Robin Mckelle Interview Page 4

Smitty:  You’re so welcome. When I listened to the record, I said “Now I know why she went to No. 5 after the NPR interview.”

RM:  Oh, wow.

Smitty: I think if anyone listened to this record and really get into the musicianship here and the songs and the lyrics and the voice, you can’t help but embrace it.  Yeah, I love it.

RM:  Well, thank you.

Smitty:  You’re putting together a tour, of course?

RM:  Yup.

Smitty: You’re gonna be getting out there and people can come out and see you and get the record and all of that good stuff, so how’s that going?  How’s the tour arrangements going?

RM:  We’re going slowly but surely. We are getting there. We had such a response from the CD. I didn’t have at the time any management or agent or anything. I still don’t have an agent, so we’re really trying to nail a couple of those key things down so we can really put the next part of it into action. Right now everyone’s playing catch-up with all the stuff that’s been happening. Like I said, my label, they pressed about 2,000 CD’s and our distributor was like….we had over 30,000 orders for CD’s, so they were scrambling around to fill orders and we’re just trying to get caught up, so we are just pleasantly overwhelmed and surprised. So we thank everybody for there support. But were coming!

Smitty:  Well, you know, Robin, this is the kind of thing that happens with a new star. It’s like “What do we do?” That’s what happens when something this good comes out. It can be overwhelming, so it’s a good thing.

RM:  It’s a great thing, it really is. I mean, I’ve been at it for so long. I’ve been doing this and singing for so long, you name it and the response has just been so heartening. Like I said, I’m just so excited about what’s to come.

Smitty:  Yes.  Please give me your Web site address so the fans can go there and check out your site and what you’re doing over there.

RM:  Yes, it’s www.robinmckelle.com.

Smitty:  Okay, and I’ve been to your site. It’s cool. You’ve got some nice photos on there and some history about your career and the music’s there, of course.

RM:  Yes.

Smitty:  It’s a cool site, very interactive, easy to navigate, and that’s always a cool thing, yeah.

RM:  Yes, we’ve tried to keep it all easy to navigate.

Smitty:  Yeah, absolutely. Talk about what happens from here.

RM:  Well, we’re booking dates in order to get out there and do some concerts for everybody and working out what I’m gonna do for my next project because right now I’m currently not signed to any other label, so we’re working on that.  I’m planning on moving. Right now I live on the East Coast; I’m planning on moving to the West Coast, so that’s coming up in the next couple months. I make my home in Boston right now where I was teaching on the faculty at Berklee College of Music for three years.

I just took a leave to kinda pursue the rest of this CD career here, and they’ve been very supportive and very great, but I also work.  I’m singing all the time around Boston right now with another project that I work on, which is an original project.  I write a lot of music and compose a lot. I have a steady kind of a band that I work with in the Boston area right now as well. The next couple of months we’re gonna be putting the band together for the jazz tour and keep getting a nice band rehearsed and getting out there, really.

Smitty:  Oh, cool.

RM:  Yeah.

Smitty:  Well, that’s very cool.  I certainly look forward to seeing you out there on the road, and I certainly plan on catching a show myself and I’m really looking forward to it.

RM:  Well, great.

Smitty:  Yes.

RM:  Well, thank you so much.

Smitty:  You are so welcome.  And thank you for this great record. I think I speak for thousands when I say that.

RM:  My goodness. Well, thank you so much for the interview and listening. Just thank you for listening to it. That’s really nice.

Smitty:  Oh yes.

RM:  Nice to know.

Smitty:  I’ll hang onto this one. And my compliments to everybody there at Cheap Lullaby Records, they did a great job.  All right, we’ve been talking with the lovely Ms. Robin McKelle. She has a wonderful new project out that is introducing her.  It’s called Introducing Robin McKelle.  Some wonderful standards, great music, you’ve gotta listen to this one, the band is tight, it is one that you certainly want to add to your collection and give a listen to on your CD changer.  Robin, thank you so much. Keep your flava strong, and I will see you on the road.

RM:  Oh, thank you so much.

Baldwin “Smitty” Smith

For More Information Visit www.robinmckelle.com or www.myspace.com/robinmckelle or www.cheaplullaby.com