Hello, Annie Keating

Hey Annie, how the devil are you doing?

Doing great, thank you! 

What have you been up to today?

I’m been running around, getting ready for the upcoming UK tour! Me and the band are super excited. So today I practiced some of the new tunes, went shopping with a friend for cool stage jacket, walked my dog and had dinner with my kids - a good day in Brooklyn!

Introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Annie Keating and I’m a singer songwriter, guitar player and performer. I’m honored that folks usually compare my music to Lucinda Williams and John Prine,  so I guess you’d say my songs are in the Americana/Alt Country genre but there’s some blues and rock tunes in the mix for sure as welll. And since I’m touring with a band in the UK in September, we get to flex those rock n’ blues muscles as well, which is really fun.

What can you tell me about your recent record, Hard Frost, in two sentences?

It’s my 11th album and I guess I’d say it’s the most diverse body of songs, ranging from intimate ballads to Rolling Stones-inspired swampy blues and ethereal indie folk with a Police song cover to boot. It’s my Winter album (hence the title Hard Frost) - the songs were forged out of a very hard year but there’s hope around the edges (even a hard frost will melt and give way to spring again).

How do you go about writing and choosing which songs to record?

It’s a combination of working at the craft of songwriting (with some dedication and discipline) and being open to catching those rare moments of lightning-bolt inspiration that sometimes come unannounced. I try to only record what I think are the really good songs, no filler.

Hard Frost has been out for a couple of months now, which song do you feel you have a different relationship with now to when you wrote and/or recorded it?

I guess the Police song cover of ‘So Lonely’ kind of makes me smile now because my producer and guitar player (Teddy Kumpel) just made that track so soulful and I love his electric guitar sound on it. But when I recorded it I was literally screaming into the mic “SO LONELY” and … I was not smiling when I tracked the vocals, let’s just say that lol. So it lands differently for me now because I’m in a different emotional space.

What can you tell me about ‘Wrong Guys Girl’?

I had fun with that track. I wanted to write a song about missing someone but with some like John Prine kind of country humor. The idea being, I’ve been lucky to travel to all these incredible places but all I really want to do is get back to that one conversation with the person I’m pining for.  But I had fun trying make it lighter and a bit funny, not so heavy handing with the lyrics, so I play around with traveling to all these various places, rhyming them in a playful way so you end up with this kind of thing;

“Been to Mikonos, Folegandros and to the Parthenon

All those Islands of Greece got a magic of their own                            

Been chased out of Corfu for kissing the wrong guy’s girl                       

Ended up in Tinos with a green eyes welder named Merle

I sure to love to roam but if there’s one place i could go

It’s back to our conversation

Because darling you’ve been on my mind ever since then” 

When was the last time you were starstruck?

When I met Neil Young once backstage before his show and I couldn’t speak. I gave him a flower I picked in the rain before the show and that was it.

You’re touring the UK soon, where’s your favourite place that you’ve been so far, and why?

The Scottish Highlands and the English countryside to be honest. Being from New York City, it’s tremendous to get out into the countryside and I love those gigs in small towns with beautiful views.

And where are you looking forward to most that you haven’t been before?

This tour we’ll be playing a Festival in Oxfordshire called the Septembersong Festival in Brazier’s Park and I’m really excited for that one. Festivals can be magical and it looks like a beautiful spot.

If you could recommend one song to hear this week, what would it be?

One song of mine or someone else’s? I guess one song in general, I’d recommend the Tommy Prine song called ‘Ships in the Harbor’. If you mean a song of mine maybe listen to ‘Kindred Spirit’ or ‘Lovesick Blues’ from the new album.

Can you tell us an artist we might not know but should keep an ear out for?

Tommy Prine, Tyler Childers.

Love both of those guys! I didn’t ask you this last time and you told me I should have so, tell me about your guitar.

Ohhhh it’s a 1937 Gibson guitar, just pure vintage gold. I shouldn’t travel with it because it’s old and valuable but it’s mostly the only guitar I play. Guitars are meant to be played and taken on the road, and I really love my old, scratched up black Gibson guitar, it’s just got that old fine wine settled in sound a new guitar can’t touch.

Finally, we’re Campfire Tales, so tell me you’re best story - music or non-music related.

Well when i was in college, Neil Young was playing in town but i found out that day and tickets were all sold out. But I was determined to go see him, I was kinda obsessed with Neil when I was younger so I called a taxi and told the guy, “here’s $20 now you’re going to sneak me into a Neil Young show.” I asked the taxi driver to cover me in the backseat with blanket and put my old Gibson guitar on top of the blanket (in its case) and to drive us down to the stadium backstage area and to tell the security guy the vintage Gibson guitar was needed on stage, special delivery for Neil. The guy bought the story and so the cab driver dropped me and my guitar off in the back stage area where i met (and charmed) a Roadie named Big Joe who (after grilling me on my fav Neil Young deep cut tracks), let me backstage. He put all access pass stickers on my jeans, smiled and said, “how’d you like to watch the show from the side of stage tonight?” So I got to meet Neil and watch the show from 10 feet away from him. A pretty great night!

Oh, and finally finally, what’s the best way people can support you as an independent artist?

Buy music on Bandcamp because streaming doesn’t pay and COME OUT TO LIVE SHOWS! Hope to see you on tour!

You can find out more about Annie on her website, including all tour dates.