Kelly Love Jones

New Orleans native — Louisiana Music Ambassador

Kelly Love Jones is a New Orleans singer-songwriter who calls her sound “ReggaeAmericana” — a high-spirited fusion of reggae, soul, hip-hop, and world music built on lyrics about love, forgiveness, and empowerment. A Big East Award winner and Louisiana Music Ambassador, she has opened for Lenny Kravitz, Meshell N’Degeocello, and Stephen Marley.

Never heard Kelly Love Jones before?

🎵 Signature Style

“ReggaeAmericana”

🤝 Opened For

Lenny Kravitz · Stephen Marley · Steel Pulse

🎸 Plays

Guitar · Vocals

Kelly Love Jones joins Caribbean rhythms with a skillfully wholesome body of lyrics that celebrate kindness, growth and the sweetness of connection.

— Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro

Why We Love Kelly Love Jones

Kelly Love Jones performs like she is handing out permission slips — hers is a stage where the whole point is to laugh, cry, dance, and remember what plain-old happy feels like. A New Orleans native who started as an MC and rhymed her way past every label the industry tried to stick on her, she now folds reggae, soul, hip-hop, and singer-songwriter craft into ReggaeAmericana: sophisticated, swinging, and unapologetically positive. She has opened for Lenny Kravitz and Stephen Marley, recorded with Rico Wade and Deezle, and been named a United Nations “Appointed Messenger of Truth” — but her real credential is what happens in the room, where a Kelly Love Jones show reliably turns strangers into a congregation.

Biography

ReggaeAmericana’s Messenger of Truth

A New Orleans native, Kelly Love Jones began as an MC who could rhyme, freestyle, and hold her own with anyone on the mic before growing into a singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, and producer. Her songs move between reggae, singer/songwriter, americana, world music, lovers rock, and soul — stories of love, forgiveness, empowerment, and healing delivered with sophisticated swag. Her honors include the Big East Award, a Best of the Beat nomination, Creative Loafing Magazine’s Singer/Songwriter of the Year, United Nations “Appointed Messenger of Truth,” and Louisiana Music Ambassador.

“Whatever you do, don’t stop. Never give up.”

— Chaka Khan, to Kelly Love Jones

She has opened for the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Meshell N’Degeocello, Stephen Marley, Steel Pulse, Arrested Development, Dick Gregory, and Mutabaruka, and recorded with Una Morgan of Morgan Heritage, Rico Wade of Organized Noize, and Deezle. She has written with Grammy-nominated spoken word artist Queen Sheba as well as Lilli Lewis, Joy Clark, Yusa, and Sunpie Barnes. Her most famous piece of advice came from Chaka Khan herself during a chance meeting on an airplane — words she still builds her career on.

Jones created the production Pitch Dark, which premiered at the Music Box Village in 2019, and her records include Portrait of a Solo Artist. She is a regular at Snug Harbor’s free Happy Hour concert series on Frenchmen Street, and she works with female youth groups on music that “converses with the child within all of us.”