Today the Dog is writing less as a wannabe critic than as a fan. A few years ago, I came across a cover of a song that stopped me dead in my tracks. Who was this woman? Some further online rambling led to the recording below, a personal favorite. If the lyrics sounds suspiciously literary, it’s because they were written by Jack Pendarvis, the author of several collections of short stories. But the voice and phrasing perfect the mood:
Kelly Hogan was born in 1965 in Atlanta, the daughter of a army helicopter pilot turned cop who modeled himself after the Great Santini. She describes herself as having been a painfully shy nerd — so shy that the first time she performed publicly was at summer camp after her bunkmates stole her clothes and refused to return them for three days until she broke down and agreed to sing at the end of the season ceremony.
Hogan later joined the band Jody Grind, two of whose members, along with another man, were tragically killed when a drunk driver collided head on with their van . (By happenstance, Hogan was not in the vehicle.) In the years that followed, she relocated to Chicago and Wisconsin, sang in bars, tended bar, and served as an assistant to cartoonist Lynda Barry. She also provided backup vocals for a long list of other performers including Mavis Staples and Jakob Dylan.
In 2012, Hogan called in her professional chits and asked artists with whom she had worked over the years to contribute songs to her for a new album. The result was “I Like to Keep Myself in Pain,” the collection sampled above.
Hogan has said that she “hears melodies in everything” and even harmonizes with factory whistles and vacuum cleaners. In addition to being talented and creative, she is strong and bold — the sort of woman who sports a tattoo on her lower back that reads,
“Singers Get All the Pussy.” If she has still not reached the national audience she deserves, the loss is ours. Let’s close with one of her earlier efforts, a ferocious little piece — which she co-wrote with Bill Taft, another Jody Grind survivor — that packs more of a jolt than a cappuccino: