“No matter who he performs with—and he plays with quite a cross-section of acts in Madison’s music community—your eye is always drawn to Kyle Rightley on stage. The lanky guitarist hovers above his bandmates like a sky dancer, one of those inflatable waving tube men you see in front of used car lots. Of course it’s not his tall, wide-eyed good looks that get him gigs. It’s versatility and something extra he says he’s always had: musical empathy.” - Andy Moore
“[Rightley's] new solo effort, The Hum, does include some Americana elements but they are employed as one piece of what as a whole is a very impressive mixing of varied musical styles — often smoothly juxtaposed in the same song. No matter the style, Rightley's empathetic and aware storytelling is always at the fore.”
— Isthmus
“The Hum is hard to summarize. Slide guitar slices to the quick, chamber-pop brass elevates poignant disappointments into elegant hesitation...Rightley’s perceptive lyrics unify the album’s encyclopedic styles” - John Noyd
“The classically trained multi-instrumentalist sounds as legit in this genre as he does in jazz and country/bluegrass.” - Joel Patenaude
“...a talent for spinning honest tales from clear-eyed lyrics...” - John Noyd
“…windswept folk guitar trimmed in mandolin and graced with a clear calm voice.” - John Noyd
“…rooted in traditional Americana that resembles political forebearers like Joan Baez or Willie Nelson.”
— Isthmus
“Low guitar notes cut through the sound of falling rain in the opening lines of "Song for the Flatirons," a pretty and wistful highlight of Kyle Rightley's latest EP. Titled The Bleak, Barbarian Pines, the album is the Madison artist's sophomore solo release, but it doesn't sound like the work of a green musician.” - Julia Burke
— Isthmus
Press for Warrior Songs vol. 3 (2021)
Vietnam vets, songwriters team up for meaningful CD
"Seawolf 7-6, the mesmerizing Rightley-Martin song, is one of 14 powerful and moving performances on “The Last Thing We Ever Do.” Rightley weaves together the magical revelations of Martin, who, he writes, “came back to a country that didn’t understand me.”
“I labored over the lyrics,” said Rightley, a multi-instrumentalist who won the 2018 Madison Area Music Association Award for Country/Bluegrass Album of the Year.
He met Martin only through long-distance calls to hear his story. The two continued to confer by email and phone as the song started to take shape.
“It is one of several interesting projects I’ve done, but it also made an impact on me because I’ve never heard a story like that,” said Rightley, whose song was engineered by Landon Arkens at Blast House Studios. “I wanted to get it right."
-Gayle Worland, Wisconsin State Journal
Larry Abbott on Warrior Songs, Vol. Three: “The Last Thing We Ever Do: Vietnam Veterans Speak Truth”
"Other songs tell of perhaps unexpected experiences, like “Seawolf 7-6” by Kyle Rightley and Bill Martin. Martin was a helicopter gunship pilot with the Seawolf Squadron whose call sign was Seawolf 7-6. On his stops in various villages he entertained children with magic tricks and quickly developed a rapport with the youngsters, especially at an orphanage near his base. The song recounts his experiences performing his shows."
-Larry Abbott, The Wrath-Bearing Tree
Musicians and veterans join forces for catharsis on 'Warrior Songs' album
"Seawolf 7-6 is a melancholic, jazzy track performed by singer/songwriter, educator, and classically trained musician Kyle Rightley, based on the testimony of U.S. Navy veteran Bill Martin, founder of the Veterans and Patriots Performance Group."
-Cameron Cieszki, The Cap Times
