Joan Shelley

photo by Erbu Yildiz

It was an honor to represent Kentucky in Sweden, at the U.S. embassy in Stockholm. Nathan Salsburg and I played for a bright room of Swedes involved in the art and science and technology of their place. Inspiring to say the least. A solid crew from the famous Baggpipe studios came out as well and we spent the next day at the studio talking to and playing for students of music production and songwriting. While no ambassador yet resides at the embassy in Stockholm, we were invited and kindly treated by the people who have been working for years there. We were honored to be their guests. My heart has been breaking and re-mending regularly these past few days. These experiences have done the mending. I am heartened by some news from home today. There is so much work left to do, and I am inspired by the people I have met along this way who made my world a little bigger and the view more bright and exciting. One more show tonight in Malmo (at Folk å Rock (Official) and then we head back home to unpack all that we’ve stored up.

We (and many other bands you like) take photos when we aren’t in the car rental waiting room, airport, basement of venue, on the highway and in every “Welcome Break” in the U.K. We are in London now, in the immense Barbican complex, about to open up for Richard Thompson - RT and that is admittedly pretty dreamy

Getting to play and sing with these angel voices has been a great highlight of my life. Tonight Nathan and I will be joined by Julia Purcell and Cheyenne Mize (playing the the smaller butter-bass, not this big one) in Louisville for a hometown show before we go across the sea. We're going to insist on making it a great time, if only to celebrate Julia's getting her first ever passport! Elephant Micah kicks things off tonight! 7:30 doors 8:30 Elephant Micah See you there friends

Photo by Ebru Yildiz

This explains what we did with the "Rivers & Vessels" benefit album, and the benefit show on the boat - the force that helped me and sometimes carried me on this little walk was Revolutions Per Minute and the unstoppable Jessica George to benefit our dear Kentucky waterways through Kentucky Waterways Alliance

My guitar better-half launched his new album of solo guitar songs out into the world last Friday. I am pleased to see the positive response! "Third" can be best found on bandcamp or the No Quarter website, also the other regular places you find music. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nathan-salsburg-third/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

The first listen for Nathan Salsburg's new solo acoustic guitar record "Third" is up today on NPR website. You know already that I'm a fountain of praise for Nathan, my #1 guitar player. So I suggest you all try it out and see for yourself. The album comes out next Friday July 20th!

Tonight s the night in San Francisco With Emmett Kelly (Cairo Gang) pushing this swan boat off the shore at 8:30pm At the Swedish American Hall

Marisa Anderson has a new record coming soon. Link to "First Listen" below. We are sharing two shows together later this month: June 19th at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center in Seattle June 20th at Mississippi Studios in Portland Tickets available here: http://www.joanshelley.net/tour-1/ First Listen: Marisa Anderson, 'Cloud Corner' https://n.pr/2xpnecQ

Photos from Joan Shelley's post

The show on the Belle of Louisville! Less than a week till we pull out of the dock with Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Julia Purcell, Nathan Salsburg, Daniel Martin Moore, the ol June Brides band. get your tickets before they go: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3423583 ******* No cost has been spared to make this a great time for all. Nathan Salsburg for example, has hounded the Belle staff till they would stock for us a local beer or two behind the bar. Ryan Davis has ensured that the music will be absolutely inescapable while on the boat. Jessica George and RPM has made sure Kentucky Waterways Alliance is getting all the support we can muster from this gathering. Band practice is sounding great. We have a good team and a good night in store for everybody.

Steaming not streaming, but benefiting streams, and rivers! Mark your calendars: We're floating a show down the Ohio river on the Belle of Louisville ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Joined by good pals Daniel Martin Moore, The Other Years and more ~~~ we'll be playing songs from the new EP, "Rivers & Vessels" and a portion of the proceeds goes to Kentucky Waterways Alliance Out of towners- if ever you needed an excuse to come visit Louisville, this is it! Bring the friends you want to be on a boat with for two hours! One-time only and it's going to be a blast. Rain or shine! May 22nd, a Tuesday, 7:30 loading, 8-10pm cruise tickets: https://m.bpt.me/event/3423583 Made possible by the good folks at Cropped Out and 91.9 WFPK Independent Louisville

