Concert Club: Kelly Willis

2023fri08sep8:00 pmConcert Club: Kelly WillisCountry For All

Time

(Friday) 8:00 pm(GMT-05:00)

Event Details

This show is a part of Concert Club! Find out more about the Long Center’s series of Texas-based artists in our Rollins Studio Theatre and how to snag one of those swanky cabaret tables.

On some other plane out there in the great big multiverse, Kelly Willis could well be the biggest Nashville country music star of the last 35 years. But things panned out rather differently for her here on this Earth. The Oklahoma-born Army brat was barely into her early 20s and still cutting her teeth fronting a spunky rockabilly band in Austin when a “check-this-kid-out” tip from Texas songwriter Nanci Griffith landed her on the radar of producer Tony Brown, who promptly signed her to MCA Records.

How exactly her auspicious fireball of a debut, 1990’s Well Travelled Love, and even a plumb spot on the soundtrack to the following year’s Thelma & Louise, somehow failed to burn Willis’ name and voice into the mainstream consciousness remains a bone of bumfuzzlement for many a fan and critic to this day, but suffice it to say — Willis was still in her early 20s when MCA dropped her just two albums later. And that, perhaps goes the Kelly Willis story in yet another alternate universe, was that. But lucky again for all of us here in this reality, “our” Kelly Willis was just getting started.

Liberated from the Nashville playbook and emboldened by a jolting shot of nothing-left-to-lose, she set about making her next record in Austin her way. The end result, 1999’s aptly-titled What I Deserve, changed everything. “A big part of making that record was me thinking, ‘I’ll probably never get to make another one after this, so if this has to be my swan song, I’m not going to compromise,’” she says today. “That was a really big sea change for me to take the reins like that, and it was incredibly satisfying and gratifying that it then found a home with [independent label] Ryko and did so well. It was a pivotal moment that fueled the rest of my career.”

A bracingly assertive showcase not just for Willis’ masterful control of her “enormous voice” (per noted “Consumer’s Guide” critic Robert Christgau) but also for her burgeoning songwriting chops (be it solo or collaborating with the likes of John Leventhal and the Jayhawks’ Gary Louris), What I Deserve may not have made Kelly a household name on the order of Shania, Faith, or Reba, but it clinched her standing as a bona fide darling of the national (and international) alt-country scene. Writers from No Depression to Rolling Stone cheered her “comeback,” and fans in her adopted hometown voted it “Album of the Year” in the Austin Music Awards.

A decade later would find her inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame. The six albums Willis has made since What I Deserve have only burnished her reputation as Austin’s reigning queen of Americana. Three of those albums, including 2019’s Beautiful Lie, were duo records made with her now ex-husband, fellow singer-songwriter Bruce Robison — who also produced Willis’ last solo album, 2018’s “richly satisfying” (NPR) Back Being Blue. The couple (who in addition to recording and touring together for years also raised four children together) announced their separation in early 2022, marking both the end of an era and the beginning of yet another “big sea change” for Willis. Looking ahead to the next stage of her life and career, she admits that the whole business of “starting over” — especially musically — can be scary, but she’s starting to get the hang of it.

LONG VIEW
This event is a part of our Long View lineup! Starting June 21st, you can save 15% when you buy tickets to 2+ shows. See What’s On

more

What To Expect

  • This is an indoor event.
  • All patrons, regardless of age, require a ticket to attend the performance.
  • Prohibited items include but are not limited to: Outside food or drinks, weapons of any kind including pocket knives, Professional cameras (cameras with detachable lenses), Video cameras, illegal or illicit items of any kind, tents, vending of any kind and soliciting of any kind.
  • Animals and pets are not permitted except for properly identified service animals.

Questions? Email our 3M Box Office or hit us up on social media at any time. You can also call the 3M Box Office at (512) 474-LONG (5664) or TTY (800) 735-2989 and get your questions answered right away.

Accessibility

Learn more about our accessibility services or contact us with questions ahead of your visit.

Year-End Gift 2023 | Long Center
Your Support Today, Transforms Tomorrow

We’ve made it our mission to support creativity in all its forms, and we hope this season you’ll join us and do the same. Your donation doesn’t just support our work, it’s a declaration that creativity belongs to everyone

LEVEL UP YOUR DROP-IN

Become a LC member today and and get first dibs on RSVP before the public, early entrance into the venue for you and your guests, members-only bars, and other surprises!

Amplify Austin is here – and we need your help to provide free arts experiences for K-12 students through our Long Reach for the Arts program.  Because the kids need art!