Artists That Begin With K

Josh Kelley

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:59:00 GMT

Josh Kelley’s debut country release, Georgia Clay, is an intriguing collection of songs that serve as a musical interpretation of his life story, a vivid exploration of the people and places that molded him into who he is today. Kelley is co-producer of Georgia Clay with Clint Lagerberg.

Kelley has become the man, father and husband he always knew he was meant to be, an evolution that couldn’t have occurred without great reflection on his Georgia roots and the values and principles on which he was raised. Naturally, this personal introspection profoundly influenced his music, resulting in an authentic and undeniable country sound that’s based upon soul-searching yet universal lyrics and themes.

This record is a time capsule,” says Kelley, who wrote or co-wrote each of the album’s 11 songs. “It’s by far the best thing I’ve written and I’ve never been more proud. I’m finally in a genre where I can write lyrics, tell stories and be a man.” Along with writing/co-writing Georgia Clay, Kelley also co-produced the album with Nashville’s Clint Lagerberg.

His most autobiographical project to date, the album powerfully captures the most important moments of his life, including his marriage to actress Katherine Heigl, their adoption of a daughter, Naleigh, and the family’s move to Utah. “My life has completely changed,” he says. “My wife is a very strong independent woman and she allows me my own independence. And from the first time my baby girl brushed her hand against my face, my life was changed. This album reflects those changes.”

It also describes the defining moments in his early life. “Georgia Clay,” the project’s lead single, recalls the carefree summers of Josh’s youth, when he and his brothers would hook up jet skis to their father’s 1977 Chevy Silverado and head down to the lake. “The whole idea behind ‘Georgia Clay’ is that we could go back to the garage and look at that truck, which hadn’t been driven in years, and still find layers of mud stuck to the tires,” Kelley says. “That is the mud from our childhood. Those memories are still there.”

The acclaimed singer-songwriter has spent the majority of the past decade defying musical genres with his approachable and appealing sound. He is known for the Top 5 hit “Amazing,” and his music has been incorporated into TV shows such as MTV’s The Hills, ABC’s Brothers and Sisters and What About Brian and the CW’s Smallville.

As is immediately evident on his new album, his voice has grown richer and more robust with time, and his songwriting is at its most emotional and precise. He’s never sounded better or delivered songs so perfectly tailored to him. He recalls his life experiences in songs such as “Great Idea,” “Ain’t Letting Go,” “Two Cups of Coffee” and “Gone Like That.” These songs, some of which were written with top Nashville tunesmiths such as Craig Wiseman, Lee Brice, Lee Thomas Miller and his brother Charles, embrace the familiarity of times gone by, not by idealizing the past but by presenting unique lessons learned from it.

Gone Like That” isn’t the typical male take on a one-night stand, but an exploration of an unapologetically sensitive man who keeps running into what could be the woman of his dreams. “This was the song that actually started my journey into country music,” he says. “I had written and presented it to my music publisher to pitch to other artists, but they liked my demo so much they encouraged me to cut it. It was the first song I wrote that gave me the confidence to pursue a career as a country singer.”

The sentimental “Naleigh Moon,” a song written for and about his daughter, poignantly depicts the intense connection between a father and daughter. “We’d only had Naleigh for a couple of weeks when I wrote this and I think it’s the best song I’ve ever written,” he explains. “The way the chords and the melody intertwine, it really tugs on your heartstrings. When I sang that song in the studio, I really meant it.”

But that’s not to say that Kelley steers clear of the drinking and carousing songs that have traditionally served as favorite topics of country music. “Raining Whiskey” is a get¬the-party-started tune that’s destined to be a favorite on every jukebox and honkytonk playlist nationwide. Referencing the song’s lyrics, “It’s hard staying dry when it’s raining whiskey,” Kelley laughs, “That’s my favorite forecast.”

