Kalei

SEEKING

Band to Join, Rhythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Background Singer.

ABOUT

Kalei Petten has just graduated high school and already boasts ten years’ experience as a musician and composer. Surrounded by music from an early age, she has drawn upon the musical pedigree of her extended family and developed into a remarkably independent and original singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With a voice as mature as singers twice her age, Petten incorporates influences as varied as Loretta Lynn, Janis Joplin and Joel Plaskett into her own distinctive acoustic sound. Her assured vocal delivery, breathtakingly honest lyrics, and innate knack for writing a melody all belie her twenty years.

Petten’s talent is matched by her dedication as a musician and performer. She composed and recorded her first original full-length album, Kaleidoscope, at the ripe old age of thirteen, at which point she was already playing mixed sets of covers and original songs in her hometown of Oxford, Nova Scotia. She is also featured on the compilation album We’ve Liked You For a Thousand Years: A Tribute to Plumtree (Gooseberry Records 2010).

Her new album, Breaking Free (2012), produced by Amherst’s Rocky Ripley shows just how much Kalei Petten has come into her own, and become a talented and savvy performer in her own right. Her musical travels have taken her to cafés, bars, and a host of festivals, exhibitions, and fundraising events throughout the province, including opening slots for Keven Daken, The Spinney Brothers, and Canadian Idol finalist Jaydee Bixbee. Petten is based in Halifax, where she is attending Dalhousie University while continuing to compose, perform, and record.