About this user
As a performer, Kimberly Kelly is often a long way from the winding dirt roads of her hometown Lorena, Texas. She's opened for nearly every major Texas act including Pat Green, Aaron Watson, Stoney Larue, and Kevin Fowler, and she's shared the stage with Nashville greats such as Steve Wariner, Tracy Lawrence, and Craig Morgan. She's even performed for a president! But no matter how far she roams, her small-town blood runs deep.
Like many country performers, Kimberly is rooted in a musical family. She grew up listening to her grandfather's band, Sterling Kelly and the Hearts, and she spent her early childhood singing duets into the handle of a vacuum cleaner with her sister, Kristen Kelly (now of Kristen Kelly and the Modern Day Drifters). Today, Kimberly's influences are as varied as winter weather in the South, ranging from country and pop stars such as Lee Ann Womack and Jewel to rockers like Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty—and even fresh Americana acts like Kim Richey and Hayes Carll. And of course, just like any good country girl, she's a big fan of George Strait.
Kimberly's performance experience reads like a road atlas, with performances and appearances throughout the southwest region. She's been featured on PBS's "Texas Music Café" and played a Loretta Lynn character in Greg Vore's play "Honky Tonk," as performed by the Hip Pocket Theatre in Ft. Worth. She was a finalist on season five of Nashville Star, and she's co-written songs with Billy Joe Shaver as well performed with him at the Grand Ole' Opry. Although she has a powerful set of lungs and a pretty face, she is also a skilled musician. Throughout her musical career she's picked up the mandolin and guitar, and she dabbles with the fiddle. She writes most of her songs on her piano.
Since her first performance in 2005, she's averaged about 100 show dates a year. In 2007 she released her first album, which includes one of most her well-known songs—"The Best of Texas." Her most recent album, Sweet Time Dreamin' (2010) includes duets with Stoney Larue and Aaron Watson, as well as her first hit to make the Texas Music Chart, "Every Bad Habit." It's clever lyrics are characteristic of the tough girl persona that inhabits many of her songs, but she's got a softer side too. In songs like "Last Goodbye," she sings: "I'm still in love with you, but I don't love the things you do...I've thought and thought a lot, bout how you love me, love me not."
She's got the heart, the talent, and the experience. But she's smart too. As an undergraduate student, Kimberly was named "Commercial Music Student of the Year," and she graduated with a bachelor's in psychology from Tarleton State University. She is currently finishing her master's in speech pathology through Texas Women's University. Although she is quick to admit that she would love to spend all of her time on music, she smartly notes of her graduate studies: "I want to always know I can take care of myself." So she balances her music, her schoolwork, and a full-time job, all successfully—true country grit.
As a kid, Kimberly would play country music countdown on her dry erase board right along with Bob Kingsley—writing the top 100 country songs for the year as he ticked through the list. She likely dreamed of being on that list a time or two, and with her packed schedule and impressive experience, she may well find her way there someday. As she sings in "When I'll Need You:" "Out on an old dirt road...Like the places that we'll pass, somebody had to leave them, / And never look back." Kimberly Kelly may be looking forward to all the places she'll pass on the road to success, but this singer-songwriter knows how to look back, too.
KimberlyKellyMusic
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