Kelly Richey comes from a time when the phrase “guitar hero” was born. And when she first picked up a guitar, she said she felt as though she had to learn it. Now a seasoned player, she continues to push herself and squeal her guitar across the land.

Kelly Richey will be performing at the Maintenance Shop 8 p.m. on April 11, 2013. Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for the general public with a $2 day-of-show increase.

Richey’s passion for music started at a young age. Her mother, a classically trained pianist, urged her to take lessons at a young age. In addition to piano, Richey added drumming to her list of skills, which turned out to be a little loud.

“My dad said if I got rid of drums, he’d buy me anything I wanted,” Richey said. “So I asked for an electric guitar, which he thought would be a phase, but it wasn’t.”

Richey said choosing the guitar was part of her journey to find out who she was as a confused teenager.

“The guitar was kind of like a black box to me, it was sort of a mystery,” Richey said. “I was still trying to find myself as a teenager and it was powerful so I was intrigued by it. But because of the family I was raised in … I didn’t know who Led Zeppelin was when I got an electric guitar. I honestly didn’t know who Jimi Hendrix was.”

To some guitar players, this may sound like blasphemy, but Richey’s reaction to Jimi Hendrix’s music is one shared by many.

“A friend of mine said to me, ‘What do you mean, you don’t know who Jimi Hendrix is?’ And then they played ‘And The Gods Made Love.’” And I was like holy crap what’s this?” Richey said. “I had no idea a guitar could make that sound.”

From Jimi Hendrix to Jimmy Page, Richey immersed herself in the world of guitar players. She practiced every day for up to 16 hours.

“I would take it to school with me,” Richey said. “They disconnected the outlets in my school in certain areas of the building so I wouldn’t plug my amp in.”

Within a year and half she had learned to play.

Along the way, Richey was pushed to improve by her guitar teacher, Eddie Beckley.

“I think a great teacher identifies what their student needs to be pushed,” Richey said. “He identified how I learned, but he also learned that I was stubborn. … He definitely gave me that vibe that I needed to prove something to him and that if I had to prove it, he would go that whole way with me and push me.”

Richey also plays acoustic guitar, but the electric guitar takes her somewhere, she said. 

“The electric guitar [allows] me to check out and go to that other world where reality disappears,” Richey said. “[That world] is the greatest relief I have every known. It’s magical.”

For years, Richey has tried to capture the energy of her live show in an album, and with her new album, she believes her efforts have finally paid off.

“I’ve constantly been trying to figure out how to capture that live energy in a studio. And the new record I just put out, ‘Sweet Release,’ I believe I did that and I am so thrilled to be able to say that,” Richey said.

“We had the ability to put things back in the room where we could capture everything without any bleed and play live. It was as live as you could get in a studio. And in four days, the record was recorded.”