NEW LIVE MUSIC ALERT! HPPR is thrilled to announce a handful of FOLK SHOWS on the High Plains featuring banjo maestro, Kelly Hunt. She's touring across Kansas and Oklahoma with special guests Sara Morgan (Dodge City & Winfield, KS / Alva, OK) & Dirk Powell (Hays, KS), so we're happy to share the details with HPPR listeners across the land!
As you may know, Kelly performs as a folk duo with Sara in the band Of A Feather. Later this fall, she’ll perform solo for some shows, as well as her gigs with Dirk. Plus, she'll be in concert with folksinger and activist Crys Matthews for select shows. All dates are detailed below.
Kelly Hunt has premiered the final single from her forthcoming album Requiem for a Sleepless Night, produced by Dirk Powell (Joan Baez, Rhiannon Giddens, Eric Clapton), and out September 18 on Compass Records. Americana Highways premiered “Dreamer,” praising “a song of daydreams and reveries and the allure of the imagination, as Kelly Hunt gently lifts our spirits to the heights with her folksy easy soprano vocals." ~ Stream “Dreamer” now!
Today’s offering is preceded by “Clouds” and “All The King’s Horses,” singles that have gathered acclaim from The Bluegrass Situation, Folk Alley, and Atwood MAgazine among others, and which landed Hunt in the AMA Top 5 Most Added Singles chart.
“...spare, soul-stirring folk”
— Atwood Magazine
“Hunt’s breathy vocals envelop us—close your eyes & you’ll think you’re listening to Joni Mitchell" — Folk Alley
“She leverages indie-Americana textures and tones… with plenty of wisdom”
— The Bluegrass Situation
“Kelly Hunt gently lifts our spirits to the heights with her folksy easy soprano vocals"
— Americana Highways
ABOUT KELLY HUNT & HER NEW ALBUM (from her website): Memphis native, Kelly Hunt, sings with what Rolling Stone Country describes as “the lilting cadence of a folksinger born somewhere far away, sometime long ago.” There is a patina to her sound, especially when she opts for her Depression-era tenor banjo—a storied calf-skinned instrument whose origins supposedly date back to a man named Ira Tamm and his dog-and-pony show in the 1920s and 30s. That mysterious banjo with its warm, muted timbre plays the starring role in her 2019 debut album, Even the Sparrow—a finalist for the International Folk Music Awards “Album of the Year.”
But while rooted deeply in traditional forms, Hunt is far from a traditionalist, crossing at times into markedly modern territory. Her songs hover beyond the constraints of genre, navigating the tension between past and present, old world and new. As Popmatters puts it, “uncanny is Hunt’s innate ability to summon the same vigorous energy of classic folk players, all while pushing forward to modernize the instrument’s role in contemporary songwriting.” Self-taught on banjo and guitar, her style is highly original, a study in nuance—drones, inflections, pulsing rhythms, finger-picked rolls mixed with percussive strumming, drumming, and frailing. And she approaches her voice with the same subtlety, singing with a dynamic intricacy that evokes both her Irish ancestry and her upbringing in the soul-infused realm of the Mississippi River Delta. “Hunt lets the instrument shape her syllables,” Rolling Stone’s Greil Marcus writes. “From the first instant you know you’re in a place where there is no sense of time, where anything can happen and no one will ever have to admit to a thing.” And perhaps it is this timeless spark of imagination which serves as the golden thread uniting Hunt’s diverse body of work.
Following her critically acclaimed debut, Hunt joined forces with renowned musician and producer, Dirk Powell, on her sophomore album, Ozark Symphony, in which “she transports listeners from the craggy solitude and shadowy hollers of the Ozarks to the swinging streets of Memphis” [Folk Alley]. Recorded at Powell’s Cypress House studio on the banks of Bayou Teche in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, and released on Compass Records, this work features a world-class cast of musicians spanning the US and UK and lends a dash of Cajun and Celtic flavor to Hunt’s trademark blend of Americana. “Once in a while, a musical project comes along that truly captures the spirit of America […] Hunt’s Ozark Symphony does exactly this,” Grateful Web writes. “If you’ve ever been enchanted by the lyrical power of Lucinda Williams or felt the emotional tug of Nanci Griffith, then you’re about to meet your next obsession.”
On her upcoming third release, Requiem for a Sleepless Night (2026), Hunt and Powell team up again, this time in taut trio form with Powell’s daughter, Amelia, on harmony vocals. Hunt’s most contemporary work to date, this album marks a shift into a more guitar-centric sound, with banjo featured on a few key tracks but playing second fiddle overall to open-tuned acoustic guitar. Inhabiting the rarefied space between waking and dreaming, this atmospheric collection of songs is a lively meditation on love, fear, and a quest for meaning, landing on the listener like a lover’s prayer and no doubt affirming Hunt’s place amongst the most compelling voices to emerge in Americana/Roots music today. Regardless of where she charts her course next, “we strongly suggest you [...] keep your eye on this sparrow.” [Folk Radio UK]
TOUR DATES
Sep 11 | Eagleville, MO @ Leprechaun’s Hideaway (Of A Feather)
Sep 12 | Kansas City, MO @ Crossroads Music Festival (Of A Feather)
Sep 16 | Salt Lake City, UT @ RoHa Brewing Project (Of A Feather)
Sep 17 | Jackson Hole, WY @ Silver Dollar Showroom (Of A Feather w/ Screen Door Porch)
Sep 18 | Laramie, WY @ The Ruffed Up Duck Saloon (Of A Feather)
Sep 19 | Casper, WY @ The Bloomery (Of A Feather)
Sep 20 | Lander, WY @ The Wayfarer (Of A Feather)
Sep 22 | Santa Fe, NM @ Tumbleroot Brewery (Of A Feather)
Sep 24 | Dodge City, KS @ Boot Hill Distillery (Of A Feather)
Sep 25 | Winfield, KS @ Ladybird Brewing (Of A Feather)
Sep 26 | Tulsa, OK @ Alva Beer Co (Of A Feather)
Sep 27 | Wichita, KS @ Kirby’s Beer Store (Of A Feather)
Oct 11 | Memphis, TN @ South Main Sounds (solo)
Oct 22 | Springfield, MO @ The Shoe Tree Listening Room (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 23 | Paola, KS @ Paola Community Center (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 24 | Lenexa, KS @ The Green Guitar Folk House (w/ Dirk Powell; Calvin Arsenia opening)
Oct 25 | Weston, MO @ The Whiskey Snug (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 26 | Kansas City, MO @ Rural Grit at The Brick (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 27 | Hays, KS @ Hays Public Library (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 28 | Norman, OK @ TBA (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 29 | Albuquerque, NM @ TBA w/ Dirk Powell
Oct 30 | Taos, NM @ Mary’s Place at Taos Lifestyle (w/ Dirk Powell)
Oct 31 | Santa Fe, NM @ GiG Performance Space (w/ Dirk Powell)
Nov 12 | Cambridge, MN @ The Listening Room at Happy Productions (w/ Kelley Smith)
Nov 14 | Fort Atkinson, WI @ Café Carpe (w/ Kelley Smith)
Nov 15 | Aurora, IL @TBA (w/ Crys Matthews)
Nov 19 | Ames, IA @ Alluvial Brewing (w/ Kelley Smith)
Nov 20 | Holmen, WI @ Bluff View House Concerts (w/ Kelley Smith)
Nov 21 | Elkader, IA @ TBA (w/ Kelley Smith)
Nov 22 | Des Moines, IA @ xBk Live (w/ Kelley Smith)