As a child growing up in Augusta, Ga., he experienced both city life and country living because his family owned a bit of farmland near their home. “We grew up half our lives on a farm up in the North Georgia Mountains,” he says. “Summers were spent bush hoggin’ acres of land, and life in Augusta was all about golf and music. We had the best of both worlds. There was the fun of city life, plus we got to experience the beauty of the country.”

The first album he bought was U2’s Joshua Tree, but early on he was exposed to a wide range of musical styles. “It depended on whose car I was in,” he says. “If it was my mom’s car, it was Doobie Brothers, Luther Vandross, Michael McDonald. If I was with my older brother John, it was Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Supertramp. With Dad, it was all country all the time.”

As a teen, he formed the band Inside Blue with his younger brother Charles, who is now part of Lady Antebellum. The duo released a maxi-CD with five tracks that garnered local radio airplay and caught the attention of legendary singer James Brown and his manager, who wanted to sign them.

“He loved our songs, but they wanted to change everything, so my Dad and brother said, ‘No deal.’ I’m glad they did that because it afforded both me and Charles the opportunity to grow up and see the world and really have things to write about.”

While his passion for music remained strong, he left Georgia to study graphic design at University of Mississippi on a golf scholarship. He continued to record and play, and during his junior year, he landed his first major label deal with Hollywood Records.

In 2003, he released For the Ride Home, which contained the Top 5 hit “Amazing.” Two years later, he released Almost Honestand its lead single, ‘Only You.” But shortly after that, he decided to leave Hollywood Records and start his own label, DNK Records, to have more control over his music. Between 2006 and 2008, he released four independent albums.

“I wanted the sound to be more rootsy and more organic,” he says. “That’s what I had the power to do releasing my music on my own label.”

He now has the best of both worlds. He has joined forces with Universal Music Group to record and release his most personal music to date. Finally he is where he feels he has always belonged – Music City.

“It’s funny how if you keep working hard and trying, an opportunity comes around, and thank God it did. We’re gonna get to move back here to Nashville, and this is where I’ll be the rest of my life.

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Toby Keith

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:18:00 GMT

Success can be a tremendous distraction, certainly for the successful and, in many cases, for those who would try to tell their story. For a number of reasons, Toby Keith is a prime example of both, but in very different ways. Recently and again named country music's top-earning country star by Forbes, the Oklahoma-based entertainer receives tremendous notoriety for presiding over a vast and growing enterprise of sold-out tours, chart-topping albums and singles, a rapidly expanding restaurant chain, a signature beverage and more.

At the same time, a small fraction of songs in his prolific catalog lead some to fervently politicize him despite a generally apolitical public stance. Whatever the causes, too often the descriptions applied to Toby Keith obscure the fundamental root of his success: Songwriting. Fortunately, time has a way of clearing those clouds, leaving hope that someday he will be known primarily and rightly as one of the finest popular songwriters of any era in any genre. That outcome is only possible, however, precisely because he has never lost that focus, never been distracted by the ups or the downs.

When his career could barely be called that, Toby Keith wrote songs. Struggling with a former label and fighting to regain a grip on his career, he wrote songs. Peppered with unwarranted criticism, he wrote songs. Showered with praise and awards, he wrote songs. And in many ways, it all goes back to a woman named Clancy, a club she owned and a grandson whose teenage summers there sparked a flame that has yet to even flicker.

The title track of Clancy's Tavern is almost a prequel to Toby's 2005 hit "Honkytonk U." "It's the same grandmother," he explains. "'Honkytonk U' talked about my mother putting me on a Greyhound and sending me to live with my grandmother for the summer, and how things took off from there. This one is more about the bar and what I saw there. The actual name of the place was Billy Garner's Supper Club, but her husband teased her and nicknamed her Clancy because she ran a tavern. Every line in the song is true. This isn't fiction."

