At some point in time, for all the obvious reasons, Kellie Everett was tagged with the nickname “Banjo Kellie.” She still answers to that, though when she plays with the St. Louis Banjo Club, she’s actually found on saxophone.
In fact, she plays about a half-dozen instruments live, and she belongs to just as many bands: The Rum Drum Ramblers, The Hooten Hallers, The Sidney Street Shakers, The Southwest Watson Sweethearts, Lonesome Cowboy Ryan & His Dried-Up Teardrops, The Loot Rock Gang, Horseradish and Saddle Pals… “Those are the major ones,” she says, “and then you’ve got tangential ones.”
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As part of a collective of South Side musicians who mix and match membership and folk-style influences, she’s an in-demand performer. She arranges much of her work around the travel needs of Hooten Hallers, the Columbia, Missouri–based band that plays about 160 days on the road annually. During the rest of the year, she tries to make as much time as possible for other projects.
In St. Louis, she says, being friends with fellow musicians often results in collaborations. “It’s part of the friendship,” she says. “In some small towns, there might be that one person trying to make it; here, you have all kinds of opportunities.”
Traveling has allowed her to “go to tons of places that I very likely would’ve never visited,” she says. (For example, the Hooten Hallers recently returned from their first European tour.) “You develop friendships with people who live there. You have favorite restaurants, favorite local beers, and places to walk around. You get to experience these cities in a different way than if you passed through on vacation one time.”
At the end of April, Everett will have spent four years in St. Louis, and her relationships to the musicians here anchor her while providing a steady dose of new inspiration. “I’ve got a rock ’n’ roll band, the Hallers, and get to go crazy onstage; and then a traditional jazz band, The Sidney Street Shakers, that’s reconsidering St. Louis history and taking a more academic or preservation aspect to our music,” she says. “The Southwest Watson Sweethearts just do classic old-timey country, with harmony vocals; that one really makes me practice my guitar.”
In St. Louis, she says, being friends with fellow musicians often results in collaborations. “It’s part of the friendship,” she says. “In some small towns, there might be that one person trying to make it; here, you have all kinds of opportunities.”
Catch Everett in a variety of guises this month:
The Loot Rock Gang, Thursday, April 14, Joe’s Café: This one’s all about acoustic blues, roots, and Americana music, with dual vocal harmonies featuring the head Rum Drum Rambler, Mat Wilson, and the heady vocals of Little Rachel.
The Hooten Hallers with The Tillers and Ryan Koenig & Jack Grelle, April 16, Off Broadway: The road band travels to South City for a set of hillbilly, rock, and blues.
The Sidney Street Shakers, Wednesday, April 20, Foam: The Shakers host the Cherokee Shake on the third Wednesday of each month. In May, the band will release an album of classic St. Louis jazz songs.
