The 41-year old Memphis native discusses her authentic country roots, 10 year detour through R&B, excitement for Nashville future
Marcus K. DowlingNashville Tennessean
The internet lists Memphis native and R&B-to-country crossover singer-songwriter K. Michelle as five inches taller than fellow singer and Tennessean Dolly Parton.
But, as it often does, the internet is lying.
Standing in a rooftop office at Broadcast Music Inc.'s offices, the decade-long mainstream performer, lifelong country music fanatic, and Lifetime and VH1 reality television star is no taller than the Country Music Hall of Famer. Yet her fandom for Dolly knows no heights. The week before, K. Michelle shrieked upon seeing a mere photo of Parton backstage when she appeared at the recent BRELAND and Friends event at the Ryman Auditorium.
"I love her business sense and my producers Louis York (the Grammy-nominated duo of Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony) have always compared me to her," K. Michelle tells The Tennessean on a Wednesday morning overlooking downtown Nashville.
"When they hear me sing R&B songs and labels want songs that are 'more hood,' Claude and Chuck laugh and reply, 'What if K. Michelle really ain't hood?' We're only musicians — we're not doctors who can remove the Dolly influence out of her! That's who she is."
That sentiment is echoed by Mia McNeal, senior director of industry relations & inclusion at the Country Music Association.
"K. Michelle is an undeniably charismatic talent — and because trust me, I know country when I see it and hear it — more than anything, she's authentically a country girl," says Mia McNeal.
As a native of Louann, Arkansas, McNeal knows of what she speaks. The town has a population of 150 people and is located 30 miles from the state's border with Louisiana.
"I'm over the moon that she's recording country music. Her authenticity will aid many artists who are helping develop a broader, safer artistic haven for so many artists in the genre."
Clearly, if K. Michelle is sitting on a Music Row rooftop as a BMI-signed songwriter after debuting at both songwriting haunt the Bluebird Cafe and country music's Mother Church — during an era where Black country artists are finally receiving award nominations, achieving chart-topping success, having pop culture crossovers and selling out arenas — many in country music, like the internet, have recently lied, too.
Black artists are appealing to country music's predominantly white fanbase.
This isn't about race, though. Nor is it a signifier that country music is somehow post-racial.
Instead, it's a signifier of Black, white, Latino and other artists keying the arrival of country music's moment — or, as BMI's Vice President of Creative in Nashville, Clay Bradley, clarifies as "Southern pop's" moment — emerging as a major component popular music's overall sound.
Statistically, K. Michelle has as many social media followers (somewhere in the range of ten million over Instagram, TikTok and Twitter) as 61-time Country Music Association award nominee Miranda Lambert.
"Beyoncé going country (325 million followers over all three previously-mentioned platforms) was maybe too big and could've made people feel like her crossover was inauthentic," says Memphis native Kadeem Phillips, referring to the superstar's surprise appearance alongside the Chicks at the 2016 CMA Awards.
The artist and producer manager, an inaugural class member of CMT and Mtheory's Equal Access Program, continues: "K. Michelle is still a very notable artist, but still has a highly relatable and natural connection to country and R&B fans of all ages and backgrounds."
Her recent appearance at BMI's rooftop performance venue was opened to her social media fan club. Within minutes, the email inbox for inquiries was flooded with 400 messages — only 40 fans could attend. So the artist cut her set short not just to shake hands with Nashville industry executives in attendance; she spent nearly half an hour with her fan club taking photos and talking.
Independent MNRK Music Group's (formerly eOne, the label from which K. Michelle released her final two R&B albums in 2020 and 2022) senior vice president and general manager Gina Miller adds, "[K. Michelle], like so many country artists have always done, is gifted at creating community."
When the artist born Kimberly Michelle Pate was eight-years-old, the first cassette tape the performer ever received as a Christmas gift was The Judds' 1990 album "Love Can Build A Bridge."
Pate saw a fall-aired repeat of the duo's first appearance on Oprah Winfrey's talk program in July of that year. She was initially attracted to the mother-daughter tandem's "attitude," beauty and "piercing" red hair — they were her first favorite musical artists.
"Country music is my love and passion. It's who I am," says K. Michelle, as she breaks into "Rompin' Stompin' Blues," another "Love Can Build A Bridge" album track.
Quickly, the names associated with her love of Americana, bluegrass, country, and folk pour out, too.
