RO: The album is called Where it Began, but it feels much more like Where It Is Now. Most of your subjects are grown-people things. Why did you call it that?

SC: It got named Where it Began at the very last hour. We had so many other names and we would live with them for a while, but they just never connected deeply for me. The song "Where it Began" was actually called "Bloodline" for a while or "the rock song on the record," but I finally settled on calling it "Where it Began" and then I was like..."Hey, that's the name of the record!" and it felt right immediately.

That song is about my relationship with my Dad and is essentially about us becoming friends in adulthood. As I started peeling through the layers of this record, I realized that my family, both blood related and not, was the core of what I wrote about on this record. Ironically, the art work of the house and the tree had already been designed and it felt very much like that represented sort of like my family tree...the beginning of where I get my life from. So it all just started fitting together as if the record knew it was always supposed to be named that, it just took me a while to catch up.

RO: You're a working parent, and it's not like you're going to suddenly run out on the road and live in a van for three months playing in bars. What exactly do you want out of your music career?

SC: What I want and what I am capable of change all the time. I remember a couple of years ago when you said, "This girl needs a good PR person" and I was like "NOOOOOO" I'm not ready for that! I am always changing and growing as a person and as an artist. Nothing I have done has been typical and I am twice the age of most people starting careers in this industry. But I just don't care anymore.

I make music and I sing it wherever people will let me. I didn't even think I would ever make another record, so who says I won't get in a van and tour for three months. The difference is, I will have to be more creative and think of three other people and two dogs before I make my decisions.

But way before I was making music again, we were fairly gypsy-minded, so my kids don't have any false sense of normalcy. My mom calls us "The Crazy Coley's" and we gladly accept the title. We are crazy! We just live life as it comes to us and make a lot of mistakes and get back everyday up and do it all again. It would be that way whether music was a part of the equation or not.

RO: Our favorite lyric on the album is "We made resolutions to live grand delusions." Did you? Live grand delusions, we mean?

SC: I think you have to have a certain sense of delusion to live life with passion. And you definitely have to have a good amount of crazy to push past all the crap that society tells you and actually live your dreams and not have it all figured out. I know a man that quit his career as a lawyer to start a chocolate company!

And my producer, Jeffery Armstreet, quit his career as a pro golfer to build a recording studio and record label of sorts. And after 11 years of being a stay at home mom, I worked at a toy company and a pet sitting company so that I could make records. I have most definitely lived a lot of delusions, many of which have turned into reality.

And that is why I love surrounding myself with people who are a little bit delusional... I think it may be the only true way to find your own reality.

Where it Began is available at Shellee Coley's Web site. She performs Friday at Warehouse Live, and Saturday at the Conroe Sparkle Event Hall.