Sara Jelley is a powerhouse vocalist living on Maui and writing and making new original sublime singer-songwriter music. Sara most famously portrayed Mary Poppins at MauiOnStage in 2016, and has graced the stage at ZepMaui as well as the Hawaii Songwriting Festival. “Stay Right Here”, Sara Jelley’s 3rd single from the debut acoustic album, “Holes” was released on all streaming platforms on December 11, 2020. It is the first single from her debut original full-length album of the same name.
Stream “Stay Right Here” the single by clicking here.
“Stay Right Here” is an acoustic cinematic ballad with a string arrangement performed and composed by the immensely talented Michelle Packman (Hans Zimmer, IMAX, Eminem, Camila Cabello). The song was written as a letter to Sara’s mother who passed away when Sara was just 11 years old. Lyrics such as “I will Stay Right Here, ‘cause it’s the best place I’ve found so far” express a feeling of loss and loneliness, mixed with a hopefulness for a different kind of happiness in the future.
Sara Jelley's debut original full-length album ‘Holes’ was recorded with David Stoller Whitney at The Root Cellar Studio in Kula, Maui. The album and this single were released December 11, 2020. Listeners have said about Sara’ style: “Echoes of Joni Mitchell” and “Exquisite vocal phrasing”. Sara's voice is emotive, powerful and soulful, and invokes a sense of respite and deep connection with unique skillful fingerpicked guitar and intensely flowing full string section accompaniment.
Maui’s Mary Poppins releases her debut original acoustic album: the truthful and dark ‘Holes’
Sara Jelley aptly portrayed Mary Poppins in MauiOnStage's highest-ever grossing musical in 2016, and has expertly vocally executed raucous Led Zeppelin songs at Maui’s biggest arena, the MACC. She is now using her pure voice, nourishing charm and storytelling experience from the theater to entice the listener into the beautifully melancholy and vulnerable world of her songwriting. Listeners have said, “Wait a minute... there’s therapy in here!” about Sara’s honest, vulnerable and relatable lyrics focused on healing through self-acceptance, and compared her sound to Joni Mitchell and Sara Bareilles. Sara's voice is emotive, powerful and soulful, and invokes a sense of respite and deep connection with sublime and unique skillful fingerpicked guitar and ukulele accompaniment.
Jelley has been writing songs since she was 14, and put out her first EP in 2016: ‘Lay Down Easy’, made up of five very personal honest songs. Two of those songs have been given the royal treatment and will be reincarnated on her first full-length release, ‘Holes’, out everywhere on December 11, 2020. Nine other songs written by Jelley in the last decade will fill out this expressive album journey.
Stream “Holes” by clicking here.
This delicate acoustic guitar folk-pop album centers around the process of trying to fill emotional holes with external things that don't necessarily fit: people, ideas, jobs, etc. These songs begin to address this by going into the black "hole" inside of ourselves instead of around it. We never know how much our lives can change on the other side of a feeling until we sit with it and go through it. ‘Holes’ is Sara Jelley’s first full-length album and it features songs from throughout the craziness of her twenties, and includes a couple from the recent thirties. Jelley says “All of my songs are about transformation in some way- lessons learned, relationships realized and ended, and other people’s stories that turned into mine. The thread throughout the album is staying with my emotions, not resisting or trying to fix them, and getting to the other side instead of running away, no matter how big or small the challenge.”
Sara Jelley's debut original full-length album ‘Holes’ was recorded with David Stoller Whitney at The Root Cellar Studio in Kula, Maui. The album features Michelle Packman (strings- Hans Zimmer, Eminem, Camila Cabello), Sal Godinez and Marcus Johnson (both play often with Amy Hanaiali’i and John Cruz). It is set to be released December 11, 2020.
Check out Sara Jelley’s EPK here
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Sara Jelley: From Musical Theater Leading Lady to Singer-Songwriter with her Debut Original Single “Holes”
Sara Jelley’s debut single “Holes” will be released on all streaming platforms on Thursday, October 29. It is the first single from her debut original full-length album of the same name. Stream “Holes” the single by clicking here. “Holes” is an alternative folk melancholic acoustic ballad with a trombone arrangement, by Maui’s own Henry Arroyo, melted in.