Like each album before it, Clancy's Tavern documents the continuing and seemingly inevitable growth of Keith's skills as singer and producer, certainly, but even more as a writer. Consider the songs you won't hear on Clancy's Tavern: "Blue Enough (To Break A Heart In Two)," "Another She Ain't You," "Didn't Forever Get Here Fast?" and "Rattle Can Red." Well, they're actually not songs, just bits and pieces of lyrics from an artist whose gift for language and melody is so well-developed, his songs beget ideas and phrases that in themselves could be fully formed songs.

"That comes with writing your whole life if you stay after it," Toby says. "Sometimes when I write with guys who've been around longer than me they'll say, 'You're gonna have to give me a bit to get my chops up.' They might feel slow for the first day or two while they try to get in the groove. But I write all the time. I've never quit writing since I was 14 – haven't eased up one day. If I took off next year, stayed home and did nothing, I would still be writing."

Call it discipline, passion, obsession or all three, but that consistency is perhaps the greatest not-so-secret key to Keith's multi-faceted success. It makes the tours, albums, and related endeavors possible. "If you were a homebuilder and looked at the houses you built when you were 20 and looked at the ones you build today, you'd see they were much better – even than ones you were building five or six years ago. As a songwriter, your system gets better. Your vocabulary gets bigger. Everything that would help a songwriter increases. Plus, you live longer and have more time to stumble on good ideas."

Keith's creative process is well documented. In addition to his habit of recording song ideas on his phone, his co-writing efforts are ingrained in his annual schedule. "I have three or four guys I write with who come out on the road," he says. "There's an occasional person who comes once, but Rivers Rutherford usually comes out a couple weekends a year. Bobby Pinson and I are together probably 50 days a year. Scotty Emerick still comes around about two weekends and we do the two weeks together overseas on the USO Tour and have time to write there. Actually, 'Chillaxin' was written on a bus during a two-day stop in South Korea on our way to Afghanistan."

Each year's batch routinely yields more songs than Keith can use. Three of Clancy's Tavern's cuts – "Club Zydeco Moon," "I Won't Let You Down" and "I Need To Hear A Country Song" – were written for 2010's Bullets In The Gun. Three songs from the 2011 writing sessions will appear on Keith's next album.

"For the last decade, we've put out a single from a new album when we go on tour in the summer," Keith explains. "The album comes out in October, you get a couple more singles and we start over."

Saying “we” is no self-conscious affectation coming from Keith's mouth. In fact, one of the more interesting paradoxes of his artistry is the extent to which he is the central creative force on all levels but also highly collaborative. His familiar family of co-writers are only part of the story. Longtime engineer Mills Logan is regularly referred to as "my ears in the studio." Session musicians including Kenny Greenberg, who is also the bandleader for Keith's Incognito Bandito club shows, are encouraged to contribute in a best-idea-wins environment. Even this album's sole outside cut is testament to this almost communal approach.

"I don't remember who played it for me the first time, but it was so stupid I just died laughing," Toby says of "Red Solo Cup," which was written by Brett and Jim Beavers with Brad and Brett Warren. "What's great about this song is it does everybody the same way it did me: 'That's the stupidest song in the world and I can't get it out of my head.' I laugh every time I hear it. Sometimes it's good for the world to hear something like that.

"When I decided to record it, I called up the Warren brothers and the Beaver brothers. They wrote it and this song is real typical of those knuckleheads. But I didn't want to make this song my version of what they wrote. I wanted to make them part of it – record their song with them. We brought them in when we cut it, to play and sing background, so it really sounds like them." Sure enough, every note on the track is courtesy of the four co-writers and Keith.

Another indication of Keith's expansive mindset is the growing role of Bobby Pinson, who gets a "Wrangler-Producer" credit on Clancy's Tavern. "When we're tracking I'm always cutting the scratch vocal and all I hear is what's in my headset monitors. For years I've had Mills Logan behind the board and really relied on him, and he does a great job.

"When I write with Bobby, he says to call him when I cut his song because he wants to be there. He does a lot of producing and he'll say, 'I don't want to step on your toes or anything, I just want to be your other ears in here.' I never mind a songwriter coming in. They were there when we wrote the song and want it to sound as good as I do. Scotty comes in when we cut one of his songs, and that kind of input really adds to it.

