Kelly Hogan | |
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| Background information | |
| Born | January 11, 1965 |
| Origin | Atlanta, Georgia United States |
| Genres | Singer-songwriter, alternative country, torch singer, jazz pop [1] |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals |
| Years active | 1990–present |
| Labels | Bloodshot Anti- |
Kelly Hogan (born January 11, 1965) is an American singer-songwriter, often known for her work as a member of Neko Case's backing band, as well as for her solo work. [2]
Hogan was born in Atlanta, Georgia, the daughter of a Vietnam War Army veteran helicopter pilot who went on to become a policeman. [3] Hogan's parents divorced, with her mother later remarrying and relocating to Rutledge, Georgia [4] while her father still lived in Douglasville, Georgia as of 2012. [5]
Hogan is the oldest sister in her family. She has younger brothers. [6] None of Hogan's family are musicians. Because both her parents worked, Hogan and her siblings spent most of their time with her grandmother in her apartment in midtown/downtown Atlanta growing up, where they listened to country music station WPLO. Music was constantly playing in her own home as well. [7] [8] She went to high school in Douglasville, Georgia. [5] Although painfully shy, Hogan eventually auditioned for chorus, going to All State Chorus every year. [8] In addition to being active in chorus and drama, Hogan started singing in bars when she was in high school. [7]
Hogan often goes by the moniker "Hogan." She is an avid dog lover, [7] and used to tend bar and tour accompanied by her late dog Augie. [9] Hogan has a Jim Stacy [10] lower-back tattoo that says "singers get all the pussy." [11] After living in Evansville, Wisconsin, for eight years, Hogan returned to Chicago's Humboldt Park neighborhood in 2016. [4] [12]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hogan sang with the cabaret, country, jazz, and punk band The Jody Grind (a Cabbagetown, Atlanta, Georgia, band originated by Bill Taft), singing on their full-lengths One Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure (1990) and Lefty's Deceiver (1992). The Jody Grind toured with singer Robyn Hitchcock. [7] The group disbanded after two of its members were killed in a car crash. [1] [13]
In the mid-1990s, Hogan joined the indie rock band Rock*A*Teens, another Cabbagetown area band, [14] [15] appearing on their 1996 EP and the 1997 full-length Cry. Kelly Hogan played guitar and sang backing vocals in the band from 1994 to 1997. After the release of Cry, Hogan left the Rock*A*Teens and relocated from Atlanta to Chicago. [16]
Her debut solo record, The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear , was released in 1996, and contained covers of songs by Will Oldham and Vic Chesnutt.[ citation needed ]
Hogan released her first record for Bloodshot Records entitled Beneath the Country Underdog in 2000. The record, "brilliantly intuitive readings of other people's songs," was produced by Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers). [17] [18] The Pine Valley Cosmonauts were her backing band. [19]
Her second solo Bloodshot release, Because It Feel Good, was released in 2001 and was produced by Hogan and former Sugar bassist David Barbe. [17] At the time of this record's release, rock critic Peter Margasak described Hogan as "principally an interpreter, capable of wringing more from a cover than most people can find in their own material," even though with this release she wrote two songs (with Andy Hopkins) on the record. [17]
There was a comprehensive fan club page and mailing list [20] focused on Kelly Hogan until 2006. [21]
Hogan released her most recent solo record—and first record in 11 years, I Like To Keep Myself in Pain, on ANTI- in 2013. The album is a collection of songs either written for her or chosen for her by songwriter friends Andrew Bird, Vic Chesnutt, Jon Langford, Stephin Merritt, M. Ward, and others. [7] [22] The title track was written by Robyn Hitchcock. [7] [23] For the recording of this record, "a dream-team band" was assembled: organist Booker T. Jones, drummer James Gadson (Bill Withers, Beck), bassist Gabe Roth (The Dap-Kings), guitarist Scott Ligon (NRBQ). They recorded at EastWest Studios ( Pet Sounds ) in Hollywood, California. [19]
As of 2021, Hogan continues to occasionally perform as singer/bandleader, especially in Chicago, often with accompanying musicians such as Nora O'Connor and Andy Hopkins, [24] and with the Flat Five. [25]
In 1998, Hogan joined singer-songwriter Neko Case's band, recording and touring with the band as a vocalist. Hogan continued to tour with Case, as of 2014. On her ongoing relationship with Neko Case: "We hit it off immediately when we met. We just spoke the same language." [8] Hogan and Case sing "These Aren't the Droids" on the charity comedy album 2776 (2014). [26] Hogan and Nora O'Connor accompanied Case in the song "Bad Luck", and accompanying video, from Case's 2018 album Hell-On. [27] [28]
In 2015, Hogan was a backing singer on the Decemberists' What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World album, and also sang on the tour to support the album's release. Hogan also sang backing vocals on the Decemberists' 2018 album I'll Be Your Girl and the album's subsequent supporting tour. [29]
Hogan appears on records by Mavis Staples, The Mekons, Will Oldham, Matt Pond PA, [30] Amy Ray, Giant Sand, Archer Prewitt, Alejandro Escovedo, Drive-By Truckers, Jakob Dylan, [31] and Tortoise, among others. [22] These recordings include:
