Keeley Boyle penned her first solo EP, Inviting, during the coldest, darkest months of the year in her hometown of Kenai, Alaska, a town with a population of only 7500 people. It is there in the depths of winter that Boyle was able to dislodge an almost decade-long spell of writer’s block, creating a glistening meditation on mental health, relationships, and the singular landscape that shapes her being.
“I made this record when I was learning how to appreciate winter up here. I think I really bonded with it, sort of out of necessity because I was very sad.” For Keeley Boyle, it is no accident that her homecoming to Kenai brought forth a long-awaited era of creativity. After spending her childhood and adolescence playing music in Alaska, Boyle lived for several years in Portland, OR and then in Nashville, TN, surrounded by the vibrancy of each city’s music scene but struggling to write herself. It was only after returning to Kenai that she experienced the revival of her songwriter’s voice. In the frozen landscape, something was coming alive.
The tenderness that Boyle holds both for herself and her environment is apparent in Inviting, in which no word is an accident and each lyric is delivered with the patience of someone who has had the opportunity to sit with her emotions without distraction. As the songs unfold, sadness begins to feel like something of a companion, and so too does the Kenai winter. Boyle’s voice floats above the deep warmth of her acoustic guitar, wavering between jazz and folk melodies and painted with often unexpected sonic hues. The record, which was produced by Boyle, shines under her intuitive direction.
The songs on Inviting benefit from the space to breathe. Boyle keeps the arrangements open: lush harmonies weave in and out of the mix, and keys and occasional percussion surface beneath her words in ripples, echoing the flowing cadence of the natural world. Each song is a deeply personal portrait of the subtleties of the mind and the environment, delivered with utmost care.
Today Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of the new EP, a four-song collection that shines with its intimate acoustic folk songs. Backed by minimal yet textured arrangements, Boyle brings a bedroom pop sensibility to her sparse folk as she crafts thoughtful songs that showcase a sense of lyrical wisdom beyond her years.
Boyle describes the inspiration and process behind the EP:
I wrote Inviting in my childhood home in Kenai, Alaska. I hadn’t had much luck with songwriting for over a decade, not for lack of trying, so it was special to enter the same rooms where my thirteen-year-old self had unabashedly written emotional songs about not wanting to go to school or my first boyfriend, and reclaim inspiration as an adult. Instrumentalists I greatly admire, Nelson Kempf, Joseph Shabason, Abbey Blackwell, Machado Mijiga, and Carmen Quill all contributed to Inviting and it was mixed by Joseph Shabason.
LISTEN:
The post ALBUM PREMIERE: Keeley Boyle Crafts Artful and Intimate Folk on EP ‘Inviting’ appeared first on Glide Magazine.