"And if I write a song by myself, I'd usually cut it by myself. But Bobby was around so much that I started asking him what he thought sounded good on a song I wrote. He made a suggestion, we tried it and it didn't work. He suggested something else and it worked. He was in the control room on the talk back and I started firing ideas at him. He said he didn't want to produce the record or get any money for it, but he'd love to have some input when he's around. He may not show up every day, but days he's there he might run with it. It's pretty much two good friends beating and banging it out.

"When we did the credits I didn't know how to label him. I know one thing: he's a good wrangler, because that's what he did with it. So that's how we came up with that."

Even the album's chart-topping first single "Made In America" – wildly popular with fans and easily lumped into the jingoistic caricature by critics – reveals the unwavering honesty Keith brings to his music. "I've done so much patriotic stuff that I have people sending me and bringing me those kinds of ideas daily," he says. "And when I hear most of this stuff it's like, I've already done that. I've already done my warrior song – 'American Soldier.' I've already done my battle cry – 'Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue.' I've already done my fun uptempo – 'American Ride.' Then Bobby showed up here a couple summers ago and said he knows I get tired of hearing it, but he had one America idea he wanted to write.

"We got to talking about how when we were kids, if your car broke down your dad could take a wrench, WD40, bailing wire and a screw driver and about fix it. We jumped on that, started writing. I just couldn't get past thinking that my old man was that old man." If the song rings true, regardless of the perceptions, Keith is compelled to let it lead. And that devotion to truth is also manifested in his live performances.

Four songs from the 2010 Incognito Bandito show at New York's Fillmore are bundled with a deluxe edition of Clancy's Tavern. Again, Keith's honesty rears up: "He's courageous," bandleader Kenny Greenberg recently told a Nashville songwriter of the tracks. And the accomplished studio musician would certainly be one to know that one of the first rules of putting live music on record is to clean up the mistakes. But Keith wasn't having it.

"People put so much work into an album to make it the best it can be, but we don't do jack to the Bandito stuff," Keith says. "We let them go exposed – no overdubs, no vocals, nothing. We take live tracks, Mills does a mix on them and we stick them on the album. That's exactly the way they sounded that night, except the mix is perfect."

He trusts the performance, he certainly trusts the songs and, ultimately, he trusts the music. For those reasons and those reasons alone, Clancy's Tavern will be another in a long line of successes. And somewhere, Toby Keith, undistracted, is writing another song.

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Uncle Kracker

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:21:00 GMT

Is there anyone better to tell it like it is than one's kid? In January 2008, when Uncle Kracker began to write the songs that appear on his new album Happy Hour, it was his eight year-old daughter who suggested that he try writing something a little less downbeat than usual. "She said to me, 'I can't really dance to any of your songs,'" the father of three says with a laugh. "Not that I needed to make a dance record, but it dawned on me that I tend to write a lot of acoustic ballads and mid-tempo type tunes. And I thought, 'It's pretty bad when your own kids won't listen to your records. Your own kids!' At the end of the day, people want to have fun more than they want to cry. I realized that it was time for something a little more upbeat and positive and that's what I ended up with on Happy Hour."

Produced by multiple Grammy-Award winner Rob Cavallo, Happy Hour is a breezy blend of country-flavored pop and rock and roll that showcases not only the Detroit native's natural appeal as a likeable Everyman, but also his considerable gifts as a songwriter. Though many know him from his early years as the DJ in Kid Rock's Twisted Brown Trucker Band, Uncle Kracker (whose real name is Matt Shafer) has had impressive success as a songwriter, racking up co-writing credits on Kid Rock's blockbuster hits "Bawitdaba," "Cowboy," "Forever," "Only God Knows Why," and 2008's No. 1 "All Summer Long," as well as his own Adult Top 40 No. 1 "Follow Me" (from his 2001 double-platinum debut Double Wide). "Uncle Kracker has zero musical talent," says Kid Rock. "No musician skills at all, but he's a phenomenal songwriter--very talented with words and melodies."

