“Kiss Kiss” begins with a lone acoustic guitar. The melody is plucked, then the cadence increases and what started as one evolves into two with Kim Hett’s delicate vocals. When she sings acapella, her voice will fill a room, but it’s softer between her partner’s strums. In this song, the Inverness Park singer threads together a portrait of falling in love with her now-husband Ryan (her guitarist accompaniment) Ms. Hett didn’t imagine the song until a few years later, in 2010, when she was driving to his farm in Sebastopol. Alone in an old Mercedes with no stereo, the lyrics found her. Later, she sang him a rough sketch of “Kiss Kiss” and he closed his eyes and heard the instrumental arrangements. This “mild magic,” as Ms. Hett puts it, is still how they compose much of their music, which is informed by a shared adoration of traditional and Appalachian folk. “When we first started writing as a duo, she would have these melodies and lyrics in her head and I’d be playing the guitar on my own and she would say, ‘Wow—that sounds exactly like this melody that I’m already working on,’” said Mr. Hett, a North Dakota native who moved to West Marin six years ago. When playing or recording together— under the name Someone Company—their music is stripped down, her vocals caressing his guitar. But their songs blossom into a folk-pop hybrid when playing or recording with their friends. The couple will perform cuts off of the album at the Sweethearts of the Radio benefit concert for KWMR, on Feb. 10 at the Dance Palace. And though the Hetts are talking with a record company about releasing the album, they’re in no hurry. He’s a carpenter while she works with children, and their three-year-old son Woolsey keeps them occupied. They also participate in various other musical projects. Mr. Hett plays in multiple bands, including the Coastal Scrubbers and Salt Sons, and Ms. Hett sings acapella, both solo through the name Milky Mama or with friends Vanessa Waring and Bronwen Murch as the Gospel Flatters. To be able to sing acapella alone on stage forces her to face down vulnerability. “Not so much for me, but a vulnerability for the audience,” she said. “I have this never-ending fear that people are humoring me, because acapella is such a vulnerable thing. So I turn to Ryan and he gives me honest feedback. Then I let go of that story. People are enjoying it.” Kim and Ryan Hett will perform at KWMR’s Sweethearts of the Radio benefit concert on Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Dance Palace. Also appearing are Laurie Lewis & Tom Rozum and Jeanie & Chuck Polling. Tickets are $20 and are available at the station and at kwmr.org. The Hetts will also appear at 6:30 p.m. on KWMR’s Foggy Ridge Music, hosted by Will Minor.
Inverness Park couple brings “mild magic” to Sweethearts of the Radio
