Kelly Zullo & The Invisible Circus

Check out this sick acoustic guitar assault by Kelly Zullo.

It’s the song “When We Get There” from the upcoming January 2015 release.

Here Zullo uses some speedy finger work and hard hitting right hand technique while she sings at the same time. It’s kinda like tapping you head and rubbing your belly on fast forward.

But she makes it look easy. - Laura Whitmore

-standout entry in the Tiny Desk Concert.

-top 160 out of 7000 entries. - NPR

"Then magic happened. Kelly Zullo tracked out a drum loop onstage and picked up a guitar.. I could listen to Kelly Zullo all day and the styling of Jack McCarthy on top of that, was just icing on the cake." - NID

"Kelly Zullo swings her axe wisely, tempered by years of working at songwriting, and she delivers these songs in an acrobatic voice, at times backed up by a fiddle and upright bass. she has gained some notoriety for her style, particularly among the guitar community." - Modernfolk.net

I may have posted about this woman named Kelly Zullo in the past before but I came across another one of her live performances which was pretty phenomenal.

Guitar World magazine just gave her a shout-out (congrats to her, btw) and they just posted this video on GW’s facebook page. She’s getting a lot of criticism. People saying negative things about her playing, claiming that she’s playing too many notes and over-playing. If they truly believe that, then why don’t say that to Al Di Meola?

This is pretty impressive playing on this video. Is Kelly over-playing and playing too many notes? If so, who cares. Guitar players play what they want to play. They play from the heart and play whatever makes them happy. If they want to play fast notes and shred the guitar to death, more power to ‘em. I like that kind of guitar playing on the acoustic and it takes guts to play like that.

There are so many acoustic players out there playing basic rhythm and do nothing but finger picking. A lot of acoustic players don’t wanna play with feeling and play with melody.

I remember Kelly used to play around the Capital District area in Albany quite a lot but it looks like she moved to NYC and she’s playing everywhere now which is good for her. I’ve been a fan of her music for a while.

She’s gonna be something special in the music business. How come this woman isn’t signed to a label yet when she should be???

This is pretty sick playing. To be able to play guitar like that and sing at the same time, wow. I wish I could play guitar like she does. I’m a pretty decent acoustic guitarist but I’m not even close the way she plays. Kelly’s gonna be on the cover of all the guitar magazines, someday. - Kev Brock

Kelly Zullo stands out from a sea of singer-songwriters. Her strengths lie in her unique slamming and rapid fingerpicking on her acoustic guitar. She wows listeners with her Outstanding guitar accompaniment. - 2011 IAMA

"Kelly .. has developed her own unique, extremely rapid, percussive, yet finely melodic style of picking-while-pounding-out-rhythm on her guitar." - -Dr. Ron Emoff, Professor of Music, Ohio State University

Kelly Zullo writes songs that are very personal and therefore come across as credible. This, a dash of passion, a bit of quirkiness and healthy self-confidence - that is the perfect one-woman concert evening...
This American free spirit turns out to be true pearl in a sea of ??singer-songwriters.." - Von Sandra Knobloch - www.donaukurier.de

Born in Saratoga, NY, Kelly Zullo moved to Nashville at age 18 to pursue music and a degree in music business. In 2001, she borrowed money to fund her first EP, THIN LINE and released it independently. Kelly's second release, A CASE OF TRUCE (Imagic Records 31305) 3 out of 4 stars, celebrates her accomplishments as a talented producer, guitarist, and songwriter. Though recorded in music city, there's more of an organic pop-rock feel here.

Especially noteworthy is the independent woman approach of 'Stone Girl', with some great lyrics, stunning guitar work and a vibrant vocal. - Maverick UK

Kelly Zullo has a good thing going on A Case Of Truce. Under different circumstances, the album could have been a case of the delicate songstress wronged by ex-lovers and lackluster parenting. But it's not. Zullo escapes the cookie-cutter Harvard Square singer/songwriter set by doing two things, and doing them well. First, she keeps her songs personal, rather than drifting off into the universal or overtly political, and the result is instant credibility. Bob Dylan gets away with sweeping indictments of the gentler sex in "Just Like A Woman" because he's ostensibly singing about someone in particular, not 51% of the population. That's the power specifics lend to lyrics, and Zullo has that figured out.

Second, she's got spunk. Zullo's themes aren't necessarily groundbreaking (whose are?), but she infuses them with passion, honesty, and--just as importantly--big, fat guitar riffs. It's a terrific package for Zullo and gives her and air of toughness and world-weariness that makes her all the more endearing. When her upbeat moments arrive, as guarded as they might be, we're that much more glad to welcome them. "Touch My Soul" is the best example of Zullo putting those pieces together, but "Stone Girl" and "Elevator" are solid performances and nearly as memorable. Though only five songs long, A Case Of Truce is worth picking up, and Zullo is certainly worth checking out.
- Upstage Arts and Culture Magazine