ABOUT
Brenda Lee Kelly
Brenda has performed in various bands where her songs have been recorded and performed live including a female bluegrass band and a rockabilly folk band. However, in 2021 after finishing 14 months treatment for breast cancer one of her goals was to record an album from home of her original songs. Together with her partner Damir, they recorded and mixed the songs and Brenda produced the album from their home studio. Before the album was completed, Brenda was offered the opportunity to perform her original songs at a music festival so she asked friends to join her to perform as the name of the album “Waiting for Brenda”. As the songs and live performance was well received the “Waiting for Brenda” band continued performing Brenda’s songs within a bigger community including festivals (Neurum Creek, Laura Street, Festuri, Nimbin Roots) and local music venues (The Triffid residencies, The Cave Inn, It’s Still A Secret, Can You Keep A Secret?, All Inn Brewing, Banshees and recently Sydney venue “The Gasoline Pony”.
Brenda has facilitated songwriting workshops for the past four years on behalf of the Tamworth Songwriters Association (TSA) and has been a finalist for several songwriting competitions. Brenda is continually writing new songs and hopes to release some of these new songs by the end of 2026. In 2025 she received a professional development grant to attend a Songwriting Retreat in New South Wales at the renowned “The Dag” songwriting retreat. This was supported by The Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) which is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Moreton Bay Regional Council to support local arts and culture in regional Queensland.
With her band “Waiting for Brenda” Brenda’s songs have been voted by community for the annual 4ZZZ Hot 100 for the past three years.
TAMWORTH SONGWRITERS JUNK BAR
FACILITATED A SONGWRITING WORKSHOP
Lovely piece in the TSA recent newsletter about the workshop I facilitated at the beautiful Junk Bar in Ashgrove (Now New Farm)
