Kelley Mickwee

Austin, Texas singer-songwriter.

When Kelley Mickwee released her debut solo album, You Used to Live Here, back in 2014, she wasn’t kidding when she described the move as feeling like “totally starting from scratch again” … and more than a little scary. Although she was already a seasoned artist at that point with a decade’s worth of experience under her belt, up until then all of her performing and recording experience had been as part of a unit: first as half of the Memphis-based duo Jed and Kelley, and then as one-fourth of Texas’ acclaimed all-woman Americana group, The Trishas.

But when The Trishas, all living in different parts of the state or as far away as Tennessee, collectively decided to slow their roll a few years back, Mickwee realized that in order to keep living the dream of playing music for a living, she was going to have to strike out on her own. Which she did, beautifully— and may well do again, some day. But right now, three years down the line from her last big career leap, Mickwee is excitedly taking a new one. Only this time it’s not a matter of “starting over from scratch” so much as just learning how to take her hands off the wheel and have fun as a proud member of one the hottest acts in Texas: Shinyribs.