Kelly McCartney

Armed with an Entertainment Tonight internship and a BA in journalism, I started my career in 1989 as a personal assistant to celebrity types like Susanna Hoffs, Adam Horowitz, and Isabelle Adjani. From that springboard, I co-represented a cool band (Sun 60) and hosted hipster musicians (Mazzy Star, Dada, Beastie Boys) at exclusive Hollywood club nights. In late '92, I switched gears, became a vegan, and spent a year at Virgin Records coordinating contracts for newbie artists who later became sort of famous (Ben Harper, David Gray, the Wallflowers). In 1994, I booked Genghis Cohen, a tiny acoustic venue where I met Vonda Shepard, Shawn Mullins, Jill Sobule, and other notables including Joni Mitchell. From there, I spent a few years managing Vonda’s career, and booked/managed several tours for Melissa Ferrick. I even supervised the music for two independent films (both showcased at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival). Around the turn of the century, I became a freelance ‘expert’ for AllMusic.com, then joined Velvetpark magazine as managing editor. With Circle Back Music, I continued to support indie artists like Vonda Shepard, Natalia Zukerman, The Coal Men, Korby Lenker, Joan Jones, Steven Delopoulos, and others. Upon the slimming down of Vp after five years in print, I started writing and copy editing for Showtime’s OurChart.com, covering activism, music, and politics/news. When OC lost its groove, we revved the Vp engines back up with me as Senior Editor and I added some SEO writing for Oak Web Works. In 2011, I tacked Shareable and NoiseTrade's blog on to my freelancer gigs. Come 2012, Circle Back did artist outreach for Stageit and NoiseTrade, supported Susanna Hoffs‘ solo CD and Sid n' Susie duo project with Matthew Sweet, and crafted a theatre series with Six01 Studio. Now in '14, that is all still happening while I continue my freelance writing by adding American Songwriter, PopMatters, Elmore magazine, VC Reporter, and No Depression to the portfolio.