South Australian singer songwriter Kelly Menhennett is excited to present her big, beautiful new twelve-song album ‘Small Dreams’, out through MGM The Planet Company on the 6th of June and launching on the 31st of May at The Promethean, Adelaide and followed by more national tour dates in July and August.
After early days performing at a local club in South Australia where she called out meal orders between songs, Kelly left her job as a winemaker for busking in Europe and eventually found her way back to Oz, where she performed gigs small and large, including Woodford Folk Festival. She went on to win the national 2011/12 “Telstra Road To Discovery Songwriter” award and performed at the 2012 Americana Music Festival in Nashville.
The resulting album, ‘Small Dreams’ was recorded at Mr Lemons Studio, Nashville, by producer, Neilson Hubbard (Mathew Ryan, Kim Richey, Mathew Perryman Jones) with an all-star Nashville band featuring Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket on electric guitar, Michael Rinne on bass, Evan Hutchings on drums, Kris Donegan on electric guitar and lap slide, Dan Mitchell on the keyboard and flugelhorn, Eamon McLoughlin playing the violin and David Henry on cello.
Kelly said, ‘Small Dreams’ was recorded live in the studio over 3 days and most songs were recorded within 2 or 3 takes but some songs such as ‘Small Dreams’ were recorded in one take, which is pretty impressive considering that these musicians had only been introduced to the songs 20 minutes prior! I just gave them the charts, played it to them, we discussed it and then we went to our positions to give it a go. It was a terrific experience.”
Kelly’s critically aclaimed debut album ‘World Of Mine’ quickly established a devoted audience and found critical acceptance. The songs on the album were all self-penned, including ‘Spanish Harlot,’ which was lifted from the album and used on the ‘Sounds Like Cafe’ compilation album. ‘World Of Mine’ was named one of the top 10 albums for 2011 by Rhythms magazine’s Sue Barrett. Kelly’s songwriting and performance skills also won multiple SCALA (Songwriters, Composers And Lyricists Association) awards, in 2010 alone taking out 4 awards.
Over the past 4 years Kelly has discovered her love of co-writing, especially, she says, ” …working with artists I admire.” Of the 12 songs on the album, ten are co-writes with fellow artists including the title track, which was a co-write with Charles Jenkins. Felicity Urquhart, Sarah Humphreys, Neilson Hubbard, Harry Hookey, Kevin Bennett and Kim Richey also contributed to songs throughout the album and Richey shines on background vocals on her contribution to the album, the lovely, wistful “Fly Away”.
Four years, two trips to Nashville, inestimable work hours and a fair few bottles of red wine later, Kelly is finally ready to launch her big new album ‘Small Dreams’.
You can catch Kelly launching at these upcoming shows:
Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide, SA
Sunday June 29th.
Tickets $10 at the door.
Banrock Station Wine & Wetland Centre, Kingston-On-Murray, SA
Friday July 4th
Contact Banrock Station on (08) 8583 0299
House Concert, Byron Bay, NSW
Thursday 10th July
The Treehouse, Byron Bay, NSW
Friday 11h July
The Front, Canberra, ACT – with Alice Cottee
Wednesday 16th July
Tickets $10 at the door.
The Pizza & Wine Club, Kyneton, VIC
Darwin Railway Club, Darwin, NT
Sunday 20th July
