Kelly Willis

All those comparisons in the press and elsewhere to country music icon Patsy Cline have been very flattering, of course, says singer Kelly Willis. It's just a label that could be a little hard to live up to for any young artist. Rolling Stone, for one, in 1990 wrote: "Kelly Willis comes closer than most to Cline's true spirit."

Dave Alvin, Peter Case, Stan Ridgway and other members of the Southern California roots music community will play Sunday at McCabe's in Santa Monica in a memorial concert for Austin-bred, L.A.-based musician Amy Farris, who died Sept. 29 at age 40. A multi-instrumentalist accomplished on several instruments in the violin family, Farris had most recently been on tour as a member of Alvin's Guilty Women band. In Texas she had played alongside country veteran Ray Price as well as Kelly Willis, Alejandro Escovedo, Bruce and Charlie Robison and many others.

Kelly Willis talks softly, her hand resting on a paperback of her current reading material, "The Fountainhead." A hit on country radio is long overdue. But like an Ayn Rand hero, Willis chooses first to be true to herself--with music saturated by the songs and attitude of her Austin, Tex., home. Willis wants to win, but on her own terms. "That (selling) factor is pretty big, because I haven't been very commercial," Willis said. She's hoping her third album, "Kelly Willis," will do the trick.

It's axiomatic in the music business that for every overnight success story, there are at least a dozen hard-luck tales involving missed opportunities, botched deals and just plain bad timing. And talent doesn't always win out; even the most gifted artists can encounter resistance on the road toward mainstream acceptance. Just ask Kelly Willis. Ten years ago, Willis seemed poised for stardom.

It's axiomatic in the music business that for every overnight success story, there are at least a dozen hard-luck tales involving missed opportunities, botched deals and just plain bad timing. And talent doesn't always win out; even the most gifted artists can encounter resistance on the road toward mainstream acceptance. Just ask Kelly Willis. Ten years ago, Willis seemed poised for stardom.

* * 1/2 Kelly Willis, "Kelly Willis," MCA. Willis wears her heart on her sleeve in her third album. The songs, three of which she co-wrote, are refreshingly free of country's all-too-common coyness. If her laconic delivery occasionally leaves an emotion unplumbed, it's preferable to vocal overkill, and is at least partially balanced by the spunk of her up-tempo, neo-rockabilly numbers.

*** / Kelly Willis, "What I Deserve," Rykodisc. After a five-year hiatus from full-length albums, the Austin resident reaffirms her status as one of alt-country's best and most versatile singers. Working with spare, clean arrangements that are as inviting and comfortable as your grandmother's old couch, Willis uses her shimmering voice to wrest every last drop of aching melancholy from material by writers as disparate as Paul Westerberg, Paul Kelly and Nick Drake.

The 1994 California CountryFest & Rodeo starts Friday and runs through Sunday. The event, at Buchheim Field, will feature a professionally sanctioned rodeo, two stages of continuous live music, food and merchandise. Among the two dozen national and regional country music performers scheduled to appear are Doug Stone, Rick Trevino, Lari White, Kelly Willis and Lacy J. Dalton. Last year, the festival drew more than 15,000 people, according to organizers.

Dave Alvin, Peter Case, Stan Ridgway and other members of the Southern California roots music community will play Sunday at McCabe's in Santa Monica in a memorial concert for Austin-bred, L.A.-based musician Amy Farris, who died Sept. 29 at age 40. A multi-instrumentalist accomplished on several instruments in the violin family, Farris had most recently been on tour as a member of Alvin's Guilty Women band. In Texas she had played alongside country veteran Ray Price as well as Kelly Willis, Alejandro Escovedo, Bruce and Charlie Robison and many others.

* Mana, "Revolucion de Amor," Warner Bros. International. You have to admire a band--a Mexican one especially--that uses revolutionary slogans as lyrics and still sells millions. Mana sings about racism, pollution and violence, and makes it sound fun.

*** / Kelly Willis, "What I Deserve," Rykodisc. After a five-year hiatus from full-length albums, the Austin resident reaffirms her status as one of alt-country's best and most versatile singers. Working with spare, clean arrangements that are as inviting and comfortable as your grandmother's old couch, Willis uses her shimmering voice to wrest every last drop of aching melancholy from material by writers as disparate as Paul Westerberg, Paul Kelly and Nick Drake.

The 1994 California CountryFest & Rodeo starts Friday and runs through Sunday. The event, at Buchheim Field, will feature a professionally sanctioned rodeo, two stages of continuous live music, food and merchandise. Among the two dozen national and regional country music performers scheduled to appear are Doug Stone, Rick Trevino, Lari White, Kelly Willis and Lacy J. Dalton. Last year, the festival drew more than 15,000 people, according to organizers.

Kelly Willis talks softly, her hand resting on a paperback of her current reading material, "The Fountainhead." A hit on country radio is long overdue. But like an Ayn Rand hero, Willis chooses first to be true to herself--with music saturated by the songs and attitude of her Austin, Tex., home. Willis wants to win, but on her own terms. "That (selling) factor is pretty big, because I haven't been very commercial," Willis said. She's hoping her third album, "Kelly Willis," will do the trick.

* * 1/2 Kelly Willis, "Kelly Willis," MCA. Willis wears her heart on her sleeve in her third album. The songs, three of which she co-wrote, are refreshingly free of country's all-too-common coyness. If her laconic delivery occasionally leaves an emotion unplumbed, it's preferable to vocal overkill, and is at least partially balanced by the spunk of her up-tempo, neo-rockabilly numbers.

All those comparisons in the press and elsewhere to country music icon Patsy Cline have been very flattering, of course, says singer Kelly Willis. It's just a label that could be a little hard to live up to for any young artist. Rolling Stone, for one, in 1990 wrote: "Kelly Willis comes closer than most to Cline's true spirit."

* Lucinda Williams, right, whose "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road," was named 1998's best album by a Village Voice poll of the nation's pop music critics, will play the House of Blues on Oct. 21. Tickets go on sale Saturday . . . Tickets go on sale Friday for Mana, the best-selling rock en espan~ol act, for its Sept. 23 performance at Universal Amphitheatre . . . Also, more tickets have been released for Mana's four shows with Santana and Ozomatli at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim from Aug.

* Singer-Songwriter--Texas troubadour Robert Earl Keen will perform tonight for an installment of the "Sings Like Hell" series at Santa Barbara's Lobero Theatre. Also on the bill, special guest Lea Krueger. All tickets sold for the previously scheduled Rodney Crowell and Kelly Willis show will be honored at tonight's concert. Show time: 8 p.m. The theater is at 33 E. Canon Perdido St. $32.50. 963-0761. Internet: http://www.singslikehell.com.