A Young Band On The Rise
It is not unusual for older folks to look at the younger generations coming up behind them and feel as though those youngsters don’t know anything about working hard or honoring tradition. It is an old story but, like all stereotypes, not always true. If you have ever found yourself having negative thoughts about young people, then I’m happy to introduce you to the three Kelley siblings. After talking with these three young people (Bethany, age 24, Victoria, age 21, and Daniel, age 18), I was happy to see that their story could easily help erase all of those stereotypes that older people might have about the young. These are three of the hardest working, positive and respectful young musicians that I know.
If you have yet to hear about their band, Indigo Roots Band, keep your ears and eyes open because I predict that you will be hearing and seeing a lot of them in the future.
Background
Although they now call Nashville their home, the Kelley siblings are from Appling, Georgia—a dirt-road town with one stoplight near Augusta. Each of the siblings started Suzuki violin lessons at the age of four. Attending local music events, like the Appling Opry, helped inspire them to want to perform for people. At first, they all played the violin for family and friends and at local events. As they got older—and Victoria moved over to mandolin and Daniel started playing the bass—they began playing at local festivals, theaters, and, as Victoria said, “any place that would hire us.”
She added, “It was a very different childhood because I was in school and gone many weekends. It wasn’t much different as far as schooling goes, but my schedule was more flexible from other kids who were my age…lots of times, I was solving math problems while riding in the van. It was exactly what I wanted to be doing. Nothing else made me happier. It pushed us to get better because we were literally always playing. When we weren’t in school, we were practicing.”
Victoria started to play the mandolin when she was just eight years old. A bit later, when she was ten, she started taking lessons from Sharon Gilchrist. She said, “She had a massive impact on me because in the tiny town that I was living in, there were no girls who played mandolin. I was the only one. Getting to learn from this cool woman that toured and centered her life around music was so inspiring. She had a big impact on me as a woman and a mandolin player. She is wonderful.” When asked about working with Victoria, Sharon Gilchrist said, “She really is incredibly gifted, a kind person and a hard, hard worker. I’m glad to hear that you are reporting on her and the band.”
Victoria bought her first mandolin, an Eastman Dawg model, from a music store for three thousand dollars when she was ten years old. She got a loan, which her parents co-signed, and worked hard playing gigs to raise the money to pay off the loan by the time she was thirteen. She said, “It took me three years of playing gigs to pay it off, but I was so proud of myself when I did.”
After learning how to play classical violin by the Suzuki method, Bethany started taking lessons from Jim VanCleve at the age of fourteen. After the family moved to Nashville in 2017, she studied music under VanCleve in person. VanCleve encouraged Bethany to listen to fiddle players like Mark O’Connor, Kenny Baker and Stuart Duncan and she fell in love with fiddling even more. Bethany has also studied under Billy Contreras and said, “He is like a musical genius and opened my brain to more ways to approach and practice improvisation.”
Daniel began playing the bass at the age of eight. He said that he never liked the violin, so when he was eight he got a U-Bass and played that with the band for a few years. At a bluegrass festival in south Georgia, he was gifted his first upright bass by two kind musicians, David Beaumont and JR Williams…he said he was very surprised. He started lessons with Jason Moore (Mountain Heart) while he was still playing the U-Bass and then when Moore wanted to sell his NS Design bass, Daniel bought that from him.
With everyone now on different instruments, they started to come together as a young professional band. Victoria adds that Little Roy Lewis was also a positive influence. She said, “We were actually neighbors with Little Roy Lewis, who also lives near Appling. They would always let us get up and play at their Thanksgiving jam every year. Little Roy is awesome. He would stop by our house just to say ‘Hey’ sometimes or to fix a banjo case and give us advice.”
In addition to giving Bethany fiddle lessons, Jim VanCleve also produced some of the music that the band was recording. When asked about working with the Kelleys, Jim said, “I produced their first project and stepped into a mentoring role. I rehearsed the band over Zoom and worked with them in the studio. I love them. They are some of my favorite people…like family. They are really hungry to excel and are not afraid of hard work…and it has paid off. I couldn’t be more happy or proud of them.”
