Brigid Kaelin

Brigid Kaelin

Brigid Kaelin is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Louisville. She is known for lyric-driven songs, a flexible vocal style, and live performances that range from small rooms to large audiences. Her musical influences include Lyle Lovett, Nellie McKay, Norah Jones, Natalie Merchant, Carole King, Lucinda Williams and John Prine.

Career

Kaelin first works in New York City as a television producer and associate producer at CBS News, where she is the youngest associate producer at the network at the age of 21. She leaves that career to return to Kentucky when her mother is diagnosed with cancer, and she later re-establishes herself in Louisville as a performer and songwriter.

Before focusing on her solo work, she sings and plays in a New York City Irish ballad and céilí band, performing traditional tunes across the Northeast. She also works as a cabaret pianist in Manhattan’s West Village. In Louisville, she often performs as a sideman with local rock acts including Tim Krekel, Danny Flanigan and Peter Searcy.

Style and performance

Kaelin is a trained jazz pianist and plays a wide range of material, including jazz, rock, classical and country. She is also noted for playing several instruments and for direct audience interaction in performance. She has opened for artists including Kim Richey, Over the Rhine, Garrison Starr, Matthew Ryan, David Mead and Patty Griffin.

Releases and recognition

Her first CD, Keep Your Secrets, appears in 2005 and sells strongly in Louisville, where it outsells other local solo artists. The songs from the album receive radio play on stations including WFPK, WNKU, WHAY and WUKY. One song, “Future Mr. Used-to-Be,” wins an award in the Great American Song Contest.

Kaelin’s work is described in press quotes as songwriting-focused and musically versatile, and she is associated with Americana, cabaret and genre-crossing roots music.