bears a bit of a resemblance to Amos Lee at a glance, and his roomate, Jen who is a great artist and graphic designer. Jen works for Girls Scouts of America as one of the main Graphic Designers for their newsletters etc. She also enjoys playing music and supporting other artists as well. Jake has been performing since he was very young in different cover bands and such. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that he decided to start focusing more on his own original work, which, go figure, is pretty great. We played darts and chatted it up, and then Jon and I headed back to AP's place to catch some Z's.
Tuesday, we ate breakfast at a wonderful crepe place. I had some sort of mushroom and pepper crepe (I should have ordered a sweet one), Jon ordered French Toast, and Aaron ordered a salty crepe as well. They were pretty good. Afterwards, we headed over to a beautiful church where Jonathan and I decided to explore through.
Later that same day, I had a show in Brooklyn at a place called Vox Pop. We made the mistake of taking a cab, which was around $40!!! Didn't make that mistake on our way back! It was a cool little coffee shop located in a random part of Brooklyn, but it was a chill little place, with a good sound system, and delicious vegan chocolate cupcakes!yum. Aaron and I performed songs from the album, and at the end of our set, Jonathan even got on stage with me and did a townes van zandt tune. I sold a CD or two, and had a pretty good response. It was a good warm up show for all the others to come in NY in the coming weeks. Wednesday, Jonathan and I went for a stroll through Central Park and over to the Met. We started trying to name all of the movies shot in central park, but couldn't remember half of them. When we finally arrived at the Met, we started out with a huge salad in the cafe, and then started making our way through the museum. We found some really beautiful aceint instruments and paintings inside the met. There was one painting in particular that was very interesting to me, it was a French piece called Laurent de La Hyre meaning Allegory of Music. It read that the bird on her shoulder symbolized natural music. And her exposed breast gave the piece a sense of freedom. I felt very moved by it.
Friday I had another show in Brooklyn at a place called, Stain Bar. It had a very minimal sound system, which kind of made it hard to get the levels right. Aaron was playing a parlor piano, and I didn't have my guitar plugged in and my voice sounded like I was singing into a megaphone. It was so silly. So at one point in the show, Aaron turns and says to me, "I'm gonna go pee". Which sealed the deal in my mind that it was time to stop trying to sing through the mic. So I walked out into the audience and sat on a bar stool and finished my concert in the audience. Because the truth be told, I just wasn't bonding with that mic., much less the set up of the stage. Once I came out into the audience, people moved around me and gathered in, and I realized, I had a much bigger audience than I had originally thought! So that was nice. Everyone enjoyed the set so much that I ended up selling 5 CD's which I didn't expect at all. I know 5 doesn't sound like a lot, but for the small crowd that was there, I felt good about selling any!
Later that night, we talked Jonathan into singing on the subway.

It was hilarious, he hammed it up and pretended to be a burnt out folk singer. The girl beside him was acting like she wasn't into it, but she was totally tapping her foot and even started bobbing her head back and forth. At the end of his performance, he look at her and said, was that the worst thing you've ever heard, and she was like, "it was aight...a little to country fa me, but it was aight..." I was actually kind of proud of Jon for getting the guts up to do something like that though. I don't think I could have done it. The people on the subway were so straight faced the whole time...it was classic.



