Who (& Where) We Are

Founder/Director
Kelly McCartney
With 35 years in the music industry and a style that is equal parts personal, political, and philosophical, Kin Folk’s founder/director Kelly McCartney inhabits a purposely intersectional corner of the roots music space, making her one of the format’s favorite commentators, curators, and connectors. In the decades between starting as a personal assistant to Susanna Hoffs and hosting a radio show on Apple Music, Kelly has worked as a production assistant, artist manager, club booker, contract & copyright coordinator, tour manager, booking agent, live sound mixer, event producer, project manager, community organizer, music journalist, marketing consultant, managing editor, editorial director, and podcast host. Few others have that breadth of experience.

On the organizing side, Kelly has a long history of producing events and projects for a variety of causes including voter registration, minority rights, Indigenous issues, and more. She also founded and directs the Rainey Day Fund which supports roots music artists with marginalized identies. More personally, having a family history of bi-polar disorder and alcoholism, along with her own autism, Kelly also has lived experience to pull from with mental health issues.

Kin Folk Foundation brings together all of Kelly’s passions: music, health, community, and activism. Being able to create and hold space for artists has long been a dream… now coming to reality.

Board of Directors
The Kin Folk Foundation is meant to be a group effort… a family affair, if you will. For that reason, our board of directors will include music executives, mental health advocates, and artists who share a deep passion for roots music and its makers.

For now, artists’ voices are the ones to which we are listening.

Email
kin @ kinfolkfoundation.org

Kin Folk Foundation aims to set up shop in North Adams, Massachusetts, in partnership with the budding arts community there, including Studio 9, the Porches Inn, and Mass MoCA.