Kirby recorded in an 1800s haunted farmhouse in Oberlin. He had previously performed at the artist retreat’s barn, which hosts songwriters and bands during the summer months, and he wrote at the renovated farmhouse during the COVID shutdown. He returned in March of 2023 to cut the tracks with producer Don Dixon (R.E.M., Smithereens, James McMurtry, Mary Chapin Carpenter).
“It was a solid process, with just Don and me,” says Kirby in a press release. “We set up stations throughout the house — drums in the dining room, guitar in the hallway, vocals and keys in the living room — and Don played bass. We worked each song top to bottom before moving on to the next one. We would go to bed, wake up, make some coffee and get right after it again.”
Kirby says he experienced some paranormal activity at the famously haunted place with his first visit, but the ghosts kept quiet during the recording sessions.
“I felt if there were ghosts present, they understood what the songs were about,” he says. “We were told the people who stayed right after us had some experiences, so I guess they waited until we were done to make their noise.”
The songs on On + On + On are “expressions of redemption, loss, grief, gratitude and reflection.”
“I was working on tunes for a different album, and then realized I had this kind of connective string of songs that I had written at times when I lost somebody close, or was longing, and the appreciation of those life experiences and how they changed me,” says Kirby. “It wasn’t the album I was seeking to make at the time, but it was the one I needed to make.”
Kirby wrote “Three Sisters,” the jangly first single, the day his mother passed.
“My mom was one of three sisters, and my sister has three daughters,” he says. “I was thinking about that unique relationship and connection, and I felt my mom would have wanted me to write a hopeful song at that moment of grief.”
For the accompanying music video, Kirby asked friends for pictures of anybody
who had three sisters in their family,.
Kirby, who also plays in local acts such as Jack Fords, the New Soft Shoe, Doug McKean & the Stuntmen and Ohio City Singers, hosts a monthly 10×3 Songwriter Showcase to highlight local talent, and he’s enlisted some of his musical friends to play at the album release party at Bop Stop. Guitarist Andy Leach, bassist Alfredo Guerrieri, and drummer Jeremy McCabe will back Kirby. Special guests will include Laurie Michelle Caner on vocals and Ray Flanagan on guitar. Grace Blackford and Ricardo Morales will open the show. 
Subscribe to Cleveland Scene newsletters.
Follow us: Apple News | Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | Or sign up for our RSS Feed
This article appears in Cleveland SCENE 06/05/25 Best of Cleveland.
