Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money by the vote the people, November 4th, 2008.

[Music] Linda, Linda Packin' heat and drivin' fast cars.

Drinkin' rye down at the dive bar.

It's been a long time comin'.

[Music] All the people, they don't know just what you've been through.

Old devotion didn't save you.

Take it easy, now.

[Music] You're a tattoo girl, wrapped in ribbons and curls, ooh.

You're so dang good.

Now why you feelin' so bad?

A straight shooter mama walkin' a crooked line.

Tryin' to find a better way to feel fine.

Oh, Linda let your hair down, ooh.

Linda, Linda.

Did they push you from that life boat?

When you took off all your church clothes.

Or did you just let go?

[Music] All the piety, but did you get what you'd been giving?

Aren't you tired of disappearing?

Oh, well now your skin, it shows.

[Music] Cause you're a tattoo girl, wrapped in ribbons and curls, ooh.

You're so dang good.

Now why you feelin' so bad?

A straight shooter mama walkin' a crooked line.

Tryin' to find a better way to feel fine.

Oh, Linda let your hair down.

Ooh.

Ooh.

Linda, Linda.

Takin' pictures of the night sky.

Like you'd seen it for the first time.

You've got your eyes wide open.

[Music] All the pieces fall before you like an offering.

A shattered heart in need of a little mending.

Now the sky's the limit.

[Music] Cause you're a tattoo girl, wrapped in ribbons and curls, ooh.

You're so dang good.

Now why ya feelin' so bad?

A straight shooter mama walkin' a crooked line.

Tryin' to find a better way to feel fine.

Tryin' to find a better way to feel fine.

Oh, Linda let your hair down.

Ooh.

[Music] I'm Kelly Smith and I am a folk artist, I guess you could say, from the Brainerd Lakes area, here in Minnesota.

I was raised by 2 musicians in the woods of Minnesota, and there's always music on.

My mom was more of, like, a classically trained musician, and she was an elementary school teacher.

And my dad, he was a hippie, back in the day, and he was actually in a band called Nirvana, before, you know, the band called Nirvana.

So my earliest memories are of music always being on in the house, either my dad playing guitar, my mom playing piano, or, you know, I'd steal my dad's records and put them in my little kitty record player that I had.

And, from a very early age, music was my language.

It was like, kind of, my safe space.

[Music] Moon child, moon child, come back to bed.

The night is for dreamers, so lay down your head.

She knocks at my window, her light kisses my face.

The night is for dreamers, so I am awake.

[Music] Moon child, I beg you, you're floating away.

I'll hold you awhile, and I'll help you to stay.

She pulls me to tree tops, beneath the stars I sway.

I'll bring one home to you, my anchor, my stay.

[Music] Moon child, beware of what lurks round the bend.

The night is for shadows, so lend me your hand.

Her light leads me gently, beyond the crooked way.

I'll pass through the shadows, as night leads to day.

[Music] Moon child, the night is for dreamers like us.

So I'll be the tether, to your wanderlust.

The night lifts and bends me to places I must go.

Yet if I am falling, I'll be falling home.

[Music] And my anchor, I'll love ya to that old moon and back.

So, basically, what happened was my dad gave me this guitar when I was around 17 years old, and I started learning my open chords and stuck with it for a couple years.

Then the kids came, and I really didn't pick up my guitar for over a decade, I would say.

It wasn't until I was about 35 that I started playing guitar every single night.

And that, kind of, came after a bit of a crisis in our life, as a family, and it was just what I needed to do.

It was like I was just, kind of, ready to really devote myself to that.

And it became my safe space.

And so, I would tuck the kids in at night and pull out my guitar, and I'd teach myself a song: something by Doc Watson or John Prine or Elizabeth Cotten.

And shortly after I started doing that is when the pandemic lockdowns came around.

And so that's when I started writing songs because I could embrace my insomnia and get up in the middle of the night and put my thoughts to paper-- which is something that I had never done before--and not necessarily worry about having to run off to work the next day because we were, kind of, trapped in our house for a period of time.

[Music] Just another early morn.

The sun came up without you.

The world keeps spinnin' like my head is spinnin'.

It's all the same, and that's more than I can bear.

[Music] The birds, they greet the day with songs of old.

Songs they hold for those bowed low.

They fly free just like a sign for you and me.

That this gravity will give way some day, some day.

[Music] From dust we come and, lord, to dust we will return.

The peace, the pain of every season's change.

Seems like yesterday your hand was warming mine.

And now you've slipped through my fingers.

Dust.

[Music] It's not that I'm afraid for you.

You'll be light and I'll be glue.

'Cause I can't recognize a world without your smile.

It's not the same.

It'll take a little time.

[Music] From dust we come and, lord, to dust we will return.

The peace, the pain of every season's change.

