A native of Latrobe, PA, Irene Kelley first started playing music in a Led Zeppelin cover band in high school. She got herself kicked out, however, for suggesting that they might try playing a Dolly Parton song, laying the groundwork for her first steps toward country music. At 19 she got her first guitar, a new Cortez with inlay work that she bought because she thought it was pretty. Soon she began composing the songs that would help pave her way to Nashville. One of her first releases was a song entitled "Pennsylvania Is My Home," which ended up being nominated for the Pennsylvania state song (unfortunately it didn't make it). A live performance of it, however, did end up being part of a PBS documentary and was one of the songs that she sent to various music publishers in Nashville, eventually attracting the attention of Gordon Payne at CBS Records.
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