Talks & Entertainment

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Listen to Ruston Kelly.

With his sophomore album Shape & Destroy, Nashville-based artist Ruston Kelly documents his experience maintaining sobriety and finally facing the demons that led him to drug abuse in the first place. While Kelly recounts that journey with an unvarnished honesty, his grace and conviction as an artist ultimately turn Shape & Destroy into a work of unlikely transcendence.

With its unsparing reflection on what Kelly refers to as “the cycle of frustration and temptation after getting clean,” Shape & Destroy took form during a period of painful transformation. Working at Dreamland Recording Studios in upstate New York, Kelly enlisted musicians like Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick, bassist Eli Beaird, and a number of his own family members to deliberately channel the raw vitality Kelly brings to his live show.

Describing Shape & Destroy as a “mental-health record,” Kelly reveals all the false starts and setbacks in getting sober with a specificity that’s unflinching but never heavy-handed. Kelly tapped into many of his longtime inspirations—Jackson Browne, Dashboard Confessional, the brutal and visceral energy of Kurt Cobain’s live performance—but also looked to such unexpected sources as transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. By creating Shape & Destroy with total clarity, Kelly emerged with a greater understanding of how to fulfill his purpose as an artist.

VIP Ticket (limited availability) includes:

• One general admission ticket
• Early venue entry
• Exclusive pre-show Q&A with Ruston Kelly
• Intimate soundcheck performance by Ruston Kelly
• Collectible tour poster, signed by Ruston Kelly
• Specially designed Ruston Kelly VIP merchandise item
• Commemorative pre-show tour laminate
• Merchandise shopping before doors open to the general public