April 23, 2025 • 50 mins
What if you could pursue your wildest dreams while juggling multiple passions? Join us as we chat with the remarkable country singer Kimberly Burke, who shares her exhilarating journey from the snowy landscapes of Oswego, New York, to the vibrant, music-filled streets of Nashville. Kimberly's life is a fascinating blend of music and horsemanship, having transitioned from managing a bustling show barn to fully embracing her musical aspirations. With her roots firmly planted in both the equestrian and music worlds, she offers a unique perspective on balancing creativity and tradition.
Listen as Kimberly reveals the secrets behind her creative songwriting process, often sparked during long drives between her homes in Florida and Tennessee. She recounts her experiences performing at iconic venues like the Bluebird Cafe and collaborating with Nashville's talented music community. From her single gaining popularity on the radio to recording at the prestigious Blackbird Studio with an all-star band, Kimberly's story is a testament to the power of determination and passion. We also explore her family's influence on her music, including her son's saxophone collaborations and her husband's unwavering support.
As we wrap up, Kimberly gives us a glimpse into her future projects, including a new single set for release on Valentine's Day. She shares her excitement about attending the CRS event, eager to connect with industry peers and fans. Whether it's through her moving lyrics or her captivating storytelling, Kimberly Burke is an artist whose journey inspires us all to chase our dreams, no matter where they lead. Don't miss out on her music and be sure to follow her adventures on social media at KimberlyBurke.music.
Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, we are live.
My name is Skip Clark.
This is Skip Clark.
Well, the Skip Happens podcast,and thank you for joining us
here again tonight.
We're live on YouTube, we'relive on my Facebook page and you
know you're going to bewatching it live.
You can see it right now,obviously.
If not, you want to wait andwatch it a little bit later,
that's okay too, because it'llall be posted.
(00:21):
As you know, when I come, comeon here because of what I do my
connections to uh nashville Ilove to sit down with the new
artists.
I don't know she's exactly anew artist, but she's been for a
little bit and uh, she's uhhooked up with some really good
people in nashville.
That's a good sign.
Right there, she's off andrunning, is well.
(00:43):
Let me just put it this way Hername is Kimberly Burke and
Kimberly hello.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hey, thanks for having me Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
First of all, I need to ask where in the world is
Kimberly?
Where are you?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am in the panhandle of Florida on the Gulf Coast
right now and I split timebetween here and Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Really Well.
Do you like drive up toNashville?
Is it a pretty easy drive?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's not bad.
It's like six and a half hoursso it's not a big deal, you know
.
You can leave in the morningand be there midday.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it's an easy drive .
And how often do you get toNashville?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
About once a month right now.
Yeah, I go, you know about oncea month.
Do songwriter nights, you knowperform, do you know some
promotional stuff?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
But yeah, All right, I got to ask some basic
questions.
How long have you been doingmusic?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
My whole life.
I went to school for music, Ihave a degree in music and you
know I've been singing since Iwas teeny, tiny, uh, performing
in anything they'd let meperform in, and all different
kinds of bands.
I mean, you name it Um, but Iwent to school for it but it
wasn't um, it was supposed to beplan a actually Um.
(02:00):
But I also rode horses my wholelife and that was my other
passion, and um, that actuallybecame my job for many years.
Um, but I also rode horses mywhole life and that was my other
passion, and um, that actuallybecame my job for many years.
Um.
So I'm kind of switched gearsnow and I'm back to music full
time, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So do you still have horses?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I do, I do.
I'm greatly downsized fromwhere I was, cause.
I ran a working show barn foryears, you know.
So we would have anywhere from15 to 25 horses, you know, at
any given time, and now I haveone horse that made the cut as
my pet you know a buddy who camewith me to Florida and that's
(02:38):
it right now, actually one oldretired horse that's at a
friend's farm in Virginia.
We didn't want to try to movehim.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
He's 28 years old.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
We didn't want to move him to Florida.
It was going to be too hard onhim.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I'm not up on horses.
I like horses.
I'm not up on horses.
What is the average lifespan ofa horse?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It depends on the type of horse.
Honestly, there are somehardier than others.
But you know, late 20s or somid to late 20s um, you know
this guy's, you know, looks likea movie star.
You know he's a young lookingguy, but he's 28 years and
what's his name?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I mean, do they respond to their names and all
that?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
yeah horses are super smart.
