ABOUT

Hailing from Chicago, IL, Keith Betti is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and lifelong student of the song. Across more than two decades of recording, his music has moved freely between rock & roll, folk, blues, soul and Americana, tied together by an instinct for melody and an enduring fascination with the beautiful, bruised and sometimes contradictory nature of the human experience.

Betti first emerged in the early 2000s as the singer, songwriter and driving creative force behind Chicago band KB. The band’s 2004 debut, Prelude, introduced a young songwriter already drawn to the combination of melody, introspection and classic rock & roll that would become a through-line in his work. The album received an Album of the Year honorable mention from Richard Milne of Chicago’s 93.1 WXRT, host of the station’s influential local-music program Local Anesthetic. KB followed with Nowhere to Be Now, further

developing Betti’s voice as both a writer and performer. What followed has been less a straight line than a continuing musical exploration.

As a solo artist, Betti leaned more deeply into American roots music with 2012’s Company Loves Misery, an Americana- and folk-influenced collection inspired in part by the songwriting tradition of Townes Van Zandt. The standalone rocker “Stars” followed, before Betti returned with 2023’s ANGELS DEMONS SINNERS & SAINTS, a five-song EP exploring the opposing forces that exist within all of us — love and loss, light and darkness, redemption and regret.

Along the way, Betti also returned to the chemistry of a full rock band as a member of ELECTRIC AIR, joining Tim Armstrong, Sean Godvik and longtime musical collaborator Dan Nawrocki. Bringing together former members of KB and Sungod, ELECTRIC AIR released its debut album, Fool the Wise, providing Betti another outlet for the louder, collaborative side of his musical personality.

Now, Betti is preparing to release what stands as his most expansive and personal work yet. On August 21, 2026, the new single “BROKE BUT NOT BENT” arrives as the first introduction to FOREVER BLUE, Betti’s forthcoming 14-song album and an ambitious statement from a songwriter more than two decades into his recording life. Raw, soulful and defiantly hopeful, “BROKE BUT NOT BENT” is built around a simple idea: life can break things without necessarily defeating them. It’s a song about taking the hits, carrying the scars and somehow remaining standing — finding value in what survives rather than

mourning only what was lost.

That tension runs throughout FOREVER BLUE.

Across 14 songs, Betti explores love, heartbreak, memory, mortality, resilience, longing and self-discovery through a musical vocabulary accumulated over a lifetime of listening and playing. Rock & roll collides with folk, blues, soul and Americana, but the song always remains at the center.

The influences are deeply rooted. Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, George Harrison and generations of American songwriters inform Betti’s musical DNA, not as templates to imitate but as reminders of what a great song can accomplish. His writing embraces the belief that a lyric doesn’t need to explain everything, a melody shouldn’t have to fight to be remembered, and sometimes a handful of chords can carry more emotional weight than a wall of sound.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Betti is equally comfortable shaping a song from behind a guitar, keyboard or other stringed instrument. That hands-on approach has allowed him to remain close to the architecture of his records — not simply writing the songs, but helping build the musical world in which they live.

And after more than twenty years, that world continues to expand.

From KB and the early promise of Prelude and Nowhere to Be Now, through his solo work and ELECTRIC AIR, Betti has continued to follow the song wherever it leads. A new band project, IDLE RACKET, is already taking shape, suggesting another chapter waiting beyond the one currently unfolding.

But first comes FOREVER BLUE. Fourteen songs. More than two decades of musical experience behind them. And a songwriter arriving not at a destination, but at perhaps the clearest expression yet of who he is.

“BROKE BUT NOT BENT” — August 21, 2026.

FOREVER BLUE follows.