As you enter Monkey’s Eyebrow (population 290), Ballard County, Kentucky, a sign greets you ‘MONKEY’S EYEBROW HOME OF KELSEY WALDON.’ The county has honoured Kelsey's achievements alongside Kentucky legends like Loretta Lynn, Bill Monroe, and Tom T. Hall. Signed to John Prine’s OH BOY record label in 2019, Kelsey released her sixth album, EVERY GHOST, in 2025. Over the past six years, she has played solo shows in Ireland. Now, on January 20th, she brings her acclaimed touring band, The Muleskinners, to Dublin's Whelan’s for a much-anticipated performance. We spoke with Kelsey just before she finished packing for her three-week European tour.
Do you recall your first visit to play Dublin in 2020?
Yes, and that feels like a lifetime ago, it was my very first tour overseas and just before the shit hit the fan with Covid. That whole tour feels crazy now, we hit it hard, we were over that side for a month, it was a solo tour, and I was there with my tour manager at the time, Clara Sue Bailey. I think this will be my fifth time over to Europe, I was over there on the OH Boy tour last time. I’m bringing my band this time so It’s going to be a much more functioning system this time.
High points and low points of 2025 for you?
Lots of high points and a few personal low points, like some heartbreaking stuff that went down with my dad’s health and life happenings like that. I was putting my energy into recording and releasing my EVERY GHOST album at the same time. I hadn’t been off the road for nearly three years and didn’t have a lot of time to breath, which was also very therapeutic, being out on the road with my band and friends. I was just happy to have some free time at the end of last year and I hope I can take some time off this spring because I’m touring up until the end of February. That’s life for me and everything has gotten better every single year, and I have gratitude for that, but I know you can experience joy, grief and anger all at the same time.
EVERY GHOST, like all your albums, appears to be written very much in the present, like an update, and often extremely personal, of your state of mind at that time.
I think so. Sometimes I listen back to my older records and hardly recognise myself in them. It has been a journey and a process and even getting to this point in my career and the experience I’ve gained on the road has defined what I really wanted in my career. We still play some of those older songs from NO REGULAR DOG and the other records and they have, like me, also evolved. They also take on a new meaning for me, I think some have them have matured so much and even mean a bit more to me now.
Your new album plays out as a Kelsey Waldon and The Muleskinners album, given that you recorded with your touring band and the quality of their input is immense.
For sure, we worked really hard to find the tones we wanted and used some nerdy gear when we recorded the songs through an old console in Memphis. Even down to the drums, where I wanted to get the sound of some of my favourite country records from back in 1978. I don’t think the record is throwback by any means, but I just wanted to get the vibe I like and give it a fresh voice. With this band and recording we really had a musical moment and every bit of the way along the recording was inspiring.
You co-produced with Justin Francis for this album having worked with Shooter Jennings on NO REGULAR DOG.
It was so much fun working with Shooter and I’m sure I’ll do it again. Justin is also my partner in life so it’s a lot more special and clearly more intimate because we know each other so well and listen to a lot of music together and discuss what is so special about all the music that I love. Justin helps me with the technical things, I might have the sound I want in my head, but he knows the science behind getting the tones I want. It’s the way that Waylon and Tom T Hall and others had done it, keeping it in the family. I also felt that I was making a record in a safe environment and we got to do exactly what we wanted to do.
You recorded the album in Memphis for the first time. Was that to move away from your comfort zone in Nashville?
It was also good to record in a different place that wasn’t Nashville or Los Angeles. Memphis still has got that soul vibe as well as country grit and it felt good to record there. I had recorded my last record THERE’S ALWAYS A SONG with Jusin at Creative Workshop in Nashville, where Townes Van Zandt and so many amazing records were recorded. The environment is very important to me and so many of my favourite records have been made in Memphis. We recorded in our friend Matt Ross Spang’s studio that he built out in Memphis. We played it and recorded the record mostly live using all the vintage gear in the studio.
I love that you sing with your distinctive Kentucky accent, unapologetically without any effort to disguise it.
I don’t know how else to sing. Honestly, when I started writing songs, I didn’t think that I was much of a singer, but eventually I thought that I could sing a little bit. I’m definitely proud of my Kentucky heritage, that never leaves you. Though when I go overseas people ask me if I’m from Ireland, it must be those Kentucky ‘R’s.’ For me, basically, Ireland is Kentucky, there are so many ties.
You are one of the more recent artists from Kentucky, alongside Sturgill Simpson, SG Goodman, Tyler Childers and Brit Taylor, to continue the legacy of Loretta Lynn, Tom T Hall, Keith Whitley, Merle Travis and Crystal Gayle to name but a few.
Music and culture runs so deep in our State. I’m friends with all those people, there is a strong camaraderie between Kentucky people, it’s really special. I love Brit and in the past Sturgill have been hugely supportive of me, especially when I first started. East, West and Central Kentucky, there is so much deep cultural history and in particular with country, bluegrass and old-time music. My fiddle player Blakeley Burger in The Muleskinners is a deep Kentucky fiddler. The State reminds me so much of Ireland, on one of my visits to Ireland I went to a couple of the pubs where everybody was picking and singing old traditional songs. It brought a tear to my eye, it reminded me so much of Kentucky mountain music.
Whenever we feature your music on our radio show we always introduce you as Kelsey Waldon from Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky. It’s such cool and romantic name for a small town.
It’s silly but that has stuck with me, and it seems a lot of people only know one person from Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky.
Entering the town is a signpost reading ‘Monkey’s Eyebrow, Home of Kelsey Waldon’ which you must be proud of.
Yes, that sign is still there. It’s a super small community there and the county put that sign up. I’m obviously not that famous but I have my fan base and people have come from different places to Monkey’s Eyebrow, and people in the town notice that. It’s cool because I grew up seeing Merle Travis and other names on signboards on the Kentucky highway so I was honoured to get my sign.
A decade and a half into your career, are things getting easier or harder?
It’s hard to say. The last decade I’ve been building my career and went through Covid when none of us could tour and knew what was going on. That was two or three years and we lost John Prine during that time. I feel like I’m only really getting started in a lot of ways post Covid and it has got better for me every single year since then. We’ve had a lot of shows over the last few years especially last year opening up for Charley Crockett on tour where a lot of people, who’d never heard of me, got to see me play for the first time. It is hard at every level, ticket sales are hard because a lot of people don’t have much money, and there’s a lot going on in the world right now. It has got easier for me and is getting better all the time, but I just couldn’t imagine starting a band right now from scratch.
Interview by Declan Culliton