Music Blog

"Imagine you’re in the middle of a tornado. Trees, pieces of a fence, car parts are all circling around you, your screaming at the top of your lungs and roman candles are shooting out of your stomach…you reach out your hand and someone grabs on." KS.

Kelli Schaefer is a raw and undeniable talent. I saw Schaefer at The Woods, Portland a fortnight ago, picked up the six songs she has so far released, and have been pre-occupied by her impact every subsequent day.

If you were to suspend belief, or to believe in fantastic ideas, you could imagine that Schaefer has been ignited by some great gifting finger from the sky. Johnny Cash would probably have ‘had faith’ in the idea and a couple of Schaefer’s songs would have found a merited place on his late and great albums.

It’s hard to know which aspect of Schaefer to be enthusiastic about first, she has a delightful, full toned voice, yet it’s the strength of all the songs that is startling, so much so that I contacted her label to check if some of these weren’t covers of classics I just happened to have missed. No, all hers, ranging easily over essential rock, soul and country elements with ease and conviction, she’s even created a nice, understated, uplift indie-pop anthem “Stand By Your Side” to rival James’ “Sit Down”.

My resistance to Schaefer’s obvious massive potential was the evident religious content: “It’s obvious we’re useless on our own, we don’t know how to be sober, so Jesus carry us over [the finish line]...” for example. Schaefer though is no blind Christian proselytizer, however-- here is her response to my question about the spiritual content in her songs. It seems that when music is truly inspired by spiritual underpinnings (Marley, Nusrat Fatih Ali Khan etc, XTC) it isn’t offensive in the way that it often is.

The set at The Woods was a little loose, (a few leads coming unplugged and such...) was she upset, or unable to sing these songs without being as moved as everyone else by the stunning combination of her voice and words? There was no petulance, just determination, even an air of defiance or a sense of awareness, that was reflected in the lyric “I’ve got the better idea/they’ve all got leveler heads/so you listen to them instead/but still... I’ve got the better idea”.

That’s from her new EP, and her label Amigo/Amiga plans to release two songs a month for a while... just like the 60’s singles market.

Buy these precious gems up now - for here, truly, is a gifted talent.

Copyright: Zaph Mann 2009-.  Reproduction with attribution is fine. Original publisher: opbmusic.org 2009


Kelli Schaefer’s response to my question about the religious content of her songs verbatim:

“i grew up attending a conservative christian church. hymns and communion with grape juice and wafers and all that, and never quite could wrap my head around it. but the basic idea of good and evil, and a way out was instilled in me at a very young age and Ive never really been able to shake it. i started attending a church called the bridge when i was in high school, based in Portland and was an off shoot of the Portland club the meow meow. Imagine you’re in the middle of a tornado. Trees, pieces of a fence, car parts are all circling around you, your screaming at the top of your lungs and roman candles are shooting out of your stomach…you reach out your hand and someone grabs on. Once you encounter that kind of spiritual chaos you never quite come back around. That’s what music is like on Sunday mornings at The Bridge. I still attend, and the bridge community has been extremely supportive and continues to be an inspiration for creative endeavors. but im constantly trying to come to grips with whatever it is I've come into contact with spiritually.  i wouldn't say Ive adopted any certain religion. there are a lot of people my age who come from similar backgrounds, and hold a grudge against it. but Ive decided to let my history with Christianity be something i can respect and build on. not saying that it hasn't done an absorbent amount of potential damage (lol) but the references that you are referring to in my music are my small attempts to reconcile myself with the beast that is Christianity.

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Tagged: interview