Var Gallery Presents: Madeleine Kelson & Alaina Stacey

Var Gallery Presents: Madeleine Kelson & Alaina Stacey

Saturday, February 17th, 2024

Doors: 7:00pm

Show: 8:00pm

Tickets on sale now!

$14 online presale

$17 at the door

Madeleine Kelson has been writing and performing music since childhood, developing a unique, country-leaning style of Americana laced with elements of rock and blues. She spent her early career performing with her twin sister in Chicago band, The Kelson Twins, at iconic venues across Chicago, including the House of Blues, and the Athenaeum Theater, and landed a 2016 Top Daytrotter Session with Paste Magazine. After graduating high school, Kelson started her solo career in Nashville. Shortly after moving, she won the 2017 International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Songwriter Showcase. After the April 2022 release of her debut album on Olivia Records, Kelson was named by NPR as one of 10 rising artists in Nashville, and was chosen as a finalist in Kerrville Folk Festival’s NewFolk competition.

After high school, Alaina headed to Nashville to launch a music career. One year after founding the Nashville based Americana group, Maybe April, Stacey appeared onstage with her group at the Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles, alongside Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson and The Goo Goo Doll’s Johnny Reznick as part of a GRAMMY week performance called A Song Is Born. Their Audiotree video went viral, and they remain one of Audiotree’s top twenty most popular videos. With Maybe April, she opened for Brandy Clark and Sarah Jarosz, and performed at Pilgrimage Music Festival, Merlefest, SXSW, CMA Fest, and other festivals, and released an EP and record, The Other Side, which was produced by her brother Julian. The band won “Americana Group of the Year” two years in a row at the Arkansas Country Music Awards.