Iāve had the good fortune of knowing Kentuckian country queen-in-waiting Kelsey Waldon for almost the entire time Iāve lived in Nashville ā more than eight years at the time of this writing. Iāve stood over her unfathomably enormous cast iron skillet, filled to the brim with bubbling, sizzling battered fish. Iāve sung harmony on one too many choruses of āSmoky Mountain Memoriesā after perhaps one too many slugs of Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey with her, too.Ā
And yet, in listening to her brand new album, White Noise/White Lines,Ā I still found myself picking up fresh tidbits of her extraordinary yet downright ordinary approach to musicmaking, songwriting, self-expression, and artistic exploration.Ā Waldon, despite limitless comparisons to almost every female country forebear to ever growl through a lyric, remains a paragon unto herself, a true singularity in realms of American roots music.Ā
White Noise/White Lines cements the fact (which has always been plain as day to those who dug deep enough) that Waldon will refuse tidy, one-for-one comparisons to any/all other country stars and writers who have come before her or who count themselves among her contemporaries. Except perhaps two: Loretta Lynn ā whose “Coal Miner’s Daughter” inspired Waldonās own āKentucky, 1988ā ā and John Prine. The latter is fitting, in so many ways, now that Waldon makes her label home with Oh Boy Records, label of the denizen of Kentucky songs, meat and threes, and plain spoken oracle-like wisdom through lyrics.Ā
A brief album by many measures,Ā White Noise/White LinesĀ captures technicolor moments of Waldonās life, her joys, her musings, and her homeplace, encouraging listeners to lean into the recordās brevity and engage wholly with each constituent moment therein. Because truth needs no more than a moment.
For BGS I made the trek out to Waldonās cabin outside of Nashville and after a quick stroll around the vegetable gardens and a tour of the many Kentucky-themed decor items imported from one state north, we settled in the kitchen, sipping water out of mason jars, to talk.
People routinely refer to you as being similar to Loretta, similar to Tammy Wynette, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline. People are constantly making these comparisons to these kind of foremothers of country and I wonder how that makes you feel, to be a bookend against someone like Loretta or Tammy Wynette?
Kelsey Waldon: Honestly, I think thatās an incredible compliment. Those are all, you know, my sisters that have gone before me, women that Iāve looked up to quite a bit. Especially in the country music realm. However, I also kind of feel like, especially with this new record, I think itās apparent that hopefully Iām also finding quite a bit of my own thing.Ā
Sometimes when people say things like that to me itās like, well maybe their scope of country music isnāt that wide. When someone would be like, āYou sound like Patsy Cline!ā Iād be like, āUh, no I donāt.ā [Laughs] I mean, I love Patsy Cline and I hold her up as something sacred, I wouldnāt ever even sing Patsy just because nothing touches that.Ā
I think it can kind of be, dare I say, a lazy comparison to just kind of name [some popular woman country star.] Itās definitely there. Even sonically, I was so inspired by them. Especially Loretta, absolutely.
I hope the new record showcases that with the years weāve spent on the road — just using even my own touring band. It starts at country with me, I canāt just flip off a light switch and say, āOh, itās not country!ā I guess some people can do that, but I donāt see it that way. Country is just so much embedded in me. No matter what form my artistic expression comes out, thatās still gonna be there. It just may not be cookie cutter, it may not be formulated. It may not even sound exactly like that. One thing that I think the growth of this record shows, hopefully, is that these are my songs, Iām not a throwback artist. Iām not a retro artist. I am an artist making music in 2019.
I did want to talk about your band, I think itās remarkable. Itās getting more and more rare that folks tour with the folks who played on the record, because ā and itās not the fault of anybody ā theyāre trying to make money on the road. So if they stack their record, of course they arenāt bringing those people on tour. Why is it a priority for you to have the same band?