Um, they're kind of like people, though.
You know there's some smartones, but uh, his name's wally,
uh, that's my return guy, and uh, virginia, and then, uh, I've
got casey uh here in floridawith me, so awesome, but let's
talk about your music.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you've been doing that quite a while.
You make yeah.
Well, wait, I want to back upeven a little bit further.
We were talking.
We were talking before weactually went live.
Yeah said have you ever been toupstate new york and what did
you do?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I was born in oswego.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm a hometown girl technically, yeah wow so, but
how long were you there till youmade the move?
To where'd you go?
Florida, and then actually.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So we, um, I was in new york until I was 10 and then
we moved to knoxville for twoyears to talk about culture
shock.
Um, I moved to knoxville fortwo years and then to virginia.
So I kind of grew up invirginia, you know what I mean
for the most part, and was wasin Virginia for a really long
time until recently, and we justmoved to Florida this year,
(04:29):
like in May, so it's a new thing.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You talk about Virginia, I think of horses.
My daughter in Virginia andthere's a lot of farms, a lot of
just beautiful beautifulacreage and you know the
beautiful white fences and thebeautiful barns and you see a
lot of horses.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So that would be huge and I mean we were super
fortunate, we were right in whatthey call the Shenandoah Valley
outside of Winchester.
Patsy Cline, you know territoryand I mean it's really a
beautiful area, you know.
But you're right, it's tons ofhorse farms, you know, we kind
of eat, sleep it and breathe itthere.
So you talk about.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know, we kind of eat, sleep it and breathe it
there.
So you talk about.
You say we moved to florida.
I would assume my husband andprobably have a couple of kids I
do.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I have a son and he's uh kind of back and forth
between florida and tennessee aswell and uh.
But yeah, my husband and Imoved here and my husband got to
check off.
He said I was wanting a boat,so he has a boat now.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So yeah, we've gone from uh farmers to you know it's
like, kimberly, I need you togo work a few more gigs.
We've got to make anotherpayment on this boat.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, exactly, you know it's astep down from horses, though.
You know there's nothing.
You know horses are crazy.
You know.
At least the boat you can, youknow, put in the dock and walk
away, you know well, you couldtie up a horse and walk away, or
not for long, not for long.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Horse whisper right Because you've been training
horse.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I um been a horse trainer for a
professional horse trainer sinceI was 18.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, so, do you play your music for the horses?
Do you like grab your guitar?
Do you go like, let's say, yougo into the barn, and I think
that'd be cool to do, I think.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, they love music .
It's very soothing.
Um, they do, uh, uh, I meananimals like music, but um, I do
it's been known to happen, youknow to sit in the barn,
especially in Virginia.
You know, right now my horsedoesn't live at our house, you
know he's at a boarding facility.
So I don't usually go over therewith my guitar very often,
although I have, but yeah, itwas a regular thing to kind of
(06:49):
play music and sing, and I meanI sing, you know, kind of hum
and sing to myself 24-7 anyway.
So whoever's around me for anyperiod of time is going to hear
something.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So tell me, and tell all of us, a little bit about
your music.
How would you describe it?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I would describe it as country.
You know definitely what I'mwriting now.
I would definitely describe ascountry, maybe a little
undercurrent of soul and blues,but definitely country and
writing a lot of country.
It's not all I have ever done.
I mean I, you know, have been.
I have a degree in voiceperformance and I've studied
classical music and I'm aclassical singer as well, which
(07:27):
you would never know fromhearing the stuff that's on the
radio.
But I've been in rock bands,funk bands, blues duos, you know
, you name it over the years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Well, it all crosses over now.
Anyways, I mean a lot of that.
You know, years ago we neverhad horns in country music.
Now we have horns in countrymusic, and it goes the other way
too.
I mean, a lot of bands popularbands didn't have a steel guitar
.
Now a lot of them are gettingthe steel guitar.
So it kind of goes both ways.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No for sure.
Yeah, I think you know goodmusic is good music right and of
goes both ways.
So no for sure.
Yeah, I think you know goodmusic is good music right.
And I think you know the thegenre lanes have broadened a lot
.
I mean, you know this issomething I've talked about with
friends.
