Louise Kelly

"Deep Roots" Animated Music Video is OUT!

Photo: Hannah Joy Cohen. Wings: Kelsey Boncato. Makeup: Ciarra O’Reilly

Rooted and rising in the Chicagoland area of The Prairie State, Louise Kelly is a singer, pianist, songwriter, music educator, and nature-lover.

EcoVoice Festival Performance July 10

June 23, 2022

Kinship. Fellowship. Communion. These are ideas I’d like to explore in this performance at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston, Illinois on Sunday, July 10. Although we’ll be in a church, I’m not talking about the bread and wine variety of communion. I’m talking about communion with the non-human world, something our ancestors enjoyed that … More EcoVoice Festival Performance July 10

Deep Roots is born today. What a strange (and delightful) gestation.

April 22, 2022

This song that has had a strange and communal gestational time. And today it’s born! Allow me to take you back. 2 years ago: I heard the chorus of this song in a breeze while visiting a local prairie in Downers Grove, Illinois. The people of the prairie have deep roots. They understand and help … More Deep Roots is born today. What a strange (and delightful) gestation.

🌻🍃 Deep Roots 🌷🐝 New Single

March 31, 2022

Getting down deep on Earth Day, April 22nd, 2022 It started as a song I wrote after watching the prairie unfold in springtime in 2020. Every day I went to the same prairie to take a picture and witness its transformation. It was a profound experience for me. I wondered how I have lived in “The … More 🌻🍃 Deep Roots 🌷🐝 New Single

D E E P R O O T S
music and lyrics by Louise Kelly
produced by Daniel Oldham
animation by Kelsey Boncato

P E R F O R M E R S
Louise Kelly, piano and vocals
Daniel Oldham, bass, drums, organ, guitar
Joel Henderson and Gregg Morris, background vocals

A B O U T
I spent the spring of 2020 at a local restored prairie *every single day.* I watched spring unfold through the tall grasses, the conferences of the birds and animals, the budding leaves. I wondered why I had been a stranger to this process- this restored prairie is walking distance from my home. But here in Illinois, "The Prairie State," where only 3% of original prairie is left, it's not surprising that I'd been previously unrooted in this land. Many of us are. If it were not true, there would be more prairie left.
So I asked the land about it. And this song breezed right into my ear:
"the people of the prairie have deep roots..."