Seems like yesterday your hand was warming mine.

And now you've slipped through my fingers [Music] Time walks on, and so will I.

The sun went down without you.

But you lie deep beneath the flower beds, in my head.

Still your love nurtures me, oh.

[Music] From dust we come and, lord, to dust we will return.

The peace, the pain of every season's change.

Seems like yesterday your hand was warming mine.

And now you've slipped through my fingers.

Seems like yesterday I opened up my hands and set you free.

Dust.

[Music] [Music] I've been hangin' on for so long.

And never hoping for a thing.

You say that I am bound for good.

And a bit of faith'll give me wings.

[Music] Well am I flyin', am I fallin', here at the edge of everything?

Am I tired fool for tryin', Here at the edge of me?

Take me now, to the end of my rope.

Beyond what I think I know.

Lay me down in the autumn leaves.

Hold me.

And I'll let go.

Woah, woah, I'll let go.

[Music] Spent too many miles trippin' on who I was and who I could be.

Am I surrendered, am I driftin'?

Is that old fight a leavin' me?

[Music] What do you do with an undoing of what you thought you had to be?

Well, I'll cut my hair and go out singin' beneath the old oak trees.

Take my now, to the end of the road.

Beyond what I think I know.

And lay me down in the autumn leaves.

Hold me.

And I'll let go.

Woah, woah, I'll let go.

Woah, woah, I'll let go.

[Music] So, the name of the EP, it sounds so hippie.

It's called Moon Child.

Really that title is--well, there's a couple reasons for that title.

The first reason would be the album art.

So there's this big moon, and there's these two trees, and there's this woman sitting in a hammock, kind of suspended between the 2 trees.

One of the trees is very scarce, like it's dying, and one of the trees is very full.

And I liked the idea of that tension, that space in the middle between this dying thing and this living thing.

And I hope that the people who see that image can take what they need from it.

And the moon child thing too is, like I said before, the insomnia and embracing that insomnia.

And instead of being annoyed by it and trying to squeeze my eyes and go back to sleep, I just decided to embrace it.

And so I would lay in my bed and stare out the window at the moon, and I would imagine that the the light of the moon was guiding me down these little paths, and and the paths were places I needed to go for healing, in life.

And so it was like the moon was a friend of mine.

[Music] City sister, barefoot in the garden.

Black jeans, and fire in your hair.

Rose and mrytle.

White dove and sparrow.

Paradise under street lights.

You're a lover.

A healer.

A life giver.

Beauty queen in burlap.

Aphrodite in a trucker cap.

[Music] City sister, find me in the countryside and calm the bitter care in my mind.

In midsummer, hum the ancient lullaby.

The bumblebees and butterflies harmonize.

Cause you're a lover.

A healer.

A life giver.

Beauty queen in burlap.

Aphrodite in a trucker cap.

[Music] And everything you touch just turns to gold.

A child.

A flower in full bloom.

A healing wound.

Oh.

[Music] City sister, barefoot in the garden.

Black jeans, and fire in your hair.

Aphrodite in a trucker cap.

[Music] The Minnesota music scene is incredible.

It surprises me because I thought there would be a lot of competition, or I thought I'd have to scratch and claw my way, and it's just not the case.

Dave Simonett, he listened to my whole EP and wrote a review for me, just out of the kindness of his heart.

He's a great guy.

Just different people who share your posts around or come to your shows.

I haven't had to claw my way at all.

It's just been like one person after the other, just being supportive, and I feel that way mutually.

I feel like I love supporting other artists because it's not a competition.

We're all just showing up as who we are and there's, you know, the crowds that we connect with.

Those are our crowds and those people can be shared with other people.

And music is all about community so, you know, if I succeed in music, that's going to help somebody else succeed in music too.

[Music] I didn't know that I was lonely.

All my long life I've been alone.

I didn't know that I was homeless.

Until you spoke and I was home.

Ooh.

[Music] I've been a beggar at the bedside of everyone I've ever known.

A little warmth and some connection is all I ever hoped to hold.

Now you're the only one who sees me as I am.

And you're the only one who loves with open hands.

[Music] Your love is water on my lips when all the tears have drained me dry.

There is no bottle big enough to carry all the tears I've cried.

Ooh.

[Music] They say that I have been impatient for things that they already have.

That I should stay within my station.

What kinda love is that?

Now you're the only one who sees me as I am.

And you're the only one who loves with open hands.

[Music] Love isn't love when it is absent.

Love isn't limited and small.

Love is a circle that surrounds us.

Love puts on skin and bones.

Ooh.

Now you're the only one who sees me as I am.

And you're the only one who loves with open hands.

Well, hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah, I'm found.

[Music] Backroads is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money by the vote of the people, November 4th, 2008.