Kelly Willis: Traditional Country

All those comparisons in the press and elsewhere to country music icon Patsy Cline have been very flattering, of course, says singer Kelly Willis. It’s just a label that could be a little hard to live up to for any young artist.

Rolling Stone, for one, in 1990 wrote: “Kelly Willis comes closer than most to Cline’s true spirit.”

“I love Patsy Cline probably more than anybody,” says Willis, who performs Saturday at the Palomino in North Hollywood, “but the most horrible experience I had one night was being introduced: ‘Here she is, the next Patsy Cline.’ And I had to go out there and go, ‘Now, wait a minute folks . . .’ ”

The Austin-based vocalist has lately been moving deeper into the passionate traditional country genre that Cline best epitomized. But Willis, 23, first came into country music as a teen-ager under the energetic spell of the ‘50s rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson. And Willis’ new MCA album, “Bang Bang,” still reflects an occasional country-rock groove, with a few songs written by Steve Earle, Joe Ely and Australian rocker Paul Kelly.

For the most part, though, she’s stepped away from what she calls her “more trashy and garage-sounding” days. “I don’t know what’s going to happen,” says Willis, who has a small singing and acting role in Tim Robbins’ upcoming film “Bob Roberts.” “We don’t go in to record the next album until October, but I keep picking these songs that seem to me to be real traditional country.”

Some of those are likely to appear Saturday on the Palomino stage, which she will be sharing with country artist Kevin Welch. The two singers will be fronting a band and even sing a handful of duets that don’t appear on either of their albums.

“We’re not really focusing on promoting and doing all the hits,” Willis says. “We’re really doing songs that are appropriate for the blend of music that we want to do, just having a lot of fun and not really paying attention to the rules.”

Kelly Willis and Kevin Welch perform Saturday at the Palomino, 6907 Lankershim Blvd., in North Hollywood. Sets begin at 9 p.m.; cover charge, $10. Call (818) 764-4010.

Appleford writes regularly for Valley Calendar.