We hope you’ll join us on Friday, April 7th at 5:00 PM to celebrate the release of Ruston Kelly’s The Weakness. Kelly will be here that day for an intimate performance, featuring songs from his new album, and then will sign copies of The Weakness for attendees*. You can preorder the album now in the record store and on our webstore here—it’s available on limited edition Bluejay colored vinyl and CD. *Wristbands are required to participate in the signing with Kelly and they are free with preorder or purchase of the album from Grimey’s. (Kids 12 and under do not need a wristband if accompanied by an adult with one.) For those unable to attend our event with Kelly in person, we are also offering signed preorders for mail order.
We’ve had the pleasure of hosting Kelly at Grimey’s a couple of times in the past—first in 2018, around the release of his debut album, Dying Star, and then again in 2020 to commemorate the release of Shade & Destroy. )You can still watch his 2020 Grimey’s performance on his Youtube page.) Kelly’s talent is immense and we’re thrilled he’s able to spend time with us to celebrate the release ofThe Weakness too. We can’t wait to hear these new songs performed lived at Grimey’s and hope you’ll be able to join us for this special occasion!
Before setting to work on his third album, Kelly moved out of his Nashville home and into an old Victorian bungalow in the small Tennessee town of Portland, then spent months on end in deliberate solitude. As he busied himself with remodeling his house and tearing through a stack of John Steinbeck novels, the South Carolina-born singer/songwriter began processing a number of life-altering changes he’d endured over the past year, including a very public divorce as well as major upheaval in his immediate family. “I felt a real need to understand myself a little better, and to rediscover the true foundation of who I am,” says Kelly, who candidly detailed his struggle with drug addiction on his 2018 full-length debut Dying Star. Pushing forward with the intensely self-aware truth-telling he’s always brought to his music, Kelly soon immersed himself in the making of The Weakness: a blisteringly honest but profoundly hopeful album that ultimately reveals our vast potential to create strength and beauty from the most painful of experiences.
“With every record I make, I learn so much about myself and who I am as a human and what type of man I want to be,” says Kelly. “In a way it’s a form of self-help, or like I’m building a fort against a lesser version of myself. Then the goal from there is to just keep on growing.”
With his follow-up to 2020’s Shape & Destroy, The Weakness finds Kelly straying from the more self-contained approach of his previous output and working with producer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Nate Mercereau (Sharon Van Etten, Leon Bridges, Maggie Rogers). “The way I’d always worked in the past is that the song comes first, and the production helps to lift its meaning and intent,” Kelly explains. “But this time there was a much greater focus on creating a sonic atmosphere that speaks just as loudly and feels just as emotional as the lyrics and voice.” Recorded at Mercereau’s Studio Tujunga in Los Angeles, The Weakness came to life in a series of close-knit sessions with Kelly mainly handling acoustic and electric guitar and Mercereau playing over a dozen instruments (including Mellotron, flute, French horn, autoharp, fretless bass, violin, harmonium, mandolin, and more). “I knew from the beginning that I wanted a large sound for this record—I remember telling Nate at one point that I wanted it to sound like a storm brewing in a big empty field,” says Kelly, who names Daniel Lanois’s work with Bob Dylan as a touchstone for The Weakness. A bold departure from the elegant simplicity of his first two albums, the result is a kaleidoscopic sonic backdrop beautifully suited to The Weakness’ immense scope of feeling.
For additional information about preordering The Weakness please visit our preorder page.
IMPORTANT PARKING INFORMATION! Our parking lot is shared with other rad businesses and it is a finite space, so parking is limited. In addition to our lot, there is an inexpensive paid parking lot behind Elegy Coffee and Mickey's on Gallatin Road that is a short walk from the shop. Please use EXTREME CAUTION if parking on the nearby, narrow neighborhood streets. Too many cars make these roads impassable and result in angry neighbors, the police being called, and cars being towed. (This is no fun at all.) If possible, please consider carpooling, ride-sharing, walking, biking, scooting, roller skating, or taking the bus to attend Ruston Kelly’s record release celebration.
