Kelly Padrick wrote her first song at five. Five. Most of us were still figuring out shoelaces. She’s been writing ever since, and somewhere along the way it stopped being a hobby and turned into a career that’s lasted the better part of two decades, almost all of it on her own terms.
She started out in Providence, Rhode Island. Small rooms, coffee shops, the New England circuit where nobody’s there to see you and you have to earn every head that turns. Then New York. That’s where she’s been building since, mostly alongside songwriting partner Nancy Hess, who she’s worked with since 2006.
The resume is longer than you’d guess for an indie artist. Her songs have shown up in Desperate Housewives promos on ABC, in Fox Searchlight’s Trust the Man, on HBO’s VICE, on MTV. Not bad for someone who never needed a major label to get there.
A Title Track That Makes an Argument
“Butterflies” is the title track of her new five-song EP, out August 24, 2026, and produced by Marc Copely. That pairing is worth a second look. Copely is a rock and blues guitarist who came up playing with B.B. King and James Cotton, and he’s co-written with Carole King. So a country-pop record with his name on the production? That tells you the roots here are meant to be real, not decorative.
The song itself is the thesis of the whole EP. The idea is simple and honestly a little stubborn. Don’t settle for someone who doesn’t give you butterflies. Plenty of songs romanticize the spark. This one treats it more like a standard, a line you hold. I like that. It’s the kind of advice your best friend gives you at 1am that you ignore and then wish you hadn’t.
And Padrick’s whole thing has always been storytelling. She names Dolly Parton as a major influence, and you can see that in how she frames this. Plainspoken. A point of view, not a mood board.
Where It Sits on the Record
The rest of the EP circles the same ground from different angles. “But, Blue” is about a sad reunion with an old partner. “I’ll Try” leans toward gentle hope. “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” is about leaving yesterday behind. “Shine” is a quiet one, written around the absence of someone she loved, and she’s set to shoot a video for it in Montreal this coming January with Patricia Chica, the filmmaker she’s worked with for years (their “Heavenly Ride” video won silver at the California Film Awards).
So “Butterflies” ends up as the bright center of a record that’s mostly about loss, healing and moving on. Which kind of makes sense. You get through the hard stuff, and then you get picky about what you let back in.
If you’ve ever stayed too long with the wrong person, give “Butterflies” a listen and see if it doesn’t land a little close.
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