A decade into her fandom, she happened across acts like "Here For the Party" and "Redneck Woman" vocalist Gretchen Wilson ("I loved her rebellious personality") and loved songs like Alison Krauss' Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal as well as Best Country Song winner "The Lucky One."
"Folk and bluegrass, I wasn't as sure about. Did I like those laid-back tempos and tones, too? Sure."
When asked about her vocal inspirations at 2022's CMA Fest, Sara Evans —another K. Michelle favorite (I loved "Born to Fly") — the vocalist name-dropped Mariah Carey.
Country music taking a full-circle turn and becoming the nexus of the progression of "Southern pop" has taken 20 years. However, the emerging sound and style could easily last as long as country music's century-long history.
Artists like K. Michelle — as inspired by Mary J. Blige and Whitney Houston as they are The Judds and Sara Evans —have existed for as long as many soul acts inspired the Judds and Mariah Carey has inspired Evans.
The inability of Miko Marks and Rissi Palmer to excel in the country space pushed industry insiders to advise K. Michelle to release a trio of R&B singles upon signing with Jive Records in 2009. Mickey Guyton being signed to Capitol Records and taking three years to release a debut EP kept label executives pushing Michelle towards pop, then eventually releasing three No. 1 R&B albums between 2013-2016.
"I love music overall, but I kept telling record executives that I wouldn't feel [creatively fulfilled] until I released a country album," says K. Michelle.
"Those executives kept playing around with me," she jokes. "After every album I released, they kept dangling the carrot of the next one, finally being country. Finally, I told them I was too intelligent to keep singing R&B for them when that's not what I would [ideally want to do]."
"If songs like these were released by Taylor Swift, they'd be huge," she said longtime Atlantic Records executive Julie Greenwald told her upon hearing her very traditional country and Southern vocal intonations on her 2016 single "If It Ain't Love."
Fed up with the politics of not having her creative vision met, she left her deal with Atlantic Records in 2019.
"I still have a positive relationship with Atlantic Records, but I have [greater aspirations] for the great records I've made and will continue to make. That label's current chairman, Craig Kallman, believes that I deserve the opportunity to be able to succeed as a country artist. I appreciate that support," says K. Michelle.
The artist, if asked, can, like so many notable country stars, also break into yodeling.
This skill, among many more, makes her one-of-one — a purebred country artist dissuaded from the genre who, against incredible, industry-imposed odds, has achieved a top-40 Billboard single in every year of her career so far.
She's now invested in herself and her country music aspirations.
Alongside MNRK Music Group's Miller and other advocates, she's navigating a fascinating Music City path at a dynamic time.
"The trend of country-leaning R&B artists reaching out for assistance because K. Michelle is an R&B artist comfortable in country music is a growing one," says Miller about the artist's water-testing new single, "Country Love Song," a collaboration with virally-popular New Iberia, Louisiana-based artist Justin Champagne.
That country debut dovetails with soulful pop-led country moments like Morgan Wallen charting the entirety of his 36-track new album, "One Thing At a Time," on Billboard's all-genre Hot 100 chart, plus rapper-turned-singer-songwriter Jelly Roll achieving country and rock chart-topping stardom and then netting three CMT Music Awards.
K. Michelle is working on a forthcoming EP and other projects alongside numerous Nashville creators of note, including 2022 Country Music Association Triple Play Award-winner (three No. 1 radio hits in the same 12-month cycle) ERNEST.
"He's amazingly gifted and though he's writing on massive albums, he's still humble. So I felt comfortable around him. He arrived at my house 30 minutes early before we were scheduled to work and after we did, we drank whiskey and ate the best soul food — he's a former rapper making country music, so he was able to merge my R&B side with where I intend to head in country music."
"K. Michelle is operating in the fullness of her truth," says BMI Nashville Executive Director, Creative Shannon Sanders. "She's always belonged in country music. Now is her time."
"Fans don't care about genre anymore," adds BMI's Bradley. "Fans just want to hear the truth. For a century, nothing has told the truth like country music."
K. Michelle gushes in agreement.
"I have so much love for country music. The people who believe in my career deserve to discover the same type of happiness through the genre that the genre has brought me. Now that I'm regularly in Nashville, I'm ready to meet people, sing for myself, collaborate with others, and finally discover peace and therapy in my life through my favorite type of music."
