"Jeff Kelley plays songs that you didn't know you wanted to hear until you heard them and then thought you recognized them until you realized that you'd never heard them before and so you kept listening and asking him to play those songs again because you wanted to have heard them before when you heard them again but somehow he kept playing new songs like you'd been dreaming of and just remembered ... unless you asked to hear someone else's song but he always knew that one, too, and played it for you."
Nicholas Karavatos
"Jeff Kelley is an amiable, serious musician. He is creative, intelligent, polite, witty, politically aware, has a sense of humor; all while managing to still be quite human. He has played music ranging from many forms of rock and folk. As a singer/songwriter, his original style occasionally evokes threads of Guthrie/Dylan/Kaukonen/or Robert Hunter."
Rik Rieder
"He fills up space! He is as he appears! He produces musical sounds! He is still alive! He often wears pants!"
Mark Duran
"Jeff is very versatile and talented as a musician, as well as being personable. I find that many performers who are as talented are also unapproachable and overly egotistical, but Jeff is one of the rare ones who does what he does for a love of music, and this shines through when I hear him perform. I imagine that Jeff is highly entertaining with or without pants, although he has always worn pants whenever I've been around him."
Alexandra Beatty
"I've know Jeff since 10th grade and have never heard anyone play "Stairway To Heaven" on an acoustic like him.....a God given gift"
Robert Seago
"He brings pure music and pure joy."
Bernadette Pino
"Dude knows a lot of dang songs."
Scott Willits
"...Jeff Kelley's music and sound is simply-complexly-simple."
Keith Leavitt
"Jeff Kelley is a phenomena. He is a provocateur, writing his songs of relevant current events with wit,
precision and a sardonic, mercurial edge. Jeff shines the light of a clear, unapologetic wordsmith onto
conversations about antiestablishmentarianism in his musical tone. He sits comfortably in the realms of
folk rock, punchy rhythm mandolin, artful and syncopated guitar, and gives proper veneration towards the
transformative ideals, without ever coming off as preachy or heavyhanded. Jeff's is shear passion, a gift
to the world's stage."
Rosalind Parducci
"Classic tunesmithing featuring effortless picking and lyrics as sly and charming as Jeff's grin."
Kate Julianna
"Jeff is the absolute most fun person I've had the pleasure to listen to, play with, record and know.
And behind the undeniably winking and smirking bits of linguistic trickery and slight of tongue, the core of
Jeff's songs remain powerful, direct and true to himself, his life, and his world."
Dominic Romano
Since first picking up a guitar in 1979, Jeff Kelley's relationship with music has been
an in depth long term commitment to a love above all others. His ability to find solace in
the crafting of songs and express emotion of every variety through both words and music make
his work both easily accessible to the listener and extraordinarily relavant. Jeff's life
has been far from average in some respects, living in a school bus with his wife and daughter
on a northern California commune for over 2 years for example. Yet, his ability to transmit
common feelings into nonlinear musical and lyrical expressions of everyday experiences is
delightful. One of the artist's closest friends
refers to this ability as "deconstructing the familiar."
When listening to Jeff for the first time many people have the experience of feeling they know
his songs from somewhere; they seem familiar, comfortable yet intriguing enough to listen to time
and again. The meaning behind the lyrics has a habit of unfolding slowly over time and changing
with every listen as the listener moves through life and changes; these are songs that grow with
you, retain their intrinsic value and unfold and develop with the listener.
Lisa Marie