On Happy Hour, Uncle Kracker's soulful drawl unspools over massively hooky choruses on feel-good songs like the buoyant first single "Smile," the hilarious SoCal-skewering "I Hate California," and the freewheeling "Good To Be Me," in which he sings about riding with the T-Top down in his Cutlass Supreme. Three songs about whom we shall call complicated women -- "California," "Hot Mess," and "My Girlfriend" -- highlight Uncle Kracker's playful humor and dead-on sense of satire, while "Corner Bar" takes a more thoughtful tone by addressing the current economic downturn ("A funny little thing we all call greed / Brought my hometown down to its knees"). Other standouts include a stirring cover of Bob Seger's classic "Main Street" and the lone acoustic ballad "Me Again."

The songs may go down easy, but that doesn't mean they were easy to write. Happy Hour is Uncle Kracker's first album in five years because after he finished two years of touring behind his previous release, 2004's Seventy Two & Sunny, he wrote and recorded an entire album that he wound up scrapping. "I just decided it wasn't the right record," Uncle Kracker says. "It didn't feel relevant. So I shitcanned all the songs."

Uncle Kracker was forced to raise his game when Rob Cavallo was brought in to produce the album. Known for his work with Green Day, Kid Rock, and Dave Matthews Band, Cavallo "wouldn't let me just give him schlep," Uncle Kracker says. "Basically, he wouldn't put his hand on anything that wasn't up to snuff. So I started writing new songs and there was one in a batch of 10 that he said, 'Well, we can do this one.' I co-produced my last couple of records, so it was nice to write something and take it to a producer and let him bring out what worked. Sometimes you can be too attached to a song to be open-minded about taking suggestions from anybody."

"I think Matt really stepped it up by bringing in someone like Rob to help him with the production end of things," says Kid Rock. "Happy Hour is his best record sonically. I also think it's his best-written record. It should be--he's had like five fuckin' years to write it!"

Uncle Kracker chuckles when he hears Kid Rock's comments. The two have been best friends since meeting in 1987 at a club in Clawson, MI, where Rock was spinning in an all-ages DJ contest. With similar taste in hip-hop and classic rock, the two became fast friends. What's little known is that Uncle Kracker actually signed his first record deal at age 15 with a Detroit indie label. "I started writing rap songs when I was 11, after the first Fat Boys record came out in the mid 80s," Uncle Kracker says. "I met Kid Rock when I was 13 and got my deal a couple of years later. I was still legally too young to sign a contract for myself. But people always think it was just like Kid Rock spit me out of his womb and that was it," he says with a laugh.

Uncle Kracker wound up contributing to Rock's 1996 independent release Early Mornin' Stoned Pimp and 1998's multi-platinum Devil Without A Cause before busting out on his own with Double Wide in 2000. The album peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Top 200, spawned the smash single "Follow Me" (undoubtedly paving the way for the chart success of acoustic troubadours Jason Mraz and John Mayer), and went on double-platinum success the following year. Uncle Kracker's gold-selling second album, No Stranger To Shame, followed in 2002, spawning a hit cover version of Dobie Gray's classic "Drift Away." That track reached the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot 100 and set a record for most weeks at No. 1 on the AC chart, remaining there for 22 straight weeks.

In 2004, Uncle Kracker released Seventy Two and Sunny, which showcased his melodic songwriting and unique stylistic synthesis of pop, rock, country, soul, blues, and even doo-wop. Country superstar Kenny Chesney was featured on one of the album's tracks, "Last Night Again," so that same year, Uncle Kracker returned the favor by singing on Chesney's "When The Sun Goes Down," which topped Billboard's "Hot Country Songs" chart for five consecutive weeks. It also marked the first time in more than 20 years that an artist without a previous country history, like Uncle Kracker, was featured on a No. 1 country single. Uncle Kracker hit the road with Chesney for an arena tour that found Chesney's fans singing along with "Follow Me" and "Drift Away."

