Rorie Kelly is a dynamic singer-songwriter who is a beacon of light and hope for female singer-songwriters.  Rorie and Delia Stanley are the current leaders of GoGirlsMusic and are producing a two-day online festival jam packed with wonderful women who will be sharing their talents and wisdom. Rorie’s music is edgy and exciting.  Her songs are personal and universal at the same time. Listen to her for a boost of confidence and motivation.

For more information about Rorie, visit her website.

Here’s a video of Rorie singing “Less than Three.”

Rorie is participating in The Ladies in the House Online Festival on Sunday, April 23. This festival is co-sponsored by GoGirlsMusic and NERFA (North East Regional Folk Alliance).

For more information about this special event that takes place on April 22 and 23, check out this article.

Musicians will be streaming from CONCERT WINDOW using the hashtag #LITHFestival

How did the idea of Ladies in the House online festival come about?

After Delia Stanley and I stepped into leadership at GoGirlsMusic.com last
year, one of the first thing we did was reach out to ConcertWindow to see
if we could partner with them somehow. We love the online concert format
and we think they are far and away the best platform for musicians and
fans. During the course of our emails with them we got one that said, “I’m
so sorry, I’ve been busy with an online music festival this week!” “Online
music festival?” I thought. “I want to do one of those!” We’d talked about
doing something like that once or twice in our weekly twitter chat (it’s
at hashtag #ggchat on Thursdays at 3 and 9pm ET, by the way!) but working
with ConcertWindow really gave us the tools to put it together in a way
that was easy for both fans and musicians alike. We had a one day festival
in 2016, and this year, we were able to partner with NERFA and expand it
to a 2-day fest! We couldn’t come up with a title that contained both
NERFA and GoGirlsMusic.com , so we settled on “Ladies in the House Online
Music Festival” which suited us both!

Can you explain what GoGirlsMusic is all about?

GoGirlsMusic.com is the world’s oldest and largest online community of
female musicians. We were founded in 1996 by Madalyn Sklar. Last year we
celebrated 20 years of connecting and empowering female musicians, and
Madalyn “passed the torch” to myself and Delia Stanley to lead the
community into the next 20. Our goals are to help female musicians connect
and support each other, and to create opportunities to help them build
their careers. We want to also make it clear that we are inclusive of the
trans community as well–GoGirlsMusic has always supported the LGBT
community and it’s important to us to step up for ALL of our sisters.

I like what you said about your newest CD Rising Rising Rising…. that “It is an album about rising up from the dark place and being your own hero.”  Did music help you to find yourself?

Absolutely. Music has helped me understand myself, has given me something
to believe in and has always shown up for me in my darkest moments. My
relationship with music is as important and committed as any relationship
I have with another person. And when I am struggling, songwriting is the
way I can process my feelings and find my own power.

I hear a lot of Alanis Morissette and Liz Phair in your music.  Were they two big influences on you during your formative years?

Yes! Women musicians who share themselves honestly and without apology
give me life. I have many musical influences but Alanis’ willingness to
really share her soul and her honest struggles has given me a beautiful
role model for self-awareness. Both Alanis and Liz Phair cheerfully play
with songwriting structure rather than being boxed in by a formula, which
inspires me so much as a writer. My other huge influence is Tegan and
Sara, whose musical evolution throughout the years has just left me
awestruck with respect.

Are you a disciplined writer?  Do you practice and write on a regular basis?

For me, songwriting is often a more natural form of expression than
regular speech or prose, so I don’t wholly relate to the concept of
discipline in my writing. I do know that the more I write, the happier I
am, so I try to make a regular practice of it as much for my own sanity as
to build my skill.

Do you have any exciting plans coming up?

Probably a nap once this festival is done, it took a lot of work to
organize! But the other thing I am excited about this year is expanding my
musical empowerment project Songs to Start a Fire. It is a musical
movement with a goal of inspiring women and girls to love the hell out of
themselves and to be their own heroines. You can find out more about that
at www.songstostartafire.com .