BIO

With a signature style, sound, and spunk all her own, Kimberly Kelly emerged as one of the most original, compelling, and promising new artists in country music with her 2022 label debut album I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen (Show Dog Nashville/Thirty Tigers).

The record served as a fine and critically-favored introduction to industry heavyweights and audiences alike. But referring to her as “new” artist feels like a bit of a slight to the Lorena, Texas native. Before a crowd-funded EP got her noticed in Nashville by Thirty Tigers’ David Macias, she’d been funding her own records (two back in her home state of Texas,) knocking on doors, and driving all over the country for nearly two decades chasing down her dream of making it big.

Along the way, there have been many standout moments for Kelly: a mentor in the legendary outlaw Billy Joe Shaver, an endorsement by the late Toby Keith, an Opry debut, being named one of CMT’s Next Women of Country, a radio tour, and touring with Tracy Lawrence and Clay Walker.

Still, that typical, “big break” moment so many hopefuls wait for remained elusive for Kelly. Folks say that Nashville is a “ten-year town.” After 13 years, most folks would have called it quits and moved on with their lives.

But not Kimberly. 

“I thought by now I would’ve found a reason to give up, but I’ve just kept going!” she says, almost in shock of her own tenacity and persistence. 

Call it determination, plain stubbornness or better yet, a “woman’s intuition,” Kelly kept the faith, stuck to her guns, and wrote her own playbook to “making it big,” which included listening to your heart, your gut, and above all else doing what works for you, rules be damned.

“I’m a people pleaser, so it can been hard for me to choose myself. But the older you get, the more experience you have, and the more and more you just don’t give a shit and it’s a blast!” Kelly says with a cackling laugh.

“Some of the things I thought would hold me back in this business have actually ended up giving me more of a relatable niche—I’ve lived some life, earned a masters degree in speech pathology, worked all kinds of jobs, and now I’m also a wife and a mom. That perspective isn’t something to hide backstage. It’s something to bring center stage and show off.”

And that’s what she hopes to do with her upcoming album, Modern Day Woman, a genuinely brilliant ode to hardworking women everywhere. Produced by her hit songwriter husband Brett Tyler and featuring eight out of ten songs she co-wrote with some of Nashville’s finest, the honest, heartwarming, and sometimes hilarious album boasts gems like “Stripper for a Week,” “Modern Day Woman,” “Insignificant Other,” “40,” and “Nose to the Rhinestone.”

“I’d love to give women like me in life right now a voice— make them feel seen and heard.”