Though his output has come in fits and starts, folk-rocker Kirk Kelly has remained a constant presence on Manhattan’s Lower East Side from the 1980s onward. Living in Greenwich Village, he first gained nationwide attention in 1988 with the release of his debut solo effort, Go Man Go, issued by SST. At that moment, observers found it unexpected that a Bob Dylan-influenced folk-rocker would appear on a roster primarily associated with punk and alternative rock. Yet the pairing aligns logically once his approach is considered. Accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica, Kelly composes numerous politically charged songs that echo not only Dylan but also confrontational acts such as the Clash, the Sex Pistols, and the Dead Kennedys. He has likewise belonged to an East Coast scene called anti-folk, which merges folk-rock structures with a punk sensibility. New York singer/songwriter Lach stands at the forefront of that movement, and Kelly has numbered among his allies in the Lower East Side. Their partnership produced a 1985 cassette-only recording under the name Folk Brothers, titled All Folked-Up With Nowhere to Go. Kelly’s first proper solo album nevertheless arrived only with 1988’s Go Man Go, his sole SST title. Another full-length statement did not surface until 1997, when the strongly sociopolitical New City appeared on Mugsy Records. Throughout the early 2000s he sustained a steady schedule of New York performances.