Here it is, a new EP out today! It's called "Rivers & Vessels" Featuring guest-friends Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Julia Purcell (of Maiden Radio), Daniel Martin Moore, Nathan Salsburg, and Doug Paisley on there. 100% of the sales on bandcamp go to the Kentucky Waterways Alliance. It started with a Nick Drake cover I did for Mojo Magazine that came out last month. Then I went and asked some of my friends and favorites to help me make a reocrd of some of my favorite songs, to raise some money for keeping the water clean. We spent a day in the La La Land in February in Louisville, KY and put together these tunes: 1. Time Has Told Me - (by Nick Drake) 2. Magnolia (feat. Julia Purcell) - (by J.J.Cale) 3. Pretty Little Miss (feat. Doug Paisley) - (trad. as learned from Cousin Emmy) 4. The Bridge (feat. Bonnie “Prince” Billy) - (by Dolly Parton) 5. How Sad How Lovely (feat. Daniel Martin Moore) - (by Connie Converse) 6. Silver Whistle - (trad. as learned from June Tabor and Maddy Prior) The only physical presence for this release comes in the form of a limited edition 3-print set of illustrations by Lettie Jane Rennekamp, printed by Patrick Masterson Letterpress. Lettie illustrated lyrics from Over And Even, and there we only printed 100. Check them out: https://joanshelley.bandcamp.com/merch/limited-edition-custom-print-set-download We've got tours this spring and summer to announce as well. So check out the Joanshelley.net website and see if we will intersect in 2018... Roll Credits! Drums - Sean Johnson Bass - John Pedigo (except track 1, Bass - Kevin Ratterman) Guitars - Joan Shelley & Nathan Salsburg Engineered and mixed by Anne Gauthier at La La Land in Louisville, Kentucky, except "Time Has Told Me" which was engineered and mixed by Kevin Ratterman. Mastered by Kevin Ratterman Cover collage by Joan Shelley Sincere thanks to the musicians who volunteered their time and talent to this project. Also thank you Jessica George of Revolutions Per Minute for coordinating and motivating, Lettie Jane Rennekamp for contributing her illustrations and the title, Patrick Masterson Letterpress Printing, Catherine Irwin, Glen Dentinger, Mike Quinn, Jessica Kane, and everyone at the Kentucky Waterways Alliance for their vital work.

New EP out today! "Rivers & Vessels" is 6 covers, one of which is "The Bridge" by Dolly Parton with Bonnie "Prince" Billy, featured here on Rolling Stone today- 100% of the sales on bandcamp go to the Kentucky Waterways Alliance https://joanshelley.bandcamp.com/album/rivers-and-vessels

I hope you're all not there, running free and wild... but if you are, and you're in Louisville tomorrow night, come see me lose my mind and raise my expectations immensely! I'm playing a few songs with the Louisville Orchestra and it all starts at 8. Gonna be great and I'm pretty sure it won't be "shareable" in any other way (except maybe a short clip of my mom's phone being taken away from her by an usher) ⭐️

Here it is, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Nathan Salsburg, Elsa Hansen, and me singing "If You Ever Get To Houston." Part of the full record spearheaded by Jolie Holland that benefits school children effected by Hurricane Harvey, which comes out April 6th. You can be a nice person and preorder the whole thing now I believe if you follow the links

Really looking forward to singing with the Louisville Orchestra March 24!!?! https://louisvilleorchestra.org/concert/classics-kentucky-classics-festival-american-music-1/

Wow, Sean Johnson , remember this video we did of "siren" in the car wash.. 6 years ago? Someone recently reposted it and brought our little baby faces to my attention. Video was shot by Kertis Creative - thanks you guys. One for the virtual scrap book. https://vimeo.com/31059069

Recorded a cover of "Time Has Told Me" for Mojo magazine's March issue tribute to Nick Drake. I'm joined by Kevin Ratterman on bass and Nathan Salsburg on the 2nd acoustic guitar

Lineups this spring include The Other Years, Chris Smither and Richard Thompson - RT giving me much to look forward to.

If you're making a list... "If The Storms Never Came" made The NY Times best songs of the year! And the whole album made NPR's albums of the year list https://www.npr.org/2017/12/12/568400855/the-50-best-albums-of-2017 🎉🥂🎉

#5 in the new Uncut Magazine top 75 albums of the year! 🥂Break out the honeyed cider. And in good company with The Weather Station - my favorite album this year by far The CD includes "If The storms never came," too.

The new issue of fRoots Magazine just came out!

Check this out - The Oxford American magazine drops into Kentucky for their music issue this year. If you pick up their winter edition, the CD has got music by Freakwater, James Lindsey, Brett Ratliff, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Rachel Grimes, yours truly, among many others (They don't skip Bill Monroe, King Kong, The Everly Brothers, Loretta, or Dwight Yoakam), and writing by Nathan Salsburg, Joe Manning, Silas House, and more Very proud of our all-female collaboration that is track 23. The octet that is mentioned is just called "Locust Grove Octet," because we needed a short name to fit in the formatting. But credit is due to the talented people will pulled it off! They are: Anna Krippenstapel, Sarah Wood, Heather Summers, Montana Hobbs, Linda Jean Stokley, Julia Purcell, and Cheyenne Mize. Hope you enjoy