Acoustic Long Island

Kelli Rae Powell is the tiny ukulele-wielding, redheaded stepchild of Billie Holiday and Johnny Cash. Whether she’s growling out wry ruminations or purring her way through a drinkaby (a lullaby-meets-drinking song of her own device), she delivers the kind of consistently literate lyrics that once prompted Tommy Ramone to call her a poet. The Iowa-bred performer arrived in New York City in 2000, and after making a name for herself in the city’s underground ukulele cabaret scene, released 2006’s “The Scandalous Accounts of My Youth,” and 2009’s “New Words For Old Lullabies” (both on Firecracker Records). She has been listed as a “Rising Star: Folk” in iTunes Essentials, alongside Bon Iver, Joanna Newsom and The Weepies, and New York City’s Deli Magazine wrote that her talents place her at the “tip of the NYC ukulele solo singer songwriter movement.” Powell’s forthcoming CD, “Live At Jalopy,” produced by Terry Radigan and recorded at Jalopy Theatre and School of Music in Red Hook, Brooklyn, showcases a confident