bassmagazine.com ; ISSUE 4 ; BASS MAGAZINE 19
Harmoni Kelley
gig called for a 5-string player, which is some-
thing that Kelley had not attempted before —
so she scrambled to get her hands on one,
and she woodshedded as much as she could
before she got to the audition space.
Kelley walked into the room and was im-
mediately greeted by Chesney before prompt-
ly being ushered onto the stage where the full
band was set up in front of the entire road
crew. They quickly had her put in some make-
shift in-ear monitors — another first for her
— and then clicked into the first of six songs,
right around the time that Kelley’s nerves
were peaking and her heart rate doubled
that of the click tempos. Calming herself and
playing to her best ability on a 5-string with
loose in-ears, she was startled when Chesney
waved his arms in the air and called a halt
to the performance. He grabbed the rest of
the band and brought them into the hallway,
leaving Kelley alone on the stage holding her
bass. Certain that she had ruined her chances
for the bass chair, her thoughts turned dark,
which only intensified when Chesney and the
rest of the band returned with crossed arms
and grim looks on their faces. They stood
motionless at the front of the stage and re-
mained silent for what seemed like forever.
The tension broke when Chesney burst into a
huge smile, proclaiming, “I’m just f’ing with
you — you’re in the band!” The room erupted
and everyone circled around and embraced
Harmoni in what would be one of the best
and most altering moments of her life.
Now five years later, she’s a full-fledged
member of the band, with integral musical
and vocal moments in the live shows, and
she has become a fan favorite of the adoring
crowds that fill stadiums to see Chesney’s epic
performances. And with Chesney hard at work
in the studio currently recording his next al-
bum, Harmoni is gearing up to hit the road
once again, equipped with her 5-string Fend-
er, which now feels like home after her initial
trial by fire with it. Harmoni has become very
adept at adapting on the fly, as each show’s ca-
pacity crowd keeps growing, and every ven-
ue presents new challenges in projecting her
tone, which she is very particular about. But
more than meticulous, she’s just grateful to
have landed her dream gig with one of the big-
gest stars of country music.What was it like playing your first big show with
Kenny?
I thought I was prepared going into it.
I was not. Our guitarist told me that he had
played big gigs before playing in this band,
with Bob Seger and other big artists, but
when he stepped onstage at a football stadi-
um with Kenny, it took his breath away. The
first time I played with Kenny was a home-
town show at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville,
and it was his birthday, so all these celebrities
were there, from Joe Walsh to Taylor Swift. I
had never been on a stage that big, I had nev-
er worn in-ears before, I had never played a
5-string live before, and I just had to go out
and perform with all of those factors. But talk
about a rush — it was one of the wildest expe-
riences of my life. They were right. It definite-
ly took my breath away.
Now that you’re seasoned at playing big
shows, what goes through your head during live
performances?
It’s been a really good lesson for me as a
player to get outside of my comfort zone and
not worry so much about what I look like and
what I’m doing. It’s all about taking chances.
I’ve always been used to standing back by the
drummer and just holding down the rhythm
and focusing on the music in a supportive
role, but for this I’m expected to go out and
run around and go out to the crowd riser and
jump all over the place. When you’re running
around and jumping up and down it can be
really hard to maintain the precision of your
playing. It’s not like just standing there and
focusing on the notes anymore. And as a bass
player, you want to hit the strings with consis-
tent attack, and that can be hard when you’re
jogging through the crowd. It takes a lot of
practice, but you get better at it over time.
Playing venues the size that you do, how do
you make sure your bass tone doesn’t get lost in
the immensity of the arenas?
I was just discussing this with our front-
of-house guy, Chris Rabold, who is world-GEAR
Bass Fender American
Professional Precision
5-strings
Rig Ampeg SVT-VR,
Ampeg SVT 8x10, Am-
peg Portaflex 15
Effects Ampeg Liqui-
fier Analog Chorus,
Fender Downtown
Express, Fender Pelt
Fuzz Pedal
Strings D’Addario
NYXL Medium
Accessories JH Audio
In-Ears, Mono Gig
Bags