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Hiiiiii, it’s Keeley!
I have loved singing and songwriting for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I sang for whomever would listen and packed my desk drawers with sheet after sheet of lyrics and song ideas. Through grade school and beyond, I signed up for any choir, chorus or acapella group that would have me! And to this day, I still can’t get enough of a good harmony!!
I moved to Nashville to go to college, with the tender ulterior motive of figuring out how to pursue a career in music. In my senior year, I took a songwriting class and everything changed. My teacher would become a lifelong mentor, friend and champion and pair me up with a fellow classmate with whom I would perform, write and record for the next couple of years.
It was also around this time that I met Matt Mangano, who took me under his wing and became not only a dear friend but an integral part of every project I’ve ever done either as a producer or an engineer, or both. Through these relationships, I began to find and develop my voice as a writer, my style as a singer, and my overall confidence.
I spent the first years out of college playing as many shows as I could, wherever I could and learning the ropes of the music business while working at an independent publishing company. In between answering phones and logging song submissions, I also had the chance to sing on demos and schmooze my way into co-writes and writer rounds. I even got the chance to play a few of my songs at the famous Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, which was pretty special!
Although I loved Nashville like a second home, I found myself applying to music school in Los Angeles and in a whirlwind of a few months, landed myself in Hollywood at Musician’s Institute studying vocal performance. It was a crash course in music theory and technique and I loved every minute of it.
After I finished my program, I moved back up to the Bay Area and started teaching music in the classroom, in after school programs and in private lessons. I was also taking regular trips to Nashville to continue to write and record. I started to feel a little bit stuck, not sure where I belonged musically or even geographically.
And then one day, my glorious manager called me and said something really big was about to happen–a song of mine called “Nashville” that I wrote some ten years earlier had been selected for the Spotify playlist, “Your Favorite Coffeehouse.” I had no idea what this meant. I quickly learned what an amazing gift it was though, as that little song stayed on the playlist for over a year and is currently close to 15 million streams, which still blows my mind.
In a further twist of magic and serendipity, I met Tim and we started writing music together, and we eventually formed an acoustic duo called Oh Glory! (ohglorymusic.com) Getting to write, record and perform with him has reminded me of everything I have ever loved and dreamed about music. It was only natural that our collaboration would lead to teaching music and trying to make the joy and fun we know so well as musicians available to all.
Things that I love besides music include reading, running, nature, and equal parts adventure and snuggles with my two rascally children.