We hope you can join us in the record shop on Thursday, September 4th at 4:00 PM for an intimate instore performance & album signing by Ruston Kelly! We’re stoked to welcome Ruston back—he’s a friend of the shop and has celebrated several of his albums with us already. We’re pumped to be able to help him welcome Pale, Through the Window into the world! Make plans to be here by preordering your copy of Ruston’s new album on our webstore here or in the record shop next time you come by. All who preorder the album with Grimey’s will receive a wristband for Ruston’s post-performance signing. Wristbands are required for all 13+ (kids 12 & under don’t need one if attending with a wristband-holding adult). Like space in the record store wristbands are limited; they also guarantee your entrance to our event and last time Ruston played in the record store, it was a sold out affair!
Since making his debut with 2018’s Dying Star, Ruston Kelly has built a catalog of songs that search for transcendence in the most devastating and demanding of experiences: addiction, the strenuous work of self-evolution, the fallout of broken relationships. But in the writing of his latest album, the South Carolina-born artist found himself in unfamiliar emotional territory—a state of sustained joy and inner peace, brought on by a spiritual breakthrough and the dawning of a new love. Brimming with the grit and depth that’s always defined his output, Pale, Through the Window ultimately affirms Kelly as one of modern music’s most astute observers of the human heart and spirit.
“For most of my life I’ve felt comfortable writing about darker subject matter with a slight silver lining of hope, asking questions like ‘Why do people suffer, and how can we find communion and joy in the middle of the suffering?’” says Kelly. “Before this album I didn’t quite have the songwriting muscle required to write about joy more directly, which meant that I had to develop some new muscles and find my voice in a whole different way.”
Pale, Through the Window finds Kelly reuniting with his longtime collaborator Jarrad K, who also helmed production on Dying Star and 2020’s Shape & Destroy. “This record feels like a return to the truest, purest, most complete version of who I am as an artist and a human being, and Jarrad’s the only producer who knows me down to my internal fabric,” he explains. Recorded at Jarrad’s studio Chateau Noir, the album marks the first body of work Kelly has recorded with his longtime touring band. “My band and I have been on the road together for six years now, and I wanted to capture the feeling of us playing off each other,” he says. “It felt so easy to record with them, almost like you’re blazing a new trail but with the same caravan you’ve been with all along, so there’s never any fear in stepping into new terrain.” Formed from a singular sonic palette that often merges synth with pedal-steel guitar (courtesy of his father, Tim “TK” Kelly), Pale, Through the Window also fully embraces Kelly’s ardent love of classic pop-punk and emo—ultimately bringing a raw and potent energy to his soul-searching songwriting.
We can’t wait to hear Ruston’s new album and see him perform songs from it in the record store. We hope to see you here too! Preorder your copy of Pale, Through the Window on our site here for a signing wristband (guaranteeing your entrance) or swing by the shop and plac eyour preorder in person. See you soon, Nashville!!