Stephen Kellogg at the Bowery Ballroom

Stephen Kellogg was born in Westchester, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Connecticut, where he acquired a musical taste from his dad's 1970s folk-rock record collection and his sister's 1980s hair-metal rock albums. Kellogg began playing music in high school, singing in a hard rock band called Silent Treatment. Kellogg studied communication and theater in a university in Massachusetts, and began writing and recording solo acoustic demos and performing on weekends with friends. After college, he sold newspaper advertising during the day and at night interned at a music venue in Northampton, Massachusetts, releasing demo albums as The Stephen Kellogg Band and Stephen Kellogg & the Root Cellar Band. He led Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers  from 2004 until a final three-hour concert at Webster Hall in 2012. Kellogg then returned to recording under his own name and today released his newest collection, Tour De Forty: Greatest Hits (So Far) Live.

Kellogg has performed recurrently at the Bowery Ballroom since 2004, and tonight he poured praise on the venue during his two-hour set. Over those years, Kellogg reinvented his musical direction several times, but now at age 40 he was reveling on being the composite of it all -- a little bit each of Americana, country-rock, folk, indie, pop, and rock and roll, but summarily all communicative singer-songwriter and buoyant performer. Kellogg's songs were often extensively wordy, yet bouncy narratives with no real chorus; he also hit the opposite extreme with songs that were almost all sing-along chorus with just a few brief verses for a transitional effect. The lyrics were mostly joyful celebrations of a life well lived, largely inspired by his relationship with the high school sweetheart he married and his role as husband and father to their four young daughters. The songs intimately immersed the listeners into Kellogg's very person. Much like Jimmy Buffett, Kellogg laced his story-songs with passion and fun for a heartland sound that was very much from the heart. The fans cried for more, and again commending the fans and the venue staff, Kellogg responded by performing additional, unplanned encores.

Visit Stephen Kellogg at www.stephenkellogg.com.

Setlist:

1. Satisfied Man
2. Sweet Sophia
3. Start the Day Early (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song)
4. Wolf
5. Orion
6. Almost Woke You Up
7. Such a Way
8. Good Red Wine
9. Cabin in the Woods
10. 4th of July (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song)
11. Thanksgiving
12. Shady Esperanto and the Young Hearts
13. Wallpaper Angel
14. Wild Horses (The Rolling Stones cover)
15. Gravity (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song)
16. Last Man Standing
17. See You Later, See You Soon (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song)

Encore:

1. I Won't Back Down (Tom Petty cover)
2. Big Easy (with Boots Factor)
3. Big Easy (with Boots Factor)

Encore 2:

1. My Favorite Place (Stephen Kellogg & the Sixers song)
2. Glassjaw Boxer