Anchorage-based singer and songwriter Keeley Boyle received a $10,000 grant through the Rasmuson Foundation earlier this month, making her one of 50 Alaskan artists to receive a project award this year. Boyle, who was born and raised on the Kenai Peninsula, will use the funds to create an album of songs about her grandparents’ home in Nikiski, where she spent much of her childhood.
The Rasmuson Foundation is a private family foundation based in Anchorage. According to a recent press release from the organization, Rasmuson has provided over $6.5 million in grants since 2003 to support artists.
“It’s a joy to recognize such a diverse group of creatives whose work helps connect, challenge, and inspire our communities,” Gretchen Guess, Rasmuson Foundation president and CEO, wrote in the press release. “From an Iñupiaq language workbook for early learners, to a mixed-media project about Filipino World War II personnel stationed at Adak, to the creation of sculptures exploring the history and impact of the state’s fur trade, these artists are telling Alaska’s stories and shaping our future.”
Every year, the foundation alternates between offering fellowship awards and Individual Artist Awards like the one Boyle won.
“It’s hard out there as a musician these days,” Boyle said. “Even for my friends who are in bands that can fill a big auditorium, it’s hard to make money — and money is time.”
Boyle describes her music as a blend of “folk and jazz and Americana.” She started playing guitar and singing with her dad around Kenai when she was in second grade. When she was 14, Boyle and her now husband, Nelson Kempf, started a band. Since then, Boyle has released an EP called “Inviting” on all major streaming platforms and toured all over the country, both with Kempf and the Portland-based indie rock band The Decemberists.
Her grandparents, Owen and Fleur Boyle, always supported her musical endeavors. About a decade ago, Boyle and her father played a weekly show at Main Street Tap and Grill in Kenai.
“We had probably three or four people that were there for our sets, and two of them were always my grandparents,” she said with a laugh. “It was very sweet of them to come out.”
Owen and Fleur Boyle met while they were both working at a Tootsie Roll factory in California. They moved to Nikiski in 1965 when Owen got a job building oil platforms in the Cook Inlet. He was inducted into the Commercial Diving Hall of Fame when he was 85 years old, and his career is well documented in his book, “Diving Blind into Danger.”
Fleur ran the LeeShore Center in Kenai and was involved in social work throughout town. Both Boyles were in their nineties when they passed away last year. They were married for close to 71 years.
“They were beautiful people, very kind, intelligent and thoughtful,” Boyle said. “I was very lucky to have them in my life.”
Growing up, Boyle and her cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents would spend the summers swimming and canoeing on the lake behind her grandparents’ home, and they’d play hockey when the water froze over every winter.
Her album, which she hasn’t picked out a name for quite yet, aims to paint a picture of those memories and her grandparents themselves.
“I tried to capture portraits of each of my grandparents in the lyrics, (along with) scenes from the lake,” she said. “The falling of cottonwood or the taste of the lake water — things like that.”
Boyle said the album is written and “about halfway” recorded. Right now, she’s spending a lot of time recording vocals and doing production work at Frostline Studio in Anchorage. She’s planning to release a song or two by spring, and she expects the entire album to be completed next summer.
She recorded some of the songs with her close friend Abbey Blackwell, a Seattle-based bass player who’s worked with groups like Macklemore, Alvvays and La Luz. The two plan to go on tour in the Lower 48 next spring and all over Alaska beginning in June to promote the album.
Senior audio engineer Derek Haukaas at Frostline Studios described Boyle as kind and easy to work with. He said her vocals in the upcoming album are “really wonderful” and extremely controlled, providing opportunities for experimentation in the studio.
“She has a really delicate way of singing that gives a lot of options for using interesting textures, equipment and gear,” Haukaas said. “You can really gain things up high and push the meters without anything getting blown out.”
Haukaas, who received a Rasmuson project award in 2022, said he was excited to hear Boyle received a grant from the foundation.
“It is a huge, huge help in getting the resources you need to finish projects or keep them moving,” he said. “I hope it’s a really great boost for her, not just financially, but also in the understanding that people see her, believe in her music and want to hear more from her.”
According to the foundation’s website, applications for fellowships will open in 2026. Project awards won’t reopen until 2027.
To learn more about the Rasmuson Foundation and their grant programs, visit rasmuson.org.
