Pat KAY
Ozark Stompgrass Music
My name is Pat Kay. I'm a singer, songwriter, storyteller, and multi-instrumentalist dedicated to carrying the torch of Ozark music tradition.
My performances are built from songs that span more than a century, with a few written just last week. Some are my own, while many come from a bygone era. The refrains and melodies that once echoed through barns on Saturday nights and churches on Sunday mornings have become an endangered species. Long before radio, these songs survived through oral tradition. Each generation inherited them, reshaped them, and added new verses, new melodies, and entirely new songs before passing them along. Simply celebrating the past isn't enough. My life's work is to pick up where that tradition left off by writing new songs that belong in the same conversation as the old ones. I see myself less as a historian than a caretaker, tending this garden of music long enough to pass it on to our children's children.
Onstage, I play clawhammer banjo and guitar with my hands, bass drum and tambourines with my feet, harmonica and vocals with my face, and fill the spaces between with stories, folklore, and the occasional exceedingly tall tale.In addition to my one-man-band performances, I also perform with two bands. The Kay Brothers present this same musical tradition in a trio featuring my brother Bryan Kay on upright bass and our mascot, Shakin' Jake, on shakers, washboard, and enthusiastic leg kicks. The Spooklights explore where old-time music might have gone had the tradition never stopped evolving. Alongside fellow Ozark music torchbearer Ben Miller, we blend centuries-old musical DNA with electronic instruments, modern production, and hypnotic rhythms. It's an incredibly fun science project. Read more on this below.
MUSIC & STREAMING
L I N K S
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YOUTUBE
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THE SPOOKLIGHTS [continued]
On their own, Pat Kay and Ben Miller can each be found performing their own "stompgrass" or "Ozark stomp," respectively, in what they consider conventional utilitarian methods using an arsenal of tools true to a time & place in the past... homemade instruments, banjos, harmonicas, foot drums, etc. The pioneers of old time Americana used only what they had, and they didn't have much. With so little, however, they were able to successfully perpetuate songs for generations. But what happens for these songs, if those restraints are removed? What if they had synthesizers and electronic dance beats in the 1800s? Take, for example, the litmus in a dance remix of the old time standard "Cotton Eyed Joe" (1994) skyrocketing to a #1 hit lighting up dance floors alongside the most massive pop hits of the time, ultimately cementing the song as a household name for a generation. Whether you love it or hate it, you know it. The chorus of that song was penned 200 years ago and an entire living generation can sing it.
Working to provide pieces of American oral music tradition a new lease on life through this kind of drastic contemporary reinterpretation is precisely the collaborative aim. Kay and Miller together hope to reinvigorate more classic Old Time songs on the ever expanding 'endangered list', while reimagining original works of their own with the same shiny new set of tools. Having gained some traction with their debut album release "MK Ultra," The Spooklights have become a national touring act for clubs and festivals across the country. "No matter the audience, there's something magical about seeing large crowds sing and dance to a song their great great grandparents likely did. We love it so much when people can identify and appreciate that. We love it no less when they don't, and in those instances we perhaps find the greatest reward: a new person to help keep a 200 year old song alive."
For show listings, videos, streamable music and more, click HERE.
Pat performing both banjo and synthesizers on "Cluck Ol' Hen" with The Spooklights to a packed house in Chicago, IL.