There’s the start and there’s the end and there’s everything in between. Jadea Kelly isn’t everything in between but she is a fine example of the mellow Americana that seems to grow with the wheat in Canada.
No surprise therefore that the organically fertilised and properly nurtured Ms Kelly takes, with the twelve songs on her album “Clover”, us down country roads to the farm from whence – metaphorically at least – she came. There is therefore something wholesome and honest to her performances that will appeal to the many whose hearts long for the better times that have long since passed. Each song drifts as if on a wind of yesterday’s sentiments with the title song and “You Had Me” most clearly speaking the words of past as if they were lessons to be learnt.
As you might imagine, “Clover” is not so much as an album of surprises as one of reflection at the end of the day. For one so young, this could have been incongruous but not for Ms Kelly who convincingly avoids saccharine overdose throughout. A nicely balanced approach, I would say.