Saturday, Jonathan had to leave to head back down to Florida State for the rest of his semester.(he's so close to graduation!) So after he left, I started getting ready for my full band set at The Baggot Inn in Greenwhich Village. It was a beautiful day Sat. and it was rather warm out, so there were tons of people running around town and such. I went to a rehearsal space first with my band which was made up of some of the best musicians in New York. Eric Kalb played drums, Jon Price played Bass, and Aaron played the keys of course. Our session got cut a little short and so only got to practice about 5 songs. But once we arrived to the venue, and played our set, you'd never have known that they didn't know what they were playing on half of the tunes.
It was a relief to have such professionals up there with me! They were really great. I ended up having an amazing turn out too! I was so surprised! I sold around 6-8 CD's that night, and made a little $ off the door as well. It was great. I was really missing Jonathan, but it was a great gig, and it ended up being a lot of fun none the less. Amie Ray, who is my dear friend Burke's sister in law, came to the show that night and took some great pictures. You can view more at my website as well...
(thanks Amie!)
Wed. night Amos Lee gave a surprise concert at the Rockwood Music Hall, so I went down to try catching part of the show and to see if it was all a hoax, and sure enough, there he was on stage with the band! I tried to go inside, but it was literally so jam packed full of people that I could barely fit my head in. So I watched from the window for a few, and finally gave up and went to have coffee with my old childhood friend Anna next door. Anna and I go way back, all the way to pre-school in fact! Anna's been living in NY for the past 5 years or so, so we had a lot of catching up to do for sure. It was really nice to see her and a few other old friends while I was up in NY.
The following week, I was trying to rest a bit after my highly productive first week in New York. My friend Amos Lee hooked me up with a gig in Philly at a great venue called The Tin Angel opening for Mutlu(who is also amazing,check him out). More on that in my other blog.

Friday night, I had a show in the east village in New York at a very exclusive New York club called The Living Room. I played in the upstairs part of the club, and had a smaller, but appreciative crowd. It was all in all a great trip to NY, and I made a lot of great new fans, and supporters. Which is exactly what I had set out to do in the first place! So...MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I was set to play two other shows this week, but I had some important health stuff to attend to down south, so it I had to reschedule my last two shows, which is for the better anyhow! But I will be back very soon, so if you live in NY or know anyone up there, be sure and tell them to keep an ear and eye out for me next time around!
In closing, I must say that overall, my highlight up in NY was probably when I finally started to get a hang of the subway system, and all the unintentional exercise you end up doing during the day! Of course, I didn't end up actually catching on to the subway system until the end of the trip, but hey, at least I caught on! But to be honest, I'm pretty happy to be back to my own means of transportation!
It was a great trip, with lots of colorful people along the way.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/1/1204763220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/1/1204763220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kellin/1/1204763220/tpod.html Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:14:35 -0500 2007 Wrap Up

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Asheville, North Carolina, United States

