Maybe someday
Kimberly Jean is working hard to make her dreams come true in Nashville
By Karen Lindellklindell@VenturaCountyStar.com
March 15, 2007
One day, fans in the audience will know the words to Kimberly Jean's songs.
And that will be her someday.
The up-and-coming country singer (who goes by her first and middle name) got the idea for the title track on her debut album, "My Someday," while driving to Albuquerque four years ago to visit a friend.
"I saw a sign on the back of an RV that said, 'Someday has arrived,'" she recalled. "Everybody talks about 'someday,' and this old couple was someday going to travel in an RV.
"I thought that was a cool slogan, and would make a cool song. In the song I've changed it to what it means for me. It starts out being in a crowd looking up at someone else, then ends with me up on stage with people looking at me and singing along."
Kimberly Jean, 23, might have a full audience choir Friday during her concert at Café Valentino in Simi Valley.
She's already building a following, and locally, hasn't started small.
The Northridge resident has performed at The Majestic Ventura Theatre twice this year, opening for country star Eric Church last week and Hal Ketchum in January.
She's also performed live on country radio station KHAY three times.
Beyond Ventura County, she's played gigs at The Gig, Molly Malone's and other venues in Hollywood and Los Angeles.
This summer, she's taking a big career step by heading to Nashville with her producer to work with nationally known songwriters.
Kimberly Jean honed her country chops and stage presence by participating in a grand musical tradition: karaoke.
Karaoke music is usually best left at the bar. But several years ago when Kimberly Jean crooned songs by Faith Hill, Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan and other artists during Tuesday night karaoke sessions at a Bakersfield bar, she was such a success that audience members invited the singer — and her voice — into their homes.
"People offered to let me use their home studios to record; I got a lot of encouragement," Kimberly Jean said.
Now, she's writing and singing her own tunes.
Actually, although Kimberly Jean's karaoke experiences catapulted her into seriously considering music as a career, she was preparing for vocal fame long before her Bakersfield bar days.
Her parents played guitar, and early on Kimberly Jean was the featured soloist for Christmas and Easter children's programs at her church in Portland, Ore., where she spent the first part of her childhood.
"When I was 5, I told my mom I wanted to be a country music star," she said.
The home-schooled student started taking saxophone lessons at age 10, then taught herself to play flute, piano and guitar.
Country music, she said, "is my favorite and what is most home to me, but I've done all genres. Some of my writing is more like Sheryl Crow or Sarah McLachlan. I incorporate my style into it. A lot of people who don't listen to country music like my stuff."
For the "Sounds Like" section on her MySpace Web site, Kimberly Jean lists Sugarland, Sara Evans, SHeDAISY and Faith Hill.
Some of her favorite country singers, she said, are Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Martina McBride, Alan Jackson, Brooks and Dunn and Gretchen Wilson.
"I want my sound to be my own, but Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland, I really admire her," Kimberly Jean said. "I like to pattern myself after her — not just her music, but her attitude and her presence. She's always smiling, like she's having fun. I want to have that same effect."
At her first big concert — the Ketchum concert at the Ventura Theatre — her ability to smile and have fun were a little shaky at first, but the jitters didn't last long.
"I was nervous for the first couple of songs, but there was one song it just all went loose," she said. "I felt like I belonged there. People said afterward they could tell when I just let it go."
Keeping it simple
Kimberly Jean performs with a band but also does acoustic shows (like the Simi Valley concert at Cafe Valentino). And although she could have continued her karaoke success by covering other artists' tunes, she's decided to write her own songs.
The subject matter of her lyrics — relationships, girls wanting to have fun, getting out of a small town — aren't unprecedented in country music. But she stays away from twangy "I lost my dog and my boyfriend" tunes.
"For a long time country music has had the reputation of a hokey sound and lyrics, so people haven't wanted to listen to it," she said.
"But there's so much crossover; country's come such a long way. I see more and more people listening to it. The first time my drummer listened intentionally to country music was when he was recording one of my tracks. Now he listens all the time."
One of her favorite songs off the "My Someday" album is "The Simple Things," she said.
"The song is about appreciating the simple things in life — standing in the rain, a gentle touch that can mean so much, the things you can't buy. The song itself is stripped down; the guitar part is so simple. That's what the song means — what is simple can be better."
She might have picked up that philosophy at age 10, the beginning of a six-year stay in Mexico. Her parents were missionaries and volunteers, so the family received no income. (The family returned to the U.S. when she was 16, settling in Tehachapi, Calif., when she was 16.)
"It's an experience I wouldn't have traded for the world," Kimberly Jean said of her family's time in Mexico. "We were in a Third World, poverty-stricken area. It kind of became normal. In the U.S. people are concerned about jobs, money, having things. Being in Mexico really changed my perspective. I still don't watch TV; I grew up not having it. I think it's really taught me about appreciating simple things, and going with what you need."
Kimberly Jean, who's studying sports medicine at CSU Northridge, said she wants to make singing and writing music her job description "100 percent."
If music doesn't work out, however, she wants to be a personal trainer for people with injuries, "getting them back to the place where they want to be."
Nashville dive
Meanwhile, Kimberly Jean wants to be on stage, so she's counting on a summer trip — and possibly a permanent move — to Nashville to boost her musical opportunities.
"Going to Nashville is like being a little fish in a big pond," she said. "Here in L.A. there aren't a lot of female country artists, which in a way is nice. But I'm building a fan base and getting experience on stage, so when I go to Nashville I can kind of make a splash."
Her someday could be someday soon.