Yours Truly, Michele

Michele Kappel (pronounced Kuh-Pell) began singing onstage as a teenager, when she donned a head-to-toe white leotard and crooned “Sex in Wetsuits” as part of the multi-media avant theater company Impossible Industrial Action. While she’s covered a lot of musical and literal ground since her formative performative days with that fearless Mid-Atlantic theater troupe, the Baltimore native’s latest venture, Yours Truly, Michele, may best capture the heady mix of influences and experiences she can bring to any party simply by showing up. With a sound infused with 60s pop, shadowy torch songs, and touched by Americana Roots-Rock, it is truly Michele Kappel’s own brand of music.

After her time with Impossible Industrial Action, Kappel followed her muse across the United States to California, co-founding the Garage-Pop Alt Rock band The Kirby Grips (Sympathy For The Record Industry), performing behind the drum kit on national stages including at Noise Pop and CMJ. When The Kirby Grips paused for an indefinite amount of time, Kappel picked up the ukulele and guitar, and started writing her own melody-rich songs, inspired by influences as diverse as Squeeze, Ray Price, and the Spector Wall of Sound. Soon, she was performing as the ukulele-toting folk pop artist Tippy Canoe, who channeled not a little of Patsy Cline and Billie Holiday. More recently, Kappel incarnated as one-half of the close-harmony, country-tinged, impeccably decked out duo, Heartache Sisters and was behind the drum kit with classic country band Laura Benitez & the Heartache.

YTM, however, puts Kappel’s style, substance and well-honed musical sensibilities front and center. “No matter your mood, you’ll walk away with a smile. It’s cheaper than therapy." Tony DuShane at The San Francisco Chronicle wrote of a Kappel-Stone performance, which by turns can evoke Debbie Harry, Erin McKeown, and the aforementioned Cline.

Now based in Oakland, readying her first YTM recording project while organizing shows for The California Roots Union and booking one of San Francisco’s best listening rooms, The Lost Church, her finger isn’t just on the musical pulse, it’s an integral part of the heart that keeps the pulse beating.

If her career thus far has prepared her for anything, it’s fun and adventure. And Kappel is ready for more. “I don’t really care just where we land, just as long as we go. Just as long as we go.” she sings on “Other Side of the Door.”

Discerning music lovers are advised to go with her.