As a Valentine’s Day surprise for lovers as well as the brokenhearted, Kelsea Ballerini just released her Rolling Up the Welcome Mat EP and short film.
The follow project to the singer/songwriter’s 2022 Subject to Change LP, the new intimate, six-title collection circles around her former marriage to, and 2022 divorce from fellow artist Morgan Evans. Obvious that her life-altering events have influenced the music’s material, in the song “Just Married,” Kelsey sings “It felt like forever that December 2,” (her and Evans’ real-life wedding date,) and “Penthouse” addresses having to separate household items from their shared living space on 8th Avenue.
In a statement about the new release, Ballerini said “Rolling Up the Welcome Mat was how I processed everything.” “It’s the way I got my feelings out of my body and heart and put them to music, which is the purest way I could’ve handled it.”
Written by Ballerini and co-directed with Patrick Tracy, the accompanying 20-minute short film evokes the mood of these new songs with dirty dishes stacking up in Kelsea’s arms as she describes the weight of a relationship, then feels the widening gulf in her shared bed. At the conclusion, the artist is alone with a guitar in a half-packed closet, singing one more before she heads out.
Ballerini has confirmed several 2023 North American headlining tour dates, starting on March 6 in Toronto after which she will join Kenny Chesney for the I Go Back Tour, with dates running through May.
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Jana Beamer