Melaena Cadiz just can’t wait to get on the road again.
The singer-songwriter lives in Greenpoint, but loves to travel — a passion she shares with her husband, Polaroid photographer Mikael Kennedy. So when Cadiz embarked on tour in support of her latest album “Deep Below Heaven,” she decided to combine all of their passions into one project, playing her songs in front of projections of Kennedy’s eye-catching pictures from their world travels.
“It’s a really cool way to tour,” Cadiz said. “I get to be on the road with my husband and we get to do this collaboration that’s both audio and visual.”
It is not hard to find the pictorial within Cadiz’s quiet storm of dusty folk and country pop — even without the shots of mountains and forests to go along with it. The songs on “Deep Below Heaven” are all crafted with the eye of a great novel, ripe with intricate and intimate details — the man smoking cigarettes on the rooftop in “Holy Night,” or her early morning adventures in Seattle on “Neon Drag.”
Almost all of Cadiz’s material relates back to her own life and experiences, but the ideas for her songs are often sparked by literary sources — such as Sam Shepard’s “Motel Chronicles,” the short story collection that inspired her latest album.
“Something in a book piques my interest and is a good starting point for a song,” she said. “It usually ends up being about me and my struggles, but that seems easier to get at if it feels subjective at first.”
Cadiz will perform at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg on July 20, and then it is back on the road. There is another leg of her “Deep Below Heaven” tour planned for the Northeast and potentially overseas, followed by a possible trip to Music City.
“I’m writing a lot of pop-country songs,” she said. “I want to get down to Nashville and see if anyone wants them.”
Melaena Cadiz at Glasslands [289 Kent Ave. between S. First and S. Second Streets in Williamsburg, (718) 599–1450, www.theglasslands.com]. July 20 at 8:30 pm. $10
