Kelly Jones is an adventurer. Her willingness to dive right in and
experience things fully is what made her decide to jump headlong into
music, as well as what propelled her to deliver such an accomplished second album in a very short amount of tim [+]Kelly Jones is an adventurer. Her willingness to dive right in and
experience things fully is what made her decide to jump headlong into
music, as well as what propelled her to deliver such an accomplished second album in a very short amount of time. It's what led her to move from the laidback, tightly knit comfort zone that is Portland, Oregon directly into the frenetic pace and uncaring arms of New York City. And it's most certainly apparent in her songwriting, where she explores the dark corners of yearning with an unflinching eye, a keen sense of melody and an unfailing willingness to pick herself up, dust herself off and get right back in
the ring no matter how many bruises she's sustained.
It's an unsurprising approach that was fostered at an early age. Not
everyone gets to travel the world with their British father while
being raised on a horse farm in rural Washington, or is reared in a
home with a record player as likely to be spinning '60s French pop as American country music. In high school, Kelly trained in dance and shone at classical piano, only later picking up a guitar and – in a characteristically
idiosyncratic move – beginning her career in rock covering classic
pop/rock numbers at French nightclubs when she was studying abroad.
Handle With Care is only Kelly's second album but it sounds like
something you'd expect from someone with far more years under her
belt. Where Brave Heartache was a phenomenal debut, Handle With Care
is quite simply a stunning, confident and mature record that stands
alongside such accomplished contemporaries as Kasey Chambers and Rhett Miller without qualification.
"My first album was really my first attempt at song-writing," says Kelly.
"At that point I was just trying to say something honest while searching for what I was good at. Those were little songs that came out of my journal; songs that stemmed from situations I was trying to make sense of."
Part of being a fast learner is knowing who you can trust. When it
came time to record Handle With Care, Kelly returned to her musical
home of Portland and enlisted the help of the musicians who'd
encouraged her from the start. A group of talented friends – producer
Patrick Tetreault and Drew Grow from Careen and guitarist Jaycob Van
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