Kelly Willis at Susanna’s Kitchen

With rockabilly roots and a heartache-meets-honkytonk voice, Kelly Willis has been labeled a country ingénue. As a new traditionalist singer/songwriter, her tunes effortlessly combine the storytelling and strings aspects of country music and the driving force of rock.

A true Austin treasure, Willis has had an extensive career dating back some 30 years, when she first touched down in Texas. Beginning with rockabilly band Radio Ranch, she moved on to a solo stint recording five full-length albums, a compilation and an EP.

After her 1996 marriage to Bruce Robison, whose own musical credits include writing the No. 1 hits “Travelin’ Soldier” (Dixie Chicks), “Wrapped” (George Strait) and “Angry All the Time” (Tim McGraw), the two regularly toured together singing together and separately, but otherwise did not collaborate on their music, other than on a 2003 holiday album. They did collaborate creatively on two joint releases (Cheater’s Game in 2013 and Our Year in 2014) featuring duets with beautifully organic close harmonies, but more recently the reigning Austin all-Americana couple decided it was important to get out there and do their own thing musically again.

In 2018 Willis released Back to Being Blue, her first solo album in more than a decade. But artistic independence only goes so far, and she decided to hire Robison as producer on the new album. “As I was going through the process, I realized he understood what I was trying to do, and that nobody cared more about how it turned out than he did. I didn’t have a bigger fan out there in the world,” she said.

No Depression has noted that her music transcends throwback appeal: “There’s no point in being nostalgic for the generic delineations of the past. We are in the present. That’s where Kelly Willis lives. And it’s there that she sings, as keenly and movingly as any singer in the country or pop or rock present.”

You can hear Kelly Willis on Thursday, February 21 at Susanna’s Kitchen Coffeehouse. Located at the corner of RR 12 and CR 1492 (at Wimberley United Methodist Church), doors open by 7:00 pm and the concert begins at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $25 for adults, $5 for kids (at the door only.) Pizza, tamales, pie, coffee and soft drinks are available. Proceeds benefit The Barnabas Connection, Operation Good Shepherd, Camp Good Sam–Wimberley and WUMC’s Bright Beginnings Preschool.

For more information, go to www.wimberleyumc.orgor call 512-914-1703.