Joseph "Budd" Kelly

Joseph Mark Kelly was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in September 1958. When handing the newborn to his mother, the smiling obstetric nurse said, “Here’s your little buddy.” The name stuck, and Budd Kelly came home to grow up surrounded by a large extended family for which music was ever at the center.

His maternal grandfather played concertina, violin, and piano and was especially fond of tinkling the ivories late at night after coming home inebriated and happy – that is, until Budd’s grandmother took an axe to the piano. Being a cabinet maker by trade, grandpa converted the remains of the instrument into a hope chest that still inhabits a special corner in the Kelly household. Budd’s father’s family was no less musical and held square dances in the parlor, with his grandmother vamping out chords on an old upright piano, his father playing drums and crooning like Bing Crosby, his uncle Butch wailing away on any number of instruments, including violin, saxophone, mandolin, guitar, and steel drum.

At age 8, Budd began formal piano lessons – “All five of us Kelly kids had mandatory piano lessons with Cecilia McHugh … $1.00 per half hour at first, then $2 after her husband died.”

Apart from the family sing-a-longs and classical piano lessons, Budd’s other early musical influences were Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, and the Beatles. Then, in 1970 at age 12 he discovered King Crimson’s In the Court of the Crimson King, and there was no turning back. Budd began exploring the world of progressive rock and soon was listening to Genesis, Yes, and an assortment of European bands.

In 1971, Budd composed his first song: Arabesque No. 1, which he still performs to this day. Although Mrs. McHugh commented that the piece “was just chords,” Budd was not discouraged and continued to write music and also began exploring poetry. His first rhyme:

The insects pranced amidst the heavens, as did the arid dawn
The voice of the zephyr spread naked through the trees like specters on a hallowed eve
In the wood lived an old woman known as the Enchantress of the broken leaves
In clairvoyance which she saw us, she wiped her nose upon her sleeve

In 1972, Budd teamed up with best friend and bassist/trumpeter Tom Ketterer, and the two formed Arabesque, a progressive original band that eventually included Tom’s brother Rick (“RJ”) on percussion and vibes, Jim Renda on drums, and Augie Somera [sp?] on guitar. Arabesque remained together for more than seven years, writing and performing primarily in the Pittsburgh area and State College. The band enjoyed a huge local fan base and played to packed houses wherever they performed.

Throughout their tenure, Budd remained the driving creative force and composed the lion’s share of Arabesque’s original music. His songs included complex instrumentals such as “Airchetecture,” “Cobbler’s Knob,” and “New Decade” as well as lyrical ballads with intricate three-part harmonies such as “The East Side of Morning” and “The Farmer Song.”

In 1981, Budd decided to leave Arabesque to pursue other interests and moved to State College, Pennsylvania. While there, he auditioned with Red Rose Cotillion, who were looking for a vocalist to replace Jerry Getz. When the members of RRC discovered that Budd was not only an excellent singer but a progressive keyboard wizard in the fashion of Yes’s Rick Wakeman, they immediately offered Budd the job, which he accepted after a considerable amount of encouragement from Roger Schultz.

Budd’s tasteful keyboard playing, intricate, sometimes spacey solos, strong lead and harmony vocals, and stage presence added a whole new dimension to Red Rose Cotillion. With his influence, the band began branching out musically, adding songs by progressive bands such as Genesis, Billy Cobham, and Steely Dan – not to mention his own songs such as “D-D-Dance” and “The Farmer Song.” Although Budd had written and performed these songs with Arabesque, they took a whole new turn with RRC, which, with Ronald Farson Karp’s driving rhythm and Jamie Thompson’s blazing lead guitar, added that Red Rose Cotillion edge.

In the spring of 1982, Budd became seriously ill, and by the end of May needed to leave the band and return to Pittsburgh. Budd invited David Young to come back to Pittsburgh to play with a new incarnation of Arabesque, and David accepted. The band performed at the 1982 Festival of the Arts as well as the Phyrst. The next spring, Budd and David established a new group, LightFace, with bassist James Ashworth, drummer Scott Dietz, and saxophonist Christian Bruckoff. Although Lightface’s only remained together for a short time, the group performed at a number of venues, including the 1984 Festival of the Arts.

After Lightface, Budd teamed up with several other Pittsburgh musicians and formed Mission Street, which performed at many Pennsylvania venues. Then, in 1985, when Jamie moved back to Pittsburgh from California, Budd, David, and Jamie formed a new incarnation of Red Rose Cotillion and produced After the Flood, album of original songs. Teaming up with bassist James Ashworth and drummer Steve Mobley, they performed the collection at several Pennsylvania venues, including the Phyrst and the 1987 State College Festival of the Arts.

Throughout the 1990s and into the new millennium, Budd has continued to write and record original music with a number of ensembles. Most notably, he teamed up with guitarist Dean Baktay and toured in Eastern Europe, Scotland, and China.

Budd has written and released a number of works and is currently finishing a children’s album of musical nursery rhymes called xxxxxxxxx. He also teaches piano, guitar, drums, and recorder to a number of students in and around Pittsburgh.