The REP Theatre located in Seaside, Florida welcomes Grammy award winning singer-songwriter Kim Richey as part of the fall lineup of the Live@TheREP Concert Series on September 29, 2018 at 7:30p.m.. Kim’s new album, Edgeland, has the artist touring both the U.S. and UK. Edgeland moves the roots singer/subtle excavator of the human condition, Kim Richey, through the topography of the life lived by a woman committed to following her music. Flinching over hurting another, knowing the ways of the road, seeking higher ground and accepting the fact everyone’s truth isn’t a white picket fence, she continues defying labels as she defines the thinking person’s life.
“Right now, my stuff is all in storage,” she says of her state of constant motion. “I am gone so much, I have to figure it out. But then, I’m gone again. I was trying to think of places I’ve lived, what I was doing then. It gets confusing after a time, but that’s also the beauty. I need to figure out where I am going to settle, but, at the moment, I don’t seem to be in one place long enough to do that. “I’ve lived in a lot of different places – different countries even. It’s a little overwhelming, keeping track of stuff, but it’s been an amazing trip because music has taken me places I never dreamed.
Kim Richey is a traveler, after all. Musically, physically, emotionally. Not merely restless or rootless, it’s who she is. Willing to follow where the music leads, she’s landed in Los Angeles, Nashville, London, working with a who’s who of producers – Richard Bennett, Hugh Padgham, Bill Bottrell, Angelo, Giles Martin. She’s attracted a coterie of top-shelf genre-definers — Jason Isbell, Trisha Yearwood, Chuch Prophet, My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel, Wilco’s Pat Sansone – for her critically-lauded projects.
Part of what draws them to the dusky honey of her crystalline alto is the way she writes: to and from the soul, never flinching from the conflicts and crushing moments, yet always finding dignity and resilience. Her arc of the human heart is true. True enough that over the years, Richey’s been both Grammy nominated and awarded. First nominated for Yearwood’s truculently groove-country “Baby, I Lied,” then part of the Best Southern Gospel, Country or Bluegrass Album Amazing Grace 2: A Country Salute to Gospel, plus that #1 co-written with Radney Foster “Nobody Wins.”
Those standards made Glimmer one of TIME’s Top Records of 1999 and Rise named People’s Best Alt-Country Record of 2002. Even when singing from the point of view of a guy working on a barge going up and down the Ohio River in “Dear John,” her aim is true. As she says of the man refusing to read the letter that ends his romance, “because if I don’t read your letter, then it’s not over. Sometimes these songs are specific and personal, but it’s also true in ways that reflect so many other people’s experience, too.”
Sometimes Richey channels profound truths. Sometimes she embraces breezy freedom. “Leavin’ Song,” a rambler’s shuffle, is more about tasting the world than exiting a bad situation. As its chorus offers, “This ain’t no leaving song, you ain’t done nothing wrong” over an electric banjo and Resonator guitar, Richey finds the sweet spot in exulting for just being alive.
With three different tracking bands, Edgeland is a who’s who of Nashville’s roots players: beyond co-writers, steel player Dan Dugmore, drummer Jerry Roe, multi-instrumentalist Sansone, guitarist/various stringed thing players Doug Lancio and Dan Cohen, string arranger Chris Carmichael and Robin Hitchcock all contribute to the bewitchery. “So many of these guys produce and make records on their own,” she marvels. “I’m open to collaboration, too. These songs wouldn’t sound the way they do without these players.” Richey owns one’s place in the world. Here, there, going or gone, that’s all anyone can ask.
Kim’s performance will take place on The REP mainstage at 216 Quincy Circle Seaside, FL one night only, September 29, 2018, doors at 7:00pm, show at 7:30pm. Tickets are just $25 and are on sale now at www.LoveTheREP.com
Tickets and more information available at www.LoveTheREP.com
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The REP’s Fall/Winter Live@TheREP Concert Series Schedule:
Sept. 29 Kim Richey
Oct. 13 Peter Bradley Adams
October 18 Julia Othmer
Oct 19 & 20 Griffin House
November 3 Amy Black
December 2 Freddie and Francine
December 8 Leigh Nash
December 16 Charlie Mars
REP Mainstage
216 Quincy Circle
Seaside, Florida 32459
Box Office: 850-231-0733
Web: www.LoveTheREP.com
About The REP Theatre
Celebrating its 18th season, The Repertory Theatre is Northwest Florida’s premier professional theatre company. The REP has built itself into a first-rate regional theatre, attracting some of the finest talent from around the world. The REP’s host of talented theatre professionals and group of dedicated volunteers work together to entertain more than 25,000 people each year. Having established an indoor home on the stage of the 75-seat Meeting Hall Theatre in downtown Seaside, Florida, The REP has never stopped broadening its horizons, adding new programming and new venues in Seaside and beyond to better reach its expanding audience base. For five years, The REP has provided a successful drama mentoring programs to area elementary and middle schools that introduces and teaches students all aspects of professional theatre including lights, sound, costumes, sets and stage management. The REP’s mainstage is located at 216 Quincy Circle Seaside, Florida and performances can also be found throughout many communities on 30A. For more information about The REP, visit www.LovetheREP.com
