BIRDIE by The Kelly Jean Caldwell Band
Kelly Jean Caldwell’s songs glide between the twang of country, the swagger and snarl of psychedelic rock, and the earworm melodies of bubblegum pop. And her lyrics tend to complement this signature tendency for variation.
“Typically,” says Caldwell, “I’ll start a song about one thing or one person, and then I want to bring something else into it, whether It’s a dream or something else, just to not make it
too one-note.”
She wrote the song “Meatloaf,” a genre-splicing track depicting the birth of her daughter, Birdie, and it wound up sounding like an epic “science fiction tale,” according to Caldwell. The song, which premieres this week, opens with a chiming piano, overlaid by a surreal interplay between an acoustic and an electric guitar, while Caldwell croons with her almost-haunting, but utterly enchanting, lullaby. An emphatic organ joins the skyrocketing guitars just as Caldwell’s lyrics start to conjure meta