Broke-Ass of the Week – Kelli Rudick

Every week we feature a different person from the community shedding a little light on their life of brokeitude.  Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something about the human spirit'probably not.

Wanna be a Broke-Ass of the Week?  Holler at us here and we’ll send you the questionnaire.

For those of you who’ve been following the site for awhile you know how enamored we are with Kelli Rudick.  She’s just fucking brilliant.  Really, seeing her live is something that changes your view of how the guitar can be played.  Most people’s first reaction is, “Holy Moses!  Look at that girl…she beats the fuck out her guitar like it owes her money.”  And in a way, her guitar does owe her some money; she’s been playing music for a long time but is still broke.

Luckily she’s been getting a few bigger shows lately and so maybe you can see her play, become obsessed like I am, and put a few shekels in her coffers.  She’s playing Joe’s Pub in NYC on September 3rd, and Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on September 27th.  But in the meantime, let’s hear what she has to say about being a broke-ass:

Name: Kelli Rudick

Age: 27,000,000 in Broke Ass years

Occupation: Musician/composer/slacker

What neighborhood do you live in?: Beautiful, pastoral, Bushwick Brooklyn, Sierra of the east.

Best money saving tip: Don’t buy those kickass boots. With a little duct tape your old boots look different, silver, shiny, with black marker write “new” on them, all set.

What do you refuse to spend money on?: Anything. Except Ballentine’s which is pretty cheap.

Most expensive thing you’ve ever bought: Macbook Pro

How’d that feel?: Great! So great in fact that I refused to stop using it even though it started pouring. Then… not so good.

Favorite cheap eat: On tour, you can survive on the vacuum packed tuna bags for $1.50 each. Mmm, fish pack! Fish pack or burger king, fish pack? Yes please. Fish pack!

Favorite dive bar: Go see Miki at 3 of Cups, tell her Kelli says “Fuck you, sis!” (with love of course)

Best deal you’ve ever gotten: At Box Awesome in Lincoln, Nebraska (now Bourbon Theater) I was able to trade a cd for a 20 oz pour of Jameson, hard to beat.

Favorite free thing to do: Swimming in the East River. Watch for barges and the water taxi. Not recommended on rainy days when the sewers overflow. There’s the occasional corpse floating by, so it’s really not too unlike swimming laps at a fancy pool.

If you woke up a millionaire, what’s the first thing you’d buy?: I’d buy my parents a house just like Elvis did. I might skip the rhinestone suit though. Maybe.

Despite not having money, do you still love your life?: Fuck yeah! When I’m not freaking out …did you hear that? What was that?

Do you own my book?: Yes, and it feels great! But there’re only a few pages left- it’s cheaper than cottonelle. Can you send another?

Best hangover cure: There’s no hangover if you simply sleep through the next day entirely.

Are you a hipster?: Yeah! Yeah… yeah, no. I dont hate them unless i have to go to Bedford Avenue for something. Otherwise they’re easy to ignore, they dont seem to make as much a mess of Mccarren as they do Dolores – yuck!

You can catch the Ballentine’s drinking, East river swimming, Elvis suit wearing, incredibly amazingly badass guitar playing Kelli Rudick at Joe’s Pub in NYC on September 3rd, or in San Francisco at Cafe Du Nord on September 27th.

But in the meantime, here’s a taste to hold you over: