Biography

Mark Pucci Media
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 14, 2008
Contact: Mark Pucci (770) 804-9555


KELLY RICHEY IS READY TO CARRY THE LIGHT

NEW CD DUE JUNE 3 ON SWEET LUCY RECORDS


CINCINNATI, OH - Sweet Lucy Records announces a June 3rd release date for Carry the Light, the new studio CD from guitarist/singer Kelly Richey, with national distribution by Select-O-Hits.

Carry the Light is an album of all-original songs co-produced by Ms. Richey and Rick Brantley that expertly demonstrates all the tools she brings to the table as a songwriter, singer and a powerful, provocative guitar player. Her music is a thrilling mix of blues-powered rock that has made Kelly Richey one of the most exciting live acts on tour.

Carry the Light reflects every bit of Richey’s stellar guitar tone and style, while propelling her into a new light as a thoughtful and insightful singer/songwriter. The 11 tracks range from personal reflection and contemplation to illuminating thoughts on our world situation.

“This CD was written with my guitar mentor, John Redell, and songwriter Steve Carroll,” says Richey about the new album. “Each week for four months, John and I got together and hammered out song ideas. Many songs were passed on to Steve to add either a chorus, bridge or to strengthen the melody line. Steve also sent songs he wrote based on ideas/concepts we discussed and John and I constructed guitar parts to help make the songs come to life. I was constantly challenged by John to grow as a guitarist, and challenged by Steve to construct songs that stood alone with or without guitar wizardry.”

“Rick Brantley was a guitarist and has a guitar player’s dream studio,” Richey says. “I asked Rick to co-produce the project because I knew I had taken the songs as far as I could and needed an outside perspective to insure that the CD sounded like the best commercial release possible, while maintaining the character that it had when written. We decided that I needed to move away from such a ‘live’ mentality and into a more studio frame of mind, so we chose to bring in session players who could capture the foundational tracks with perfection and speed; then, we could place the majority of our time capturing the best guitar and vocal performances that I could produce.”

With her current touring band, Kelly Richey has all the ingredients to transfer the songs on Carry the Light to the stage. “I feel that this CD says something that needs to be said in this day and age when commercialism often supersedes the realities that we as individuals face,” says Kelly. “I feel that this is an important role that music provides in society, especially during times when we face such conflict and division. Music has always been the medicine as well as the vehicle to carry light and hope from each generation to the next.”

Guitarist/singer Kelly Richey has been described by one music critic as: “Stevie Ray Vaughan trapped in a woman’s body with Janis Joplin screaming to get out.” The Lexington, Kentucky native, who’s been based in Cincinnati for many years, has often been compared to Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix because of her ability to capture and entertain an audience with ripping guitar leads that both sing and astonish.

Richey began her professional career as a member of the Arista Records group, Stealin' Horses. In 1990, she formed The Kelly Richey Band and has gone on to become both a nationally and internationally touring artist. Since establishing her own label, Sweet Lucy Records, Ms.Richey has released a number of CDs as both a solo artist and as The Kelly Richey Band. In Cincinnati, Kelly and her band have won multiple awards, including Best Blues/RB Band, Best Rock Band, Best Musician, and Best Band.

Her last CD, Speechless, was an all-original instrumental album that generated praise from fans and critics alike, with Blues Revue calling it “an inspiring and extraordinarily controlled display of six-string talent.” Goldmine magazine perhaps summed it up best by declaring the CD, “an incendiary blast through her influences, an all-instrumental set that picks up where the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Roy Buchanan, Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, and Al DiMeola left off (or were once spotted) and tears hell for leather through a series of stylings and storms that render you slack-jawed in amazement.”

Kelly Richey will tour extensively in support of Carry the Light. For more information, visit her web site at www.kellyrichey.com.