A select discography: [44]
From 1998 to 2008 Hogan worked as a bartender at The Hideout, a music venue in Chicago known for putting on an annual block party in September. [9] Circa 2000 she also worked as a technician at a Chicago veterinary clinic. [53] She also worked publicity for Bloodshot Records. [54]
As of 2013, Hogan once again was working as an assistant for her friend, American cartoonist and author, Lynda Barry, [55] helping her arrange her teaching schedule. [5] [56] In one episode of Barry's Ernie Pook's Comeek , children are peering in a window of the Hideout nightclub in Chicago, listening to Hogan's band The Wooden Leg.[ citation needed ]
Kelly Hogan, Bloodshot Press Mule, Bloodshot Records, Chicago, Illinois
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Neko Richelle Case is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case has a powerful, untrained contralto voice, which has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower," "a powerhouse [which] seems like it might level buildings," "a 120-mph fastball," and a "vocal tornado". Critics also note her idiosyncratic, "cryptic," "imagistic" lyrics, and credit her as a significant figure in the early 21st-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Case's body of work has spanned and drawn on a range of traditions including country, folk, art rock, indie rock, and pop and is frequently described as defying or avoiding easy generic classification.
Furnace Room Lullaby is the second studio album by Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, released in February 2000, on Mint Records.
Blacklisted is the third studio album by American musician Neko Case, released on August 20, 2002.
Jonathan Denis Langford is a Welsh musician and artist based in Chicago, Illinois, United States.
Freakwater is an American alternative country band from Louisville, Kentucky, with one co-founding member living in Chicago. Freakwater is known for the lead vocals of Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin, who mix harmony and melody in idiosyncratic dissonant country-folk that is reminiscent of the Carter Family.
Bloodshot Records is an independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois, which specializes in alternative country.
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is the fourth solo album by American alt-country musician Neko Case, released March 7, 2006 by ANTI- Records. The album was found on many “Best of” lists that year and had a bonus disc released by ANTI- in November of the following year.
Robert William "Robbie" Fulks is an American alternative country singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and long-time Chicago, Illinois resident. He has released 15 albums over a career spanning more than 30 years. His 2016 record Upland Stories was nominated for a Grammy for Best Folk Album and the song "Alabama at Night" was nominated for a Grammy for Best American Roots Song.
William Elliott Whitmore is an American blues, country, folk singer and musician. He plays roots-folk music that is often inspired by his life on his family farm in the hills of southeastern Iowa.
Nora O’Connor is an American, Chicago-based musician. Though primarily known for her vocals, O'Connor also plays guitar and bass. For much of 2013, O'Connor toured internationally as a singer in Iron and Wine. She also records and performs with longtime collaborator, Andrew Bird. O'Connor plays bass and sings back-up for Kelly Hogan and in 2010, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy enlisted O'Connor and Hogan as primary vocalists on gospel legend Mavis Staples’ Grammy Award-winning album You Are Not Alone. In the studio and on the stage, O'Connor has backed Neko Case, Jakob Dylan, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, Archer Prewitt, John Wesley Harding, Hushdrops, Justin Roberts and Robbie Fulks.
Sally Ann Timms is an English singer and lyricist. Timms is best known for her long involvement with The Mekons whom she joined in 1985.
Wee Hairy Beasties was a children's music group composed of Jon Langford, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, and Devil in a Woodpile. They played their first gig together at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, and released an album through Bloodshot Records in 2006 and another in 2008 on Wee Beatz Records.
The Rock*A*Teens is an American indie rock band from Cabbagetown, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, who were active during most of the 1990s and reformed in 2014.
Pine Valley Cosmonauts (PVC) are a musical ensemble from Chicago, Illinois.
Anna Fermin is an American folk/country singer and songwriter.
The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands.
Lydia Loveless is an American alternative country singer-songwriter from Columbus, Ohio. Her music combines pop music, classic country, honky tonk, and punk rock.
The Jody Grind was an American band from the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
This is the Bloodshot Records discography, albums released on the Bloodshot Records label from 1994 until the present, ordered by catalog number.
The Whistle Only Dogs Can Hear is the debut album by the alternative country musician Kelly Hogan, released in 1996. Vic Chesnutt said that Hogan's version of his song "Soft Picasso" was his favorite of the many covers of his songs, despite it not appearing on Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation.