"I've learned a lot from Kenny Chesney, like how to have a more positive outlook on things," Uncle Kracker says. "He taught me how to care a little less and not sweat the small stuff." That influence can clearly be heard on Happy Hour--Uncle Kracker's most upbeat record yet. "It's definitely a departure from what I was doing," he says. "I'm just looking forward to people hearing it."

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Alison Krauss

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 16:14:00 GMT

For Alison Krauss, musical collaboration has been a way of life. Her own story, of course, has been nothing short of amazing: signed to Rounder Records as a precocious, 14 year-old fiddler from Champaign, Illinois, she has, over two decades, become the most recognized face in contemporary bluegrass and a critically acclaimed artist who has brought modern sophistication to the genre while respecting its traditions. She has also managed to sell over 11.5 million records and garner 26 Grammy® Awards, the most for any female artist in Grammy® history. Krauss has consistently worked to honor her influences, like contemporary bluegrass pioneer Tony Rice, to promote discoveries like the Cox Family and Nickel Creek and to offer her skills as producer for those artists and others, most recently, country star Alan Jackson.

Krauss' latest musical collaboration, Raising Sand, is an astonishing album recorded in tandem with rock vocalist and songwriter Robert Plant. Released on Rounder on October 23, 2007, Raising Sand is their first recorded endeavor, and will prove revelatory to fans and the media on two counts: first that it happened at all, and, more importantly, that is is as successful an illuminating as it is.

Under the careful sonic stewardship of producer T Bone Burnett, Raising Sand is pitched three steps beyond some cosmic collision of early urban blues, spacious West Texas country, and the unrealized potential of the folk-rock revolution. Shockingly evocative, it is an album that uncovers popular music's elemental roots while sounding effortlessly, breath-takingly modern. Despite hailing from distinctly different backgrounds, Plant and Krauss share a maverick spirit and willingness to extend the boundaries of their respective genres. Raising Sand finds Plant and Krauss functioning as sympathetic equals: creating a powerful new sound from both their common music ground and their unrivaled sense of empathy.

Just before the release of Raising Sand, Krauss released A Hundred Miles or More: A Collection, an elegantly understated disc with several previously released collaborations with such artists and friends as Brad Paisley, John Waite, James Taylor, Natalie MacMaster and The Chieftains, along with songs she cut for the films Cold Mountain, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and an “inspired by” album for the animated The Prince Of Egypt. Already making its way to radio is the remake of Waite’s “Missing You,” which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has called “a killer duet” with an “incandescent” Krauss. She also recorded and produced five new tracks, including a soulful slow-dance tempo of Don Williams’ “Lay Down Beside Me” with Rounder Records label-mate Waite, to create something far more than just a compilation. With 16 songs, A Hundred Miles or More gracefully balances the new with the familiar to form a vivid portrait of this adventurous artist, chronicling the places she’s been and showcasing the hauntingly beautiful solo work Krauss is making right now.

While Union Station took a hiatus from touring for most of 2006, Krauss took full advantage of the down time to explore new musical horizons. Her production of Alan Jackson’s 2006 release, Like Red on a Rose, which the Chicago Sun-Times declared “a masterpiece,” took the best-selling artist out of his familiar surroundings to create a moody, intimate song cycle that has been favorably compared to Frank Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours. The New York Times described it as “a deeply country record that sounds nothing like a country record.” Following the project with Jackson, she recorded the five new tracks for the collection release and worked with long time engineer Gary Paczosa to remix several of the other tracks. As other musical opportunities arose, she relished the opportunity to work, guesting as harmony vocalist or fiddler on several outside projects. Last December, she traveled to Washington, DC to salute Dolly Parton – no slouch herself in the bluegrass department – at the Kennedy Center Honors, performing Parton’s classics “Jolene” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home” with her friends Suzanne Cox (of the Cox Family) and Cheryl White (of the vocal trio The Whites).