You know, like you look atartists you know from the past,
like, say, tom petty, like whatwould tom petty be now?
Would he be a country artist?
You know, quite likely he mightbe.
(08:21):
You know what I mean.
Like you know it's.
You know, uh, a lot of stuff.
Like you know what I mean, likeyou know it's.
You know a lot of stuff likethat, janis Joplin, like a lot
of Janis.
Joplin would be consideredcountry, you know.
So I think it's a broader genrewhich, you know, makes some
people happy and some people notso happy.
I mean, I I think it's justgood music is good music, and I
think the thing I love aboutcountry music is how it tells a
(08:44):
story.
I like songs that you canreally connect to with a story,
and I think that's a keycomponent of country music.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're reading my mind because I was going to talk
about that a little bit.
Whether it's you or somebodyelse in the country genre, when
you write a song, it's a lotabout your real life, it's about
things that are going on.
It's about things that aregoing on and it's about things
that just about anybody canrelate to.
I mean, I've caught myselfdriving down the road in my
(09:12):
truck and I'm listening to acertain song and I go damn, you
know what that?
That was me, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's really been written for me, yeah.
No I think that's, that's thecool part about songs, right, is
like I mean, a song is reallykind of a frozen moment in time,
sure, you know, and you know Ithink our job as songwriters is
to really take people on ajourney you know, paint a
picture of, you know it's sortof that movie inside your head.
(09:39):
You know that you take peopleon a ride there and, um, what it
means to the songwriter, youknow.
What it means to me might notbe what it means to the person
listening and that's cool, Imean it's, you know, because
you're able to connect to it inyour own personal way.
Um, and you know that emotionalconnection is, you know, one of
the coolest things about music.
(10:00):
You know for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It is the pandemic.
What was that four years agonow?
Yeah, I mean that was.
There was a time for whetherit's doing what I do or doing
what you do.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
We know.
That's when we started doing alot of it this way.
It just and I imagine for yoursongwriting it was pretty much
the same that you, you couldn'tgo certain places, but yet you
would do a zoom call orsomething along those lines.
But it's right, it's not aseffective.
You don't feel the bodylanguage, you don't.
I don't know something about.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, well, there's, you know, I think you know I I
love songwriting, but I reallylove performing as well, and you
know there's just the energythat you get from a live
audience really just can't beduplicated.
You know, um, and it's in,every performance is different
because you have differentenergy from different crowds.
(10:54):
You know, and some, some nights, certain songs really resonate
and then the next night it'smaybe a completely different
song.
You know, and you know that'sone of the fun parts about
playing gigs and even playingcovers is, you know, I like to
try to really kind of customize.
When I'm looking out at a crowd, like you know, you kind of get
clues.
You know, as the night goes on,like OK, well, this crowd's
(11:15):
really feeling this, you knowand then you might take things
in a different direction thanyou did before.
you know 100 percent.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Tell me about your songwriting, how your creative
process and I know that soundslike a pretty generic question.
Well, maybe it is, but tell usabout your creative process.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I would say most of the time, you know, I might have
like a general idea.
Like you know, something kindof comes up in conversation or
I'm going through something orsee something, feel something,
and then maybe like like, sortof like a hook line might come
out of that or an idea, you know.
But as far as the process itself, I mean, I generally kind of
(11:55):
write everything together.
So it's, you know, I'll sitdown with my guitar and, you
know, start to kind of play achord progression and that sort
of melody and lyrics tend tokind of filter in.
You know all together.
But then I also write a lotwhen I'm driving, you know,
because I drive a lot and I, youknow, go back and forth to
(12:17):
Nashville and you know, myhusband and I we make jokes that
I should just get in the carand drive to Nashville, like
whether I need to be there ornot, because I inevitably write
something, you know, when I goback and forth, and so that's
kind of like a little differenttype of process.
You know, it's that sort ofstream of consciousness almost.
You know, you're like goingdown the road and of thinking
(12:44):
when you're driving.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I mean, you're cruising along and you just, you
know, hey, I got a six hourdrive and you, whether you got
that, you're listening to theradio or maybe you just you want
to think about certain thoughtsand whatever comes out of those
, yeah, stuff starts to kind ofnoodle its way in, you know um,
and I think like that's kind ofa.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I've had some pretty cool songs that have manifested
from just drives, you know.
