Stacey Kelleher Talks “spurs,” Spacey Country and the World Behind Her Debut Full Length

Country Music, Just a Little Further Left

There’s country music at the center of Stacey Kelleher’s “spurs,” but not quite in the way you might expect. The Nashville songwriter takes the bones of a traditional country song and pushes them somewhere hazier, warmer and a little left of center. Stacey has landed on a name for it too: “spacey country.”

The phrase actually came from people seeing her perform. After hearing audience members repeatedly describe her music as “spacey,” Stacey realized it fit the world she had been building. For her, that means starting with classic country storytelling and familiar instrumentation, then letting dreamy pads, altered keys and unexpected production choices pull everything somewhere else.

As someone who cites Kacey Musgraves and Maggie Rogers among the artists she loves, Stacey found that “spacey country” captured the balance she was already creating naturally.

“To me, ‘spacey country’ is country that’s left of center sound-wise.”

She points to everything from big, dreamy pads to a Hammond organ run through plugins until it becomes something almost unrecognizable. Underneath it all, though, the storytelling stays firmly rooted in country.

How “spurs” Became a Stacey Kelleher Song

“spurs” wasn’t initially written with Stacey in mind.

She started the song with Catt McCreary, someone she regularly writes with for McCreary’s own artist project. When the idea first came up, Stacey admits she wasn’t entirely convinced it belonged to her.

“I’m not the most country-looking person at first glance,” she says.

But as soon as McCreary began explaining the storyline and the pair started shaping the verse and chorus, something clicked.

“I knew she was right. It was definitely a song for me.”

The earliest version leaned heavily into traditional country, with a bouncy acoustic guitar pattern serving as the foundation. Stacey later cut the track with producer Justin Nelson, starting with that same guitar before building the rest of the production around it.

The result feels playful without losing the specificity that makes Stacey’s writing work.

Finding a New Way Into the Story

For Stacey, the real fun of “spurs” was getting incredibly specific.

She wanted to embrace traditional country storytelling while keeping the conversational quality that runs through her writing. That meant focusing on small details, sharper phrasing and finding a perspective that didn’t feel like something listeners had already heard a hundred times.

“Finding new ways to tell a story is a part of songwriting that I’m obsessed with. Everything’s been said before at this point in music, but you can always find a new spin.”

It’s a simple idea that says a lot about how Stacey approaches songwriting. The goal isn’t necessarily to invent an entirely new subject. It’s to find the detail or turn of phrase that makes it unmistakably hers.

The Stacey Kelleher Continuum

“spurs” may lean country, but Stacey isn’t interested in keeping every song in exactly the same sonic box.

The ’90s country she grew up around still shows up in her chord changes, acoustic guitar playing and lyrical instincts. Indie pop appears more subtly through keys, pads and production layers, while alternative music comes through in the electric guitars and drums. She even teases an unreleased track from the forthcoming project with a strong classic rock influence.

Rather than worrying too much about genre, Kelleher lets each song dictate where it wants to go.

“Every song has its own DNA.”

She describes everything as existing somewhere along the “Stacey Kelleher continuum.” The individual songs can move in different directions without losing the thread connecting them.

“To me, every song has its own DNA, and I’m all about letting each song differ slightly while still feeling cohesive to my sound overall.”

Building Toward Something Bigger

That freedom becomes especially interesting in the context of Stacey’s upcoming debut full-length project.

In her eyes, the differences between the songs are part of what makes them belong together. The project reflects the last several years of her life, moving through changing relationships, self-discovery and a growing understanding of what she wants both personally and creatively.

And “spurs” is only one piece of it.

Stacey says there’s another song waiting at the very beginning of the project, written with Madeline Edwards and featuring Daniel Tashian on background vocals. Built around a long-distance relationship she was in last year, she sees it as the right introduction to the larger story.

“spurs,” meanwhile, gets to occupy its own corner.

“This song really is its own chapter, and there’s nothing else like it on the record.”

Her hope is that it makes listeners curious enough to keep going.

“I hope that ‘spurs’ makes them wonder what other stories I have to tell and what other sonic worlds the rest of the tracks live in.”

More Certain, More Specific

If there’s a shift between Stacey’s earlier releases and the music she’s making now, it’s confidence.

Not a reinvention. Not a hard reset. More like becoming increasingly certain about the ideas that were already there.

“I think sonically I’ve really found my lane and my sound,” she says. “The artist who made my previous work was just starting to dip her toes in, but I feel like I’ve fully jumped in now.”

That confidence is also showing up in the writing itself. Kelleher says she feels more comfortable getting detailed and saying exactly what she wants to say, while keeping authenticity at the center of the process.

Taking This Chapter to the Stage

The next few months will also give Stacey the chance to bring this era into much bigger rooms.

She’s set to perform at Old Dominion’s Moon Crush Odie’s Beach Vacation in October, something she says still doesn’t quite feel real. Old Dominion’s own path from Nashville songwriters to a successful band makes the opportunity especially meaningful to her.

Stacey is excited to bring the current songs to a new audience with her full band, especially because of how much emotional ground they cover.

But ask where she feels most connected to the music and her answer gets much simpler: just her and a guitar.

Solo acoustic rooms bring her back to being ten years old in her bedroom writing songs, giving her space to lean completely into storytelling and the reasons each song exists in the first place.

Maybe that’s the throughline in everything Stacey Kelleher is doing right now. The production can stretch outward, the genres can blur, and each song can occupy its own world, but the story remains at the center.

When asked to describe this era in three words, Stacey chose:

“Engaging, direct, and emerging.”

“spurs” is a pretty good place to start.

Stream “spurs” now and keep Stacey Kelleher‍ ‍on your radar as she moves toward her debut full-length project.

Photography: Lindsey Torres & Anna Torres assisted by After Glow Social Co.