Krauss has won an extraordinary 26 Grammy® awards, the most of any female artist in the history of the Grammy's. Most recently she won 6 for her collaboration with Robert Plant, Raising Sand, which won the prestigious Album Of The Year, and Record Of The Year (for "Please Read The Letter") honors. She’s also been on the receiving end of several Country Music Association Awards, including Musical Event of the Year for “Whiskey Lullaby” with Brad Paisley, originally released on Paisley’s Mud on the Tires and reprised on A Hundred Miles or More. The International Bluegrass Music Association Awards have honored her on several occasions, most recently for Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’ – Songs of the Louvin Brothers, which features her duet with James Taylor, “How’s the World Treating You,” also included on the new album. The two tracks she cut for the Cold Mountain soundtrack, “The Scarlet Tide” and “You Will Be My Ain True Love” (with Sting on harmony vocals) were nominated for Oscars in 2004.

More impressive, however, than any of these accolades has been Krauss’s unwavering commitment to being an independent-label artist who has succeeded far beyond the scope of many major-label artists. She’s been able to circulate freely within pop, mainstream country and roots music circles, creating impeccably produced records that appeal to an equally wide-ranging and inquisitive audience. Krauss has continued doing things the old-fashioned way: following her heart and whatever path the music takes her.

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Kristen Kelly

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:17:00 GMT

People believe in Kristen Kelly. Candid and down to earth, with a room-filling smile and a voice that echoes the heart of what she sings, Kristen laughs as she describes her music as “a little more grease than polish.” And that grease is an exciting mix, distilled from her country, blues, and classic rock influences into a passionate, playful, often sexy, and always heartfelt reflection of real life as she knows it.

“I have a hard time singing or writing about something I can’t relate to,” she says, and that philosophy is front and center on her Arista Nashville debut album, co-produced by nine-time CMA Award-winning producer Tony Brown and two-time GRAMMY®-winning songwriter Paul Overstreet.

“Paul got the ball rolling,” Kristen says. A chance meeting at a 2010 benefit concert impressed Overstreet enough to invite her to write with him, sparking a chain of events that ultimately led to her record deal. But Kristen was far from an “overnight” discovery.

Born in Waco, Texas, Kristen Kelly grew up in the country, living on 10 acres in small-town Lorena, Texas. “You blink, you miss it,” she smiles. She credits her outdoorsy, adventurous spirit in adult life to those days of “simple country living.”

She sang in talent shows and high school choir, and by middle school had taken an interest in poetry, beginning the foundation for the songwriting that would emerge years later. “I grew up in love with music,” Kristen recalls. Her late grandfather, Sterling Kelly, was a country musician – “I still have 45s of him and his band” – while her dad helped instill her affinity for classic rock, as well as her determination. “He’s a simple, hard-working man who never quits – and I think that’s where I get some of my ‘workaholic’ from is him.” Along the way, she adds, “I fell in love with the blues.”

While bartending in 2001, an impromptu performance earned Kristen an on-the-spot invitation to sing with a regional classic-rock cover band. That night launched a three-year part-time gig with the band as she moved closer to a life in music, co-writing her first song (“Down in Flames” with Brandon Jenkins and Stoney LaRue) in 2004, the same year she began a two-year music degree at Waco’s McLennan Community College.

In her final semester, a friend asked her to sing harmony on songs he was recording. They began writing and recording with Kristen on lead vocals, as well, resulting in their self-released album, The Highway Is My Home, as Modern Day Drifters. Initially a duo, they added a few players to flesh-out their live sound, and the act earned airplay and acclaim around Texas. But with the departure of her original partner in late 2008, Kristen took the reins and recorded her debut under the banner Kristen Kelly & The Modern Day Drifters, producing all but one song on 2010’s independent Placekeeper.

