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A songwriter and musician with powerhouse pipes that can take you on a whiskey-soaked jaunt to your favorite honky-tonk or down a path of classic rock nostalgia, Nashville recording artist KC Johns and her music have been described as being both infectious and dynamic. Think Miranda Lambert meets Sheryl Crow, with a touch of Brandi Carlisle, and you’ve got an artist with a voice all her own, tied tight around songs that make you feel like you’ve known her forever.
Born in Memphis and raised in Mississippi, KC Johns’ roots run deep through the Blues capital of the world, where she was baptized in soul and fell hard for the stage and the spotlight at a young age. With a childhood spent on 29 acres of land and a mother who was a horse trainer and barrel racer, Johns naturally grew up around horses and was a barrel racer from the time she could walk. Johns also took tap, jazz & ballet for ten years. She began playing guitar and writing songs at the age of fifteen, the same year she began performing in her local Youth Praise band.
“Music has always been that one thing in my life that digs up a smile when I feel like I’m buried under the rest of ‘life,'” says KC. “I want other people to feel the same way.”
After performing throughout the Atlantic, the Caribbean, and everywhere in between, Johns made her way up the mainstream music ladder, opening for artists like Luke Bryan, Chris Young, Randy Houser, and Trailer Choir. At the age of 18, she was introduced to Billy Block where she performed on The Billy Block Show at 12th & Porter and joined Block on his WKDF radio show from time to time. Block produced her first debut album, Tell Me You Love Me. Her original song, “Fireflies at Night”, was featured on GAC. Johns was featured as an exclusive “Artist to Watch For” in Country Weekly of 2009. This same year, Johns performed original sets during intermissions & sang national anthems at national PBR rodeos, NBRA’s & IPRA’s.
With a series of notable performances and albums behind her, Johns relocated to Music City and has been actively living and working as part of the music scene in Nashville, TN since 2017, performing on lower Broadway and at local writers rounds regularly. Working with Grammy-nominated musician and producer, Billy Smiley out of the legendary Sound Kitchen studios outside of Nashville, Johns went on to record and release her fifth album, Thunder in 2020. Her single, “Whiskey Break”, would follow in 2021 and go on to garner national attention when it was featured in the motion picture, Enormous: The Gorge Story. Later the same year, Johns released her cover of the Led Zeppelin hit, “Black Dog” which went viral on TikTok with over 100k+ views overnight. By late 2021, her classic Zeppelin cover was streamed 34k+ times on Spotify. During that same time, Johns also co-wrote and released “Shore Feels Good” with Steven Cade & Andi Renfree and shot the upbeat music video on the shores of Key West, FL. Johns re-released her radio version of “Whiskey Break” in late 2021, ultimately topping Country Music charts in South Africa at #1 in early November, 2021.
KC made a strong statement kicking off 2022 with the release of “Confused,” a musical ode to the conflicted feelings many people experience while holding relationships together. A fervent blend of determination, frustration and emotional vulnerability, “Confused” is Johns’ most recent collaboration with GRAMMY-nominated producer and songwriter Billy Smiley (WhiteHeart, Johnny Cash, and Petra). Since its release, “Confused” has made its way on to radio playlists in a growing list of markets across the country, cracked Nashville’s Music Row charts, and climbed over 100 spots up the respected rungs of one of the industry’s most influential rankings. “Confused” is not the first chart-climbing success for Johns; her 2021 Christmas release, “Please Come for Christmas,” was released to domestic and international country radio and was the most-streamed Play MPE country song for the week of December 13, 2021, and her radio release of the “Whiskey Break” in October of 2021 made its way to the number one spot on top of South Africa’s Country music charts.
With the music sensibility of Otis Redding, the raw stylings of Chris Stapleton, and the rock vibe of Led Zeppelin, each of Johns’ songs is an audible shot of your libation of choice—they take your breath away, feel good going down, and leave you wanting more. With international popularity and global performances on the horizon, KC’s fiery rise continues to burn strong as she climbs industry charts and turns heads from Nashville to Norway.
KC Johns’ full discography is currently available on major streaming platforms; for a current touring schedule, merch and more check her out at KCJohns.rocks.