There are obviously all of these amazing musicians out there who are session musicians and a lot of people Iāve been fortunate enough to play with myself. Iāve learned a lot from [them]. This time around, this was always a goal of mine, to have a record that had a band I wanted on it. I worked really hard to find the band to really fit those pieces together. It took me a whileā¦Ā just trying to figure out really what I wanted. My last record, Iāve Got A Way, caused the right people to gravitate towards my music. I mean, I eventually found the band that I have now because they heard those earlier records and they were like, āI would love to be a part of this.ā
The band I have now, which is Mike Khalil, Nate Felty, and Alec Newnam — and Brett Resnick played on the record, but he doesnāt get to play with us a lot anymore, he plays with Kacey Musgraves, which is wonderful. But with the band I have now I just knew it. I was like, āI think this is it.ā We all knew it. Even Brett. People were like, āWe think this is the right combination.ā
In that way, too, thereās nothing wrong at all with using session players, I just think, honestly ā and I might be a little biased ā my band is just as good as any. I think they could, and they will be one day, they will be those session players. They care so much about their craft and they work hard. Iām very lucky.Ā
One of the things that excites me most about this record is that Iāve always heard the bluegrass influences in your music, but theyāre really forward in this record. Especially in your rhythm playing, in your rhetorical style in your writing, in your vocal phrasing, even in the arrangements with the twin fiddles and there are a couple of āfast waltzesā on the record. I love that āLived and Let Goā really could be played on bluegrass radio.Ā
I think that is such a huge compliment, thank you.
Itās bluegrass! I wanted to ask, and not just because weāre The Bluegrass Situation, but in general, because this is a huge part of the canon of music you reference and that you listen to. Who in the bluegrass sphere influences you now and who has in the past ā and Iām gathering Ola Belle Reed is at least one of them.Ā
I love Ola Belle, obviously, we did an Ola Belle song on the record. Well, I love that you can pick that out. To me, I feel like itās plain as day that thereās a bluegrass influence all over it. To some people itās not as apparent, I guess. Iāve had some people just be like, āWhat is this thing that youāre doing?ā Itās because they donāt listen to bluegrass. Iām like, āI STOLE that!ā [Laughs]
I guess I understand now why they donāt put those two together, if youāre talking about mainstream country, because thatās clearly not. But to me, Iām always like, āOf course bluegrass is country.ā Itās also bluegrass, but itās also country.Ā Itās like the OG country music.Ā
I would say one of my favorite influences, one of my favorite singers ever, is Dale Ann Bradley. Sheās up there for me. I really think Dale Ann should be a legend, honestly. And Ralph Stanley, and obviously I love Bill [Monroe], and Jim & Jesse, and all those groups. And early Keith Whitley, Iāve been obsessed with that for a long time.Ā
I think itās interesting that you mention both Ralph and Keith back to back like that, because you can hear elements of both of their vocal phrasing and vocal techniques, in what you do singing-wise.Ā
The same thing with Dale Ann. They have such unique registers of their voices and itās something that I really relate to. Sometimes I didnāt really know what it was that I was doing. I could kind of hear my own voice in [their vocals]. If that makes sense? I could really relate to that. Itās so soulful.Ā
I feel like Keith could sing on anything. [Laughs] He sounded exactly like Keith. Thatās the beautiful thing about a country singer to me, he could sing on an R&B track and it would be sexy as hell. Itās like George Jones — and Dolly can sing on anything, as far as Iām concerned. Thatās a great singer, to me. Ralph, Iāve always said that he is like the Pop Staples of mountain music. Itās like he doesnāt even have to be loud, but he is so loud. Heās barely singing. Heās just projecting. I love Flatt & Scruggs as well.Ā
New artistsā¦ Molly Tuttle, I love what sheās doing. That new record. Sheās really taking a genre and making it her own. Something thatās not worn out or tired. Doing something fresh. She has accomplished making this new for people. In my own way, I hope to do that as well.Ā
I donāt guess thereās anybody else completely new, besides like Sister Sadie, and Dale Ann! [Laughs] They are some BAD girls!! Dale Ann, man. The mark of a true artist is that she can sing all of the covers she does. Like I said, I think Dale Ann should be a legend.Ā
Words are clearly your priority in your songwriting. Youāre prioritizing what youāre meaning to say first and foremost, then making the melody and music and everything work around what youāre trying to say. It sounds effortless when you listen to it, but I wonder what kind of intention goes into that?
Songwriting is kind of interesting to me in that way. Iāve actually heard a couple people be like, āIt sounds effortless.ā Sometimes, it is effortless and youāre just like, āWow that kind of poured out of me. I didnāt realize it was in there but it poured out of me in like five to ten minutes.ā With this record, though, there were definitely a couple of things I had to go back to. I had the meat and taters, but there were a couple of things I rewrote and made sure made exactly the sense I wanted them to make. Thereās a balance there, too. You donāt want to kind of go too far, over-analyzing the whole thing.
With āKentucky, 1988,ā I think your songwriting up to this point has felt so personal, and so tightly intertwined with who you are, that I almost didnāt realize that you hadnāt written this exact kind of song, yet. What brought you to the point of wanting to be that direct with telling your origin story? Was it more intuitive or more purposeful?
