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Robots Don’t Tell Jokes, the third album for families from 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize winner Kelli Welli, is set for release by 8 Pound Gorilla Records on April 15, 2022.
Take a little bit pop, a little bit country, a little bit opera, and a dash of Irish punk. Add in some zydeco, a soupçon of animal ciphering, a stinky shoe, and a nursery rhyme in Japanese, and you have what fans have come to expect from Kelli Welli: originality, personality, and a healthy dose of absurdity. Made with love.
In addition to being graced by a special appearance from Grammy winner Joanie Leeds, the 15 songs on this album burst with the creativity of Kelli Welli and her kids putting on a really big show that includes the voices of favorite kids’ artists and talented friends Red Yarn, Flor Bromley, Kymberly Stewart, Twinkle Time, James Dallas, Elena Moon Park, Claudia Robin Gunn, Maddy Heart, and the album’s primary producer, Bryan Daste. Robots Don’t Tell Jokes… or do they? This album is smart, fun, and as always… made for kids and the people who love them.
“I absolutely loved making Robots Don’t Tell Jokes with friends and folks who were willing to stretch out of their norms or comfort zones with me,” says Kelli Welli. “To commit to quality, while at the same time doing things they’d never done before, like the kids coming into a recording studio for the first time, or the highly skilled, successful musicians embracing some wonderful absurdity by giving their all to make my song about a stinky shoe the best it could be. There’s a lot of love and joy in this album, and I hope the kids and grownups listening out there feel it coming their way.”
Robots Don’t Tell Jokes kicks off with the upbeat “Rainbow Love Song,” an empowering anthem about all the colors of love and joy that come with living a life filled with abundant variety, acceptance, and gratitude. Kelli Welli is backed by nine distinguished guest artists, whose diverse voices blend to create some of the finest vocal choral work ever heard on a kids’/family album. “Ezra’s Frickle Song,” inspired by Ezra Holbrook’s renowned deep-fried pickles, displays an authentic New Orleans zydeco sound enhanced by the zesty treat of excellent singing layered on top. Grammy winner Joanie Leeds joins Kelli Welli on “I Will Miss You,” an unforgettable lullaby masterpiece that shines its love on moms everywhere.
Other highlights include the hilarious “Stinky Shoe,” a fine bit of absurdity featuring accordion and flute in an Irish punk interlude à la The Pogues. Kelli’s dog, Piper Peach, and her best canine friend, Loki, have their moment in the sunshine and everywhere else as featured guest dogs on “Dognado.” The track glows with a family get-together, country-folk feel that culminates in the perfect storm of a “dognado.” Kelli Welli sings “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” – including a verse in Japanese – with a transcendental radiance that is beautifully matched by the arrangement’s sublime mandolin interlude, as performed by Timothy James Uecker. The album’s stunning epilogue presents the “operatic” debut of Kelli Welli singing that thrilling aria and tribute to fragrant footwear, “Stinky Shoe Reprise.”
About Kelli Welli:
Kelli Caldwell, who performs for kids as Kelli Welli, is an active songwriter in both the children’s and singer-songwriter/Americana (“grown-up”) music arenas. She has released two award-winning children’s albums and was the Grand Prize Winner in the children’s category of the 2021 John Lennon Songwriting Contest. Kelly was a winner of the West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and she was a finalist in the International Songwriting Competition in 2019 and 2020 and the Great American Song Contest in 2021. Although Kelli is relatively new to the thriving Portland, Oregon kindie performance scene, she has been named a TOP 5 Parent Pick by PDX Parent magazine.
Kelli has a Master of Publishing degree from Canada’s Simon Fraser University and a B.A. in Speech Communication with minors in Japanese and German from Oregon State University. She worked in public relations for Harper’s Magazine in NYC, then owned a creative design agency in Portland before focusing more fully on her music and raising her boy/girl twins. She has studied speech-level singing with The Voice Project, spent more than eight years on the Portland Songwriters Association board, and is currently a member of the Recording Academy, West Coast Songwriters, Nashville Songwriters Association International, Children’s Music Network, MusicPortland, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Previous releases include the albums Let’s Go, Pistachio (2021; National Parenting Products Award) and Ooh La La Too Doo Na Na Oop Bop Oop Bop Ribbit (2020; National Parenting Products Award, Moms Choice Gold Award), as well as three EPs released in 2016: LOVE, Turtle Doggie Monkey Froggie La La La La La, and Lullabies: For Kids and the People Who Love Them. Kelli’s debut Americana album for adults, Heart Wanderer, will release later this year.
Categories: Music Talk Stuff
