When Kelley Deal joined her twin sister, Kim, as a member of The Breeders in 1992, she had to learn guitar on the fly, having never played one before. More than 30 years later, she has four albums and three EPs with The Breeders under her belt, as well as a pair of albums with The Kelley Deal 6000 and uncredited contributions to the lone album by The Amps (Pacer), a Breeders spin-off. Both Deal sisters have been recognized by Rolling Stone on their Top 250 guitarists list.
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While Kelley Deal could have been plenty satisfied with just her contributions to The Breeders and her better-known side projects, there’s even more to her body of work. (And this isn’t even a reference to her other life as a renowned knitter.) Deal has engaged in a number of collaborations, and the products of those efforts are as eclectic as the musicians she has worked with. Deal brings her inimitable style—both on guitar and on vocals—to each of the following four collaborations, yet each has a remarkably different flavor.
1. “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” with Kris Kristofferson
This cover of the 1981 Willie Nelson song from the Honeysuckle Rose movie soundtrack was recorded for a 1996 Nelson tribute album called Twisted Willie. Deal fits right in with the bulk of the artists on this album, as most of the covers are performed by alternative rock acts from the ‘80s and ‘90s, including X, Mark Lanegan, L7, The Presidents of the United States, and Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains. Even with the presence of Kristofferson on the track, this version of the song is far less country than even The Breeders’ rootsy “Drivin’ on 9.” It’s a spare arrangement that puts Deal’s vocals in the center and uses a rhythmic sample of a sewing machine and a harmonica as accompaniment. (This is not the first time Deal has “played” a sewing machine for a recording; she did the same for “S.O.S.” on The Breeders’ Last Splash.)
Kristofferson does not make an appearance on the nearly four-minute track until the 3:11 mark, when he takes over from Deal to sing the outro lyrics. His vocals are soft and echoey, and, especially during the fadeout, they sound ghostly. Deal and Kristofferson are an unlikely pairing that works nevertheless. No one can accuse them of not creating a unique interpretation of Nelson’s original.
2. The Last Hard Men
Deal recruited Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach, The Frogs’ guitarist Jimmy Flemion, and Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin for this late ‘90s band supergroup of sorts. The Last Hard Men came out of a meeting between Deal and Bach, where they decided to form a band to record a cover of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” for Wes Craven’s Scream. The band ultimately recorded an entire album, a self-titled release that came out in 1998.
The final result of the collaboration doesn’t sound much like any of the members’ other bands. The sound actually varies from track to track, veering from acoustic to punk to metal to power pop, and the covers range from “School’s Out” to Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “I Enjoy Being a Girl” to the Scorpions’ “In Search of the Peace of Mind” to The Frogs’ “If You Want to Rock, Go to the Quarry.” There’s no math rock on the album, per se, but it’s fair to count this lyric Deal wrote for the title track as “stat rock”:
You can’t do statistics on a sample of one
You can’t look in darkness for the sun
[RELATED: The Breeders Announce Reissue of ‘Last Splash’ on Top of North American Tour]
3. Protomartyr
Deal’s involvement with Detroit-based Protomartyr came in the wake of meeting them at the South by Southwest conference in Austin in 2014. She was a touring guitarist for the band on their tours for Ultimate Success Today (2020) and Formal Growth in the Desert (2023), but her only appearance on a Protomartyr recording came on their 2018 EP Consolation.
Deal sang backing vocals for “You Always Win” and “Wheel of Fortune,” and she co-wrote the latter with the band’s members. On “Wheel of Fortune,” there’s no mistaking her vocals in the refrain (I decide who lives and who dies); the bite in her voice contrasts perfectly with lead singer Joe Casey’s spoken-word delivery.
4. R. Ring
This duo came to be in 2010 when Deal played an acoustic set with Mike Montgomery of the Cincinnati-based punk band Ampline so he wouldn’t have to be on stage alone. Montgomery is also the owner of and engineer for Candyland Recording Studio in Northern Kentucky, which has hosted recording sessions for Courtney Barnett, Nirvana touring cellist Lori Goldston, and The Breeders, among many others.
R. Ring released their first single, “Make It Vegan!,” in 2012 (which included a hot pad crocheted by Deal and a recipe for vegan chili in addition to the CD). They have since followed that up with a pair of albums—Ignite the Rest (2017) and War Poems, We Rested (2023)—plus an EP and three split-singles, including one with Protomartyr. While R. Ring’s albums aren’t as eclectic as The Last Hard Men, the compositions range from noisy alternative rock to stunning ambient acoustic pieces.
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