by Faith Duarte (story) & Michael King Randolph (photo)
When singer and songwriter Bekah Kelso first began recording the song “Sequoia” in 2012, she was well into her pregnancy with her son, Kaius. She recalls the difficulty of recording the chorus at that stage of her pregnancy—the extra pressure on her diaphragm was affecting her breath control, and thus, her singing capability. Ultimately, she decided to put vocal arrangements on the backburner and continue working on the vocal arrangements after her pregnancy. About six weeks after the birth of her son, Kelso recorded the chorus that appears on her most recent album, “Within the Shifting Shade.”
The song, an ode to Kaius and the miracle and joy of impending motherhood, would eventually earn her one of her two wins in this year’s San Antonio Music Awards. “I was inspired by all of my hopes and dreams for him, and the kind of mom I wanted to be,” Kelso recalls. “I loved that part of the process was happening while I was pregnant and it couldn’t really be complete until he got here.”
Read more in the Dec. 2013/Jan. 2014 issue of S.A. Scene.