LIVE: Gabriel Kelley & MaryLeigh Roohan @ The Linda, 5/10/13

Video by Timothy Reidy

Saratoga singer-songwriter MaryLeigh Roohan was only scheduled to be the opening act when Nashville Americana artist Gabriel Kelley made his Nippertown debut at WAMC-FM’s The Linda last Friday evening. But before the evening was over, she also found herself standing in the spotlight and singing a duet with the headliner on Walt Aldridge’s “Ain’t No Ash Will Burn”…

SECOND OPINIONS
Excerpt from David Singer’s review at The Daily Gazette: “[Kelley] called a few songs ‘bathtub music. Am I the only grown man with a beard who hangs out in a bath?’ ‘Hard Love,’ a song he recently wrote, fell in that category. He covered Van Morrison’s ‘Into the Mystic,’ slowing it considerably to inject his own dynamics. He called a few songs “bathtub music. Am I the only grown man with a beard who hangs out in a bath?” “Hard Love,” a song he recently wrote, fell in that category. He hopped over to a piano halfway through the show to play a sad, beautiful ballad, ‘When Is Enough Enough.’ It felt like a Bruce Springsteen song from his Nebraska days, even when Kelley moved into Neil Young’s ‘Helpless.’ He told us he played 250 shows last year, and he’s on track to do the same number this year. Kelley is not afraid of hard work, and seems willing to do whatever it takes to survive as a musician. Perhaps he’ll get a breakthrough, or maybe this is all one gets today playing genuine folk-like music.”