Daily Discovery: Keeley Valentino, “Little Things”

What do you do when your music doesn’t fit into one neatly defined box or genre? If you’re Keeley Valentino, you just stand up and sing and let the songs speak for themselves.

ARTIST: Keeley Valentino

SONG: Little Things

BIRTH DATE: 7/25

HOMETOWN: Novato, CA

CURRENT LOCATION: San Rafael, CA

AMBITIONS: To write good, honest and meaningful songs for a living

TURN-OFFS: A lack of humility

TURN-ONS: My cute husband!

DREAM GIG: To be on a bill with Lori McKenna or Patty Griffin. Or to play at The Ryman.

FAVORITE LYRIC: ‘And the heavens were rolling like a wheel on a rack. And our skies were unfolding and they’ll never fold back.’-Jackson Browne, Sky Blue and black

CRAZIEST PERSON I KNOW: Probably my brother Taylor; he runs 100 mile races! But he is also one of the coolest people I know, so it all evens out.

SONG I WISH I WROTE: Any song off of Kaleidoscope Heart by Sara Bareilles. I listened to that record over and over for months and only loved it more.

5 PEOPLE I’D MOST LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH: Oh, this is just hard. Hmm… besides the peeps I mentioned above, I’ll say: Mary Gauthier, Bruce Hornsby, Dolly Parton,Bill Bryson and The Dixie Chicks (can they count as 1?hehe).

MY FAVORITE CONCERT EXPERIENCE: When I lived in Nashville, my friend and I had the opportunity to go to a secret show of Emmylou Harris. It was announced last minute, and it was put together so that she and her band could have a run through for their upcoming European tour She had it at a pretty intimate venue and we stood right in front. She was so ridiculously good, and i felt like we were all just in her living room. It remains one of my top experiences of music at its finest.

I WROTE THIS SONG: When I was driving home from a day of babysitting. It was a long and beautiful drive on a country stretch, and it just kind of came to me. I sang the first verse and the chorus over and over to myself in my car. When I got home, I worked out what I had in my head and finished it up. It felt like I had finally found the words to something I had wanted to say for a while. those kinds of songs always feel the best.