Rorie Kelly's Musical Magick

Written by: Brianna Coccia - March 2023
Edited by: Travis Ryan

Rorie Kelly is an award-winning singer/songwriter/ladybeast from Long Island. Her mission in life is to spread healing through art, and to remind you to love yourself with the fierceness of a kitten that doesn’t know it is tiny. Her music has been featured in film and TV shows, received radio airplay around the world, and led her to perform at the Obama White House in 2016.

-Excerpt from her bio (roriekelly.com)

The experience of listening to Rorie Kelly’s music can only be described as one thing: pure Magick.

This year, Rorie started her February off playing an original music showcase at Grounds & Sounds Cafe, located at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Stony Brook. Grounds & Sounds is a not-for-profit concert series that hosts original artists once a month. This wonderful venue is run off of the kindness of volunteers and has the sole purpose of supporting the best in live acoustic music in a casual and comfortable atmosphere.

It is only fitting that the moon was in Libra as Rorie bared her soul to the crowd and serenaded them with her latest album, Shadow Work, played front to back. They say that when the moon is in Libra, it is a time to speak up about topics that you believe in, find balance, and release the weight of what holds you down; perfect for an evening full of shadow work. Which, as Rorie reminds us, is the process of doing the work — working with your unconscious mind to uncover parts of yourself that you repress and hide from yourself.

As Rorie begins to strum her first chord and hum her first note, the crowd falls silent. I swear you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was locked in.

She has this type of presence about her that demands your undivided attention. You can’t help but to be entranced by her incredible range and quick wit.

My personal favorite off of Shadow Work is “Up From Here”. Maybe it has to do with the overall message about “belligerent positivity and turning your luck around” (as described by the artist herself). Or maybe it has to do with the fact that it’s a singalong, and screaming “You can’t keep this fucker down” with a room full of people is a very liberating and healing experience. Either way, “It’s a song to get your aggressions out and declare you are going to have a good day.”

You can catch Rorie Kelly next on March 16th at the Suffolk Theatre with Chelsea Takami and Whaley for the soft-rock edition of the Long Island Stage series. Weekly, you can find her streaming on Twitch on Sundays at 8 PM for her piano stream called “Can’t Find My Keys” and Mondays at 7:30 PM for her “Monday Night Muses” at twitch.tv/roriekelly.