Kip Kelly Credit: Donna Green

From open (“Mother’s Day”) to close (“Let It Fly”) Kip Kelly’s debut LP is a heavy listen, but what he simply set out to do was capture the first two years of a songwriting journey that started nearly a decade ago.

“I thought about putting some other stuff on the record because for a second I started thinking about streams, and getting bigger gigs, or somebody playing it on the radio and all of that,” he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during a recent CLTV taping, alluding to his more honky-tonking tunes.

But that felt silly. So instead, Kelly put out work he thought was the most personal, reflective and vulnerable, hoping the audience would feel something, too. What ended up on the vinyl that fans can pre-order this weekend is music that helped Kelly heal.

Songs From a Quiet House is a record that captures the Safety Harbor songwriter working through grief and divorce, honoring his late mother and being honest with himself not just about the end of his marriage but the dissolution of the one between his own parents.

The 10-track outing lives sonically within the worlds built by John Prine, Sam Baker, and Guy Clark, but it’s lifted up by contributions from Will Sexton (Waylon Jennings, Matt Ross-Spang) who helped record and produce the album at Memphis’ Archer Recording Studio.

There’s even Salisbury steak.

Kelly told CL that his parents divorced before he was a year old, and that he was raised primarily by his grandma and older sister Denise.

“Cold TV Dinners” is a latchkey kid anthem and reflection on the single working mom that also raised him and Denise. Mom usually left CrockPot meals for them, but sometimes she didn’t have time, so sometimes Stouffer’s and Swanson’s were on the menu. “It won’t be heaven without cold T.V. dinners and my sister watching T.V. right there by my side,” Kelly sings on the tune.

Elsewhere, like on “Two Cups of Coffee,” Kelly reflects on his adult life, specifically the divorce between him and his wife, with whom he opened Crooked Thumb Brewery. They remain friends today, but the song sorrowfully describes the breakup like a boxing match (“You go to your corner, and I go to mine”) and closed with the devastating couplet: “Love is gone, we both know it’s true. The bluebird is crying ’cause he knows it, too.”

Kelly cuts even deeper on “I’ll See You Soon,” which started pouring out of him after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. It’s the closest thing to a political song.

“I end up writing the song, thinking of that day I walked my son down to the bus stop just like every other day, and probably some gentleman in Newtown did the same thing with his son, but then the days went obviously completely wrong,” Kelly told CL. “I wanted to kind of make a little bit of a statement about gun control, but I wanted to show, I wanted to be brought up through an empathetic situation.”

The empathy is loudest on Songs From a Quiet House’s opening track, “Mother’s Day,” the first song Kelly ever wrote, on the second Mother’s Day after his mom, who was also named Denise (play the song above).

The first time Kelly played it in public, people lined up to give him hugs. His own daughter, Claire, said it was her favorite song; that was perhaps the greatest affirmation that he did the right thing by baring it all.

Kelly told CL that part of the reason he wanted to put out this record was so his kids could have a piece of him after he’s gone, too.

“That means a lot to me,” he said, “especially knowing that they’ll be listening to those songs when I’m not around anymore.”

Kelly will play Songs From a Quiet House in full on Saturday, Nov. 7 during a free concert at Noisemakers in St. Petersburg. The vinyl will be available for pre-order. More information is available via kipkellymusic.com.

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This article appears in Nov. 05 – 11, 2026.