Her musical style embraces influences ranging from Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, and Bob Seger to singer/songwriter Patty Griffin to the blues and soul of Ray Charles, Susan Tedeschi, and Bonnie Raitt, while her country roots were shaped in part by the sounds of the ‘80s and ‘90s. “I grew up listening to The Judds and Reba and George Strait and Willie Nelson,” she says, adding that her biggest influence is Merle Haggard.

“I think I’m such a big fan of Merle Haggard’s music and his songwriting because it’s simple. I’ve always believed that country music was three chords and the truth, and that’s more or less what he did – and what all the great blues musicians did.”

Kristen mines her own truth with a lighthearted look at love gone awry on the groove-filled “Ex-Old Man,” while the deeply personal “Feeling Nothing” is the culmination of lyric lines that had been in her thoughts for years. “There stands a man I used to love / his hands my skin they used to touch / the very hands that once held my heart” begins the ballad of time-won healing.

“I’m a happy person,” Kristen offers, “but what I write has a lot of angst and realness to it, whether it’s something that I’ve personally experienced or somebody close to me has experienced. To be able to give voice to pain that I’ve felt, to be able to say ‘it hurts’ when it hurts, is part of my music. And if something I’ve gone through helps somebody get through something in their life, then I think that’s the ultimate reward for being a survivor.”

From the pen of acclaimed singer/songwriter Matraca Berg, Kristen pours out the emotional restlessness of a strained-but-committed relationship in another album highlight, “How Leaving Feels.” “I think maybe every man and woman at some point has wanted to know what leaving would feel like,” she says, “but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re gonna do it.”

But there are times when leaving has its place, and Kristen’s dynamic vocals soar on the rocked-out blues of “Turn and Face Memphis,” a spirited kiss-off to a my-way-or-the-highway ultimatum that mirrors a time in her own life.

The strength and passion of her delivery further shine on the soulfully sexy “He Loves to Make Me Cry,” which she wrote with Overstreet and Even Stevens. But there’s another Overstreet co-write, “Signs,” that speaks to an important side of Kristen Kelly. While the lyric is about a relationship, there’s a deeper meaning that reflects some of the inspiration that brought her to this point in her career.

“There’ve been little signs along the way,” she shares. “I’m no holy roller, but it’s like, ‘All right, I’m listening.’ I see it, I hear it, I feel that little nudge – and I’m gonna go with it.”

That faith is at the heart of Kristen Kelly, and it’s visible on the inside of her right wrist, with a tattoo of the word “Believe.”

“If you’ve got a dream, keep dreaming,” she says. “Believe. Ten years ago, I’d have never dreamed I’d be sitting right here, but I am.”

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Jana Kramer

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 19:38:00 GMT

If you ask Jana Kramer to describe her life in this very moment she would say, “Dreams really do come true.” The singer/songwriter/actress has already had success with three songs that were featured on The CW’s “One Tree Hill,” where she plays the firecracker actress, Alex Dupre. Jana will debut a fourth song on “One Tree Hill” this upcoming season that will air mid-January.

Jana is no stranger to the bright lights with her impressive string of movie and television roles, but she credits her recent break into the music industry as her most important accomplishment to date.

“I love acting, but my heart and soul is in singing. I’ve been terrified to pursue this dream because it’s so personal to me. If someone tells me they don’t like my voice, it’s a lot harder of a hit to take,” said Jana. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve wanted to do music my entire life.

Growing up in Michigan, Jana is no stranger to the rich history of country music, crediting one of her favorite memories to baking cookies with her grandmother while listening to Patsy Cline. These little moments are one of the many reasons why Jana hopes to share her music with others.

And she’s doing just that as the singer-songwriter is lighting up country music with her emotionally moving songs and sweet, country vocals, selling over 150,000 digital singles in the first six months. All eyes are on Jana as she boldly graces country music with a fresh, new sound and powerful new music.

“Country music is in my blood. I love country music because it tells a story and I have a lot of stories to tell.”

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