The Song Project
When Martha A. Kelch passed away in December 2020, she left behind a stack of poetry nearly a foot tall and very few other physical belongings. In 2023, Martha’s long-time partner, Rochester, NY-based musician Barbara Johnston, decided to complete the project of transforming the poems into songs. Performing as Bennie Jaye, she sings and accompanies herself on ukulele and percussion.
Nearly all of Martha Kelch’s over 500 poems were written during intensely productive periods between 1998 and 2005. Major themes include life’s deepest mysteries — death, love, sex, and religion — as well as the pain of lost love and various manifestations of the mental illnesses that she wrestled with most of her life.
Seeds for this project were planted while Martha was still alive and writing. The first of Martha’s poems that Bennie set to music was “Mutant Ticks on Steroids” in 1999, which was recorded live at the Bug Jar by Rochester alternative rock band Peachy Nietszche. Bennie wrote, performed, and recorded several more songs set to Martha’s poems between 2000 and 2005, but once Martha’s mental illness left her unable to write, the song project was shelved.
Three years following Martha’s death, Bennie performed the song she had created from Martha’s poem “Mesopotamia” for the first time at the Mental Wellness Open Mic at Muck Duck Studios. The encouragement she received there led her to write more songs, learn to sing and play the ukulele, and to continue to polish the arrangements, interpretations, and presentation.
Testimonials
“Bennie’s performances are a species of necromancy, in which the dead return, speak, rattle tambourines, and sing. They exist between evocation and invocation, in that twilight space between memory and forgetting, living and dying, the self and the other.”
— Jacob Rakovan, Spirit Room proprietor
“Having the chance to work with Bennie on shaping the vocals for this project has been a joy. We took special care to dive deep and highlight the meaning of each poem through the raw emotion of the voice.”
— Sally Louise, Singer-Songwriter and Vocal Instructor
“Over the past year, I watched Bennie develop this song project from her first “Mental Wellness Open Mic” at Muck Duck Studio to a full-length performance for family and friends just a few months later. Although I never met Martha, I have gotten to know her a bit from her poems as interpreted through Bennie’s music and performances. The songs demonstrate the power of art to heal and to transform suffering into beauty.”
Casey Arthur, Founder of Muck Duck Studio
As Martha’s friend and biggest fan, setting her poems to music and performing the songs allows me to honor Martha and carry on her legacy. As a songwriter, Martha’s poems are a gift because each one is so well-written: with a distinct voice, clear structure, and rhythm. The experience of singing in front of people with honesty and vulnerability has helped me grow as a person in ways I could never have imagined.
— Barbara Johnston (aka Bennie Jaye)