That was definitely purposeful. That is awesome that youāve observed that, because Iāve felt the exact same way. I was writing new songs and I felt like, āYou know, I havenāt written my āCoal Minerās Daughter.āā I donāt really have something that is kind of like this definitive origin story. I just set out to write it. The title was actually kind of inspired by someone I forgot to mention, Larry Sparks ā one of my favorite singers.Ā
Oh my gosh!! āTennessee, 1949!!āĀ
Yeah! Yeah, it was inspired by that. That and a Tom T. Hall song that has Kentucky and a year in the title, with the comma and everything. In my head all of that sounded so cool. Everything about it, the rhythmic feel, it all rolled right off my tongue great. I just had to write it. People always [say], āThatās very vulnerable and transparent.ā Well yeah, isnāt that what weāre supposed to do? [Laughs]
I know a lot of artists say this, but I definitely think this is the most personal thing Iāve done so far. I think all of it has been very transparent, in a way. I want to completely embrace that. I want to be as much of a freak as I want to be. Itās not like I was afraid to before, I just donāt think that I was ready. My mom always said I was a late bloomer, but she said, āWhen you bloom, baby, youāll bloom!āĀ Ā
I did want to ask you about the significance of the Chickasaw Nation members singing on the record. We hear them at the end of āWhite Noise, White Lines.ā Whatās the personal significance of that for you? And are you a tribal member? Is anybody in your family a tribal member?Ā
No. All of the Rollins side of my family, which is my grannyās side, they were all of French and Native American descent, but I never claimed anything like that. I just think itās been something thatās been such a part of where I grew up, culturally. Even just hunting for points [arrowheads] and having such a respect for that way of life and culture.Ā
Itās always really hard to keep this story short, when people ask me about the song, because I wrote it right after this amazing experience I had back home in Monkeyās Eyebrow, Kentucky, my hometown. When I went back to watch a ceremonial dance that the Chickasaw from Ada, Oklahoma [performed]. They came to re-bless the Wickliffe Mounds. They ended up lodging at my Dadās that night, for free, [he was] cooking the food, doing the catering and stuff. I ended up staying down there and visiting.
We just became friends with the members of the tribe. We had so much fun. Theyāve kept in touch… My dad took them arrowhead hunting for the first time, and they were doing ceremonial dances out on my dadās land as well. I think he really really was appreciative of that. We were kind of the only people who ever lived down there in those river bottoms, maybe besides [the Chickasaw]. I mean, itās the river bottoms. Thatās why we find all these artifacts. No one has been down there except us.Ā
I just remember thinking about how awesome the weekend had been and the radio had been on white noise for literally fifteen minutes and I had no idea. I was just in this tranquil moment. The song is just a detail of all these things. The solar eclipse had also blown my mind that weekend. Just realizing how small we actually are, compared to what is even going on in this universe.Ā
Naturally, I included the details. āChickasaw man got a buffalo skin drum,ā because Ace — Ace Greenwood and Jesse Lindsey, thatās whoās on the song — actually did have a buffalo skin drum. It was pretty badass. My dad asked them to sing some songs on the porch. I love Aceās voice, it reminds me of Ralph Stanley. Itās a voice that just feels like itās been there for a long time. Itās so pure. I just loved it, I was really touched.
He sang a song that had been in his family for generations. The message of the song was basically, āThough Iām far away Iām still near you. No matter where I am. We are together.ā In that moment that really was something I needed to hear. I put that [on the record] not only because I thought it was beautiful, and I wanted people to experience what I felt, but I also wanted the record to feel like an experience.Ā
Ace told me one time when we were down there that the media likes to tell his people who they are and thatās not who they are. I think in a way, perhaps itās also why I thought it would be really beautiful to have that at the end as well. I hope it doesnāt seem like it was for my own reasons, I guess. I was just writing about that weekend and I felt like it was so beautiful to me I wanted it to be documented.Ā
I think it makes a lot of sense. And Iām not saying itās not a complicated thing to talk about, or that it doesnāt trip into some territory that we as settlers will never fully understand, but I do think that it follows perfectly with you bringing your whole entire self to your music. So much of what you do is tied to place and is tied to coming from Kentucky.Ā
That was another part of it, showcasing where Iām from. And the cultural background of it.Ā
And not just the colonial background of where youāre from?Ā
No. I mean absolutely not. To me, thatās exactly how I saw it. Nail on the head. It might cause a little bit of question, but I think thatās good. āCause then Iāll get asked about it. And then Iāll tell āem. [Laughs]Ā
Photos by Laura Partain for BGS. See the entire photo story.