Regarding their growth as a band, Bethany said, “The year I was seventeen, we decided to go all out and play as much as we could. We toured in various states.” Victoria adds, “During that time, I figured out how to make crowds laugh, and keep their energy up. We found our own unique sound through taking the temperature of the audience. And then, we were so sad when COVID happened. We went from playing almost every weekend to everything being shut down. But, we saw it as an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.”
Turning A Negative into a Positive
When the COVID shutdown happened the band was just beginning to launch an active touring career. Then it all came to a screeching halt. Instead of sitting around doing nothing and waiting for the pandemic to be over, each of the siblings decided to make the most of a bad situation.
Bethany enrolled in school at Berklee College of Music to study audio engineering and went through the Advanced Music Production program and Avid Pro Tools Certification. Victoria enrolled in online songwriting courses—also at Berklee—and Daniel enrolled in an online school for cinematography.
Additionally, they opened a recording studio, entitled The Octopus Garden, where Bethany engineers, mixes/masters for artists in the Nashville area, while Daniel films live music videos in the recording space. The siblings record their own material in the studio, and also have other artists come into their facility to record and film live music videos. Their most recent release, “I Told You So” was produced and filmed at The Octopus Garden.
With their new-found skills under their belts, the band is very self-contained. The band writes most of their material and does the marketing, social media, recording and videography. When the band records or performs these days they bring in any one of a number of guitar players to join them, based on their availability. In the past they have used Zeb Snyder, Dustin Benson and Jed Clark. When asked about his work with the band, Jed Clark said, “I’ve known them for about six years. Daniel is a buddy of mine. Bethany is a great fiddle player and Victoria is a superstar. There is nobody in the game that sings like Victoria. If Katy Perry played mandolin, she could be Victoria Kelley.”
The Music
The Indigo Roots Band has started releasing new music and videos this year at the rate of approximately one every two months. The first two released were a Bob Dylan cover, “Maggie’s Farm” and an original titled “Gypsy Summertime.” The release of the “Maggie’s Farm” video seemed to have done well. After its release, Billboard Magazine ran an article titled “8 Must-Hear New Country Songs” that featured the top eight country music videos so far in 2024 and Indigo Roots’ “Maggie’s Farm” made that list. Victoria said, “The magazine article was unexpected, but exciting.”
After releasing “Maggie’s Farm,” and “Gypsy Summertime” the Indigo Roots Band has continued to release new music every other month. In May they released “I Told You So,” and in June “My Eyes Tell Me the Truth” written by Becky Buller. They plan on continuing to release new songs and videos until the album is completed. It will be self-titled—Indigo Roots Band.
The majority of the lyrics for the band’s original music are written by Victoria. She is currently going to Berklee College of Music pursuing songwriting. She has written over 200 original songs and even more poetry. After she writes her material, she takes them to the band and they finish the arrangements together. Victoria said, “We have been recording and stashing away material for the past few years. We have a giant vault of unreleased songs.”
The band has now started touring in support of their new material and things are picking up in terms of live performances. In May they played for several days at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri with Jed Clark on guitar. When asked about the venues she enjoys, Victoria said, “Wherever there is a crowd that is willing to listen to what I have to say, that is the most fun for me. It’s all about art and connecting with people. I always try to write music that is honest. When art is honest, people connect with it.”
One of Victoria’s favorite performances so far was at Daily & Vincent’s festival at Anderson Music Hall, which was broadcast on WSM radio. She said that some of her goals are to perform on the Grand Ole Opry and play festivals such as Grey Fox, Telluride, Del Fest and ROMP. She laughs and says, “The large festival market where everyone has fun and the hippies dance is where we want to end up.”
With the amount of enthusiasm they have for the music, their willingness to work hard and the strong desire to succeed that this band displays, I have no doubt that they will achieve their goals. Even though they are busy with their own audio and video projects and touring schedule, all three of the Kelleys still find time to refine and hone their craft.
If you haven’t heard this band, I highly recommend that you get on YouTube and search for the Indigo Roots Band and check out some of their videos. Also, look for them coming to your town or local festival. I think that you will be very impressed with this young group of musicians.
