Stephen Kellogg with special guest Hailey Steel

Stephen Kellogg was born on November 28, 1976. He grew up in Southern Connecticut and in 1997 began his musical career in Northampton, MA while interning for a local club. A few years later, he married his high school sweet heart and began a well-publicized afection for his role as husband and later, father to their four daughters. Over the last decade he has performed more than 1500 concerts in more than a dozen countries, both solo and with a band. In 2013 Kellogg gave a TEDx Talk about job satisfaction. Recently on a tour of Europe, SK (as fans often refer to him) made a detour to play the Middle East, Africa and an aircraft carrier for the Armed Forces. Upon returning to the USA, he started his annual lyric writing campaign to raise money and awareness in the fight against pediatric cancer. At first glance none of this has anything to do with his music, but Stephen Kellogg would argue, “it is the whole story. The music I make is a reflection of how I spend my time and what I care deeply about.”

When it comes to performing, CBS Radio has called Stephen, “the best live act you’ve never seen.” Another writer at No Depression magazine gives him the oddly flattering title of “the best songwriter you’re not listening to.” Interestingly though while Kellogg may not be a household name at present, he has persisted in building a substantial career, which has landed him on stage with some of the biggest touring acts in the country (Train, Sugarland, OAR, Josh Ritter to name a few), in the billboard charts, and with his songs as the backdrop of numerous films and TV shows (One Tree Hill, Men of a Certain Age, Mercy). Perhaps most importantly to Kellogg, he’s ingratiated himself into the lives of his listeners. That sort of mentality has garnered him descriptions like this one from Macaroni Kid, “an unassuming manner, self-deprecating humor, a heart for those around him…100% genuine and utterly moving.” His Americana-tinged, sometimes folk, often rock, occasionally pop stylings can make Kellogg hard to define, and his most recent four part album “South, West, North, East” embraces the notion of genre splitting to the fullest.

Recorded literally “all over the map”, the premise of “South, West, North, East” was to record each section of the album in a diferent region of the USA, with diferent co-producers and diferent groups of musicians. “I’ve never felt that the genre was as important as the message and making the record this way was a chance to really explore that idea.” The end result is a collection of 20 songs that defy categorization. The Southern rock flavor of “South” (recorded in Nashville and Atlanta) slides into the cowboy motif of “West” (recorded on a farm in Boulder, CO); and the more indie rock feel of “North” (recorded in a cabin in Woodstock, NY) gives way to the songwriter pop of “East” (recorded in Washington DC). “You often hear about the importance of ‘picking a lane’ and while I completely understand the marketing savvy and focus of that concept, I picked my lane a long time ago; it’s called the ‘words that describe what I believe to be true’ lane”

"Stephen Kellogg’s music is quintessentially American, which is not to say it is Americana. I often have trouble picking a genre for it, and that’s not because it’s genre-bending or so multi-dimensional; rather, it’s music. American music. Straight forward music, shot from the hip, sung without accent or twang. It doesn’t play to fit the new-ish neo-folk trend, nor does it lean on the whimsical, space agey indie production. It is simply a man, his words, and a guitar, which is what I’ve always believed music to be. It can be dressed up, accented, and colored in, but at its core, it can be locked in a guitar case and taken anywhere to be reproduced again in its most noteworthy form." -- Billy Rosenbeck, No Depression

"Stephen Kellogg claims that when he was growing up, his musical interests were divided between his father’s record collection, devoted to ’70s singer/songwriters like Jim Croce and Cat Stevens, and his sister’s rock & roll discs, dominated by hair metal acts such as Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe. In a curious way, Kellogg’s music represents a meeting point between these two styles, with songs that delve deep into the personal, but make room for a sense of fun, while the music, which is intelligent and intimate, is also full of passion and electricity." -- Billboard

"Kellogg falls firmly in the singer-songwriter mold, like Jackson Browne, James Taylor, or Billy Joel. His style would be defined these days as Americana, with roots in country and blues, with a little bit of rock and roll and even a splash of punk . . ." -- Rhetta Akamatsu, Blogcritics.org