Kerri Powers
A “genuine guitar monster” with soulful vocals and ironic humor
Roots rock singer Kerri Powers has been compared in the press to such renowned artists as Shelby Lynne, Lucinda Williams, Rosanne Cash, Tammy Wynette, and Bonnie Raitt.
She got off to a fast start in her musical career. As a teen, she performed in local coffeehouses throughout New England. Standing ovations, encores and significant press promptly became the norm and led to invitational performances at the Boston Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. But then she encountered a few roadblocks and detours—marriage, a baby, a husband who was less than supportive of her musical passion and career.
Fast forward: after raising her son and overcoming the hardship of a difficult divorce, Kerri embraced her passion and returned to making music. She was soon touring and recording and earning the ovations and press accolades again.
The Hartford Courant wrote, “Drenched in the emotions of the blues, folk and country, the extraordinary roots singer/songwriter Kerri Powers uses her dramatically dark and beautiful, soul-shattering voice to mine the melancholy depths of romantic heartbreak and broken dreams in the edgy narratives of her songs. A native of rural Massachusetts, Powers sings the blues with such authentic, downhome heat and grit that you might well think she's from Mississippi. Besides being a consummate chronicler of disappointment and despair, she can also morph into an impishly naughty rebel with a cause, a Mark Twain-like trickster whose wry words, dramatic sense of dynamics and supple phrasing can also celebrate joy and hope.”
In 2018, Kerri released Starseeds, which some critics have called the “essential cosmic American album.” The Patriot Ledger (Massachusetts) wrote, “Her original songs still have the literate detail and ironic humor that might evoke folk music, but now Powers has a kind of dual identity, as a genuine guitar monster, whose playing only accentuates her soulful vocals and incisive lyrics.
Her recent all-acoustic album Words on the Wind, includes covers of some of her favorite artists and songs -- from John Prine’s “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” to Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz.” Kerri has a new album, Love Is Why, scheduled for release in 2023.
Life’s ups and downs make the music richer, as she sings of universal themes of loss and loneliness. Those press accolades tell the story—until you hear her in person.
This is not the kind of singing, writing, and performing that can be easily taught. It has to be in your spirit, in your blood. --John Apice, No Depression
From extravagance to simple elegance we went, as Kerri Powers took the stage with nothing but a guitar and a tapping tambourine strapped to the toe of her boot. Reading about her I assumed she’d be a folk strummer, but she began to lay down some of the finest country blues fingerstyle guitar we’ve had on our stage. --Craig Havighurst, Music City Roots, Nashville
There’s an authenticity at work here, A heart-tugging gravity and a lively intelligence to go along with the sass. --Boston Globe