Recording at Echo Mountain was an amazing expieriance! The first day in the studio, a show that was being shot for HD-TV called, Studio South came into the studio while we worked up new material and prepared to start recording that week. Kim Clark interviewed me, and put together a beautiful glance at my time in the studio. It was so well done, and I felt so lucky to have been a part of one of the pilot episodes. You can view what the finished product was by clicking here. It was a great time in the studio, I was blessed to work with such muscians and people as:
Aaron Price, Producer and Keys, Bill Reynolds, Producer and Bass, Danny Kadar, Engineer and Co-producer, Craig Aspin of The Believers on Electric Guitar, Matt Smith on Pedal Steel, Will Straughn on lap steel, Tyler Ramsey on lap steel, Gordie Sampson on backing vocals, Sarah Dugas on backing vocals, Juan Benevidas on Nylon Acoustic Guitar, River Guerguerian on drums and percussion, Oz Orengo on drums and percussion, Scott Senior on percussion, and yes, one more drummer, none other than Mike Rhodes on Drums and percussion (mike played on the majority of the album). I mean, there were so many amazing talents that worked on this album, that I very well may have forgotten to list someone here, but you get the idea.
As if all of that wasn't enough, my album was mastered by World renowned Chris Athens at Sterling Sound in New York City. Gordie Sampson (Grammy song of the year for Jesus Take The Wheel, among many others) wrote Your Place In This World and not only allowed us to record it but laid some beautiful harmony parts down as well. All in all, it was very expensive, but a well spent investment for sure.
After finishing the making of my album, in April, I was selected along with Asheville rock legend, Woody Wood as one of the top two finalist to appear on CMT's Big Break, and open for Sara Evans in Asheville [NC.PHOTO_ID_R=kellin-and-sara-on-stage.jpg] I marked my national television debut on August 4th, 2007, and have received plenty of postive feedback from viewers and supporters. It was pretty wild having cameras follow me around constantly, I must admitt, but it was a chance for exposure that I couldn't pass up! They tried to buy us all sorts of stuff, but I didn't catch on to the fact that they were trying to spend money on us, so I turned down all of their attempts by accident! But Woody Wood got a spankin' new pair of fancy cowboots, and it made me wish I would have pushed for some dang boots ya'll. But they did follow me to the salon as I got my hair done. Some of my friends showed up to support me through the awkward filming.
They had all different kinds of wine out, and before I knew it, my boyfriend Jon and best friend Kathryn had gone through 4 bottles of wine! oh my goodness, they were so hilarious. We had fun goofing off in between takes, as you can tell from the photo.
While I had completed my album and it was ready for release, I still didn't have the funds to order the final duplication for the CD's. I was asked to be a part of Bele Chere Music festival 2007 which took place in downtown Asheville on July 28th, 2007. I had a great time slot, a killer new band line up, and an amazing turnout of passers by in addition to my wonderful fans, friends and supporters. The only thing missing from the equation was my new release, No Static! I couldn't believe I had none to sell!
All summer long I had been working hard so that I could pay off my debts, and order the CD's. I started playing at The Biltmore Estate on the weekends for one of their restaurants at the Winery to start paying some of the bills off. The pay was mediocre, but I received tips, and was allowed to sell my CD's, which helped me bring in more of an income each weekend as a whole. The crowds of course tended to be a bit hit or miss, but for the most part, it gave me time to really work my songs out and practice new material as well. Performing at the Biltmore opend unexpected doors for me as well. While performing on July 4th at The Biltmore, Billy Corgin of The Smashing Pumpkins just so happen to catch one of my sets. He was impressed enough to come over and talk to me afterwards and tryed buying my CD. He was extremely gentle and complamentary and gave myself and friends tickets to his final Asheville show(during the bands 9 day residency). You never know who might be strolling the grounds of the Biltmore I suppose!
While I continued working at The Biltmore regularly to pay all my debt off that summer, a close friend of mine and my family's approached me with a business proposal to help me pay off my debt and get my album out asap. The rate that I was going, I would have been lucky to get my album out by January of 2008! So his generous offer truly helped me out of the woods for the moment so that I could get my much anticipated 3rd album out finally!!! This person is not only a great friend of mine, but he's a great person in our community in general. He has not only helped me, but he continues to support and help performers of all genres here in Asheville and locally. He himself is not an extremely wealthy man by any means, which makes his generous offerings and show of support all that much more meaningful. He is truly one of our angels on earth, who wants to help others out of the goodness of his heart. He devotes much of his spare time to working music festivals and working merch booths for Artists on tour, or at a local venue. He is also the creater of a great musicians resource site called, ashevillemusicscene.com, which you must check out! I also received loans and donations from some of my friends and family members as well, which made such a huge difference in releasing my album at it's best! I appreciate and have great love for all of the people who helped me finally get my album out!
With the kind loan that my friend had granted me, and the donations that my family members had sent me, I was able to do a release party in my hometown of Black Mountain NC in October of 2007, and had another final release party for Asheville NC in December 2007. It was a lot of fun. A great songwriter named, Zach Blew opened for me at my Asheville release party, and he was a huge hit! Think Patty Griffin meets Amos Lee, meets someone you've never heard before but you LOVE, and you get Zach Blew. He did a great job, and you should definitly check out his myspace page to sample some of his tunes! At my Asheville release, world class photographer, John Warner came out to take some great shots of the crowd for me, he got one shot of some of my friends getting the crowd warned up for during Chains of Love. Making this record was not only fun, but it was one of the best learning expieriances I've ever had. Better than sitting in a classroom reading about making an album. To check my album out, and take a listen, head over to itunes now!
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