But yeah, typically I writewith my guitar, you know I love
that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
So you get to Nashville.
You've been at certain writersright arounds.
Writers get involved with that.
You've also been at oh God, Ijust had a brain fart the
bluebird, yes, yes, and what'sthat feel like to you?
I can't believe I couldn'tthink of that.
(13:29):
It's like I just had a brainfart.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I don't know that's okay.
It happens to all of us.
It will probably happen to meat some point, so don't feel bad
, I get older.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I know a lot of those .
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You know.
You know everybody talks aboutthe bluebird is, um, I think it
is a very unique animal becauseit is such a listening crowd.
(14:00):
You know, um, you can hear apin drop in that place because
they hang on every word, onevery.
You know every line and um, itdoesn't really matter how much
you perform.
When you perform at thebluebird it's different.
You know, there's an intensity,um, that is a little
intimidating but also inspiring.
You know, and um, yeah, it's acool experience.
(14:21):
Every time I've done it it's acool experience, and um, I also
do, uh, a lot of the writersnights at the Commodore grill in
Nashville.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And she's been really supportive and, you know,
invite me out to play a lot ofthose.
But yeah, I you know both ofthose places.
You know the caliber ofsongwriting and of artists that
you can meet is phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You never know who's going to walk in, correct?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
No, you don't.
You don't know who's going towalk in.
And I mean, you know I've met,I've been at writers nights
where I'm performing, and youknow I'm sharing the stage with
Grammy winning, you knowsongwriters that have written
multiple hit songs and you knoware friendly and welcoming and
and you know it's a pretty coolcommunity.
I mean I have to say on thewhole it's a welcoming,
(15:13):
encouraging community.
I mean sure it's competitive,but it's not.
I would say it's an encouragingenvironment.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You say competitive, but everybody helps each other
out.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, it is, and I think you know I've been in a
lot of things in my life thatare competitive.
The horses are very competitivewhen you get to the higher
levels and, and I have to say,music like Nashville in
particular, you know you wouldthink would be, you know, kind
of a rough town as far as thecompetition.
(15:44):
And it is very competitive inthe sense that you have so many
ridiculously talented people inone spot.
But every time I go people arelike hey, I used to do this
writer's night and yeah, I usedto meet so-and-so, and maybe we
can get together and co-write,or you know, I mean it's a very
encouraging, like you know,artistic place where everybody's
(16:05):
trying to kind of, you know,just get to the next level and,
you know, I think it's supercool.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
But there's so much of that going on.
Yeah, it could be like 12things going on in one night and
you want to go there, and thenyou want to go here, and then
you want to go there, and it'slike I don't know which one
should I go to.
You know, it's just greatopportunity, no matter where you
go.
I would assume.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It is.
I mean, every time you go out,I mean you don't even have to go
to a writer's night, you couldgo out for lunch and bump into
somebody.
Amazing, you strike up aconversation.
I mean I've gone out for coffeethere and been like, oh my God,
that's you know.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, no exactly yeah .
Right there with you?
Yeah, of course that.
Right there with you.
Yeah, of course that's.
That's what nashville is allabout.
I mean, if you go to jill, youjust had that's what happens?
you just be the fan.
That's over the top.
You just got to be cool, right?
You know, the funny story isthe very first time, many, many,
many years ago, I went tonashville and I was at this
(17:04):
event and, uh, I think lone starwas there, brooks and dunn were
there, and right, oh my god, ohmy god, I'm calling home going.
Honey, honey, honey.
I see richard mcdonald, lonestars, right now.
He's wrote you know, I'm doingall that now.
It's like you just gotta belike yeah, good to see you, man,
you know what I mean.
You gotta be cool, yeah, butthere is that initial.
(17:24):
You know like, oh, my god.
But oh, yeah, they live a lifelike you and I.
They go grocery store.
They have to get.
Yeah, they gotta.
You know they're paying a lotfor groceries, just like we are,
so it's all the same, it's allthe same well, yeah, and here at
the beach.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So where we are, we're in the area that they call
30a okay and there's a lot ofum nashville that have like like
successful nashville, that haslike second homes here and
there's a lot of people thatsplit time so like you could be
walking through the grocerystore here and see, you know,
like major stars.
You know what I mean fromnashville and that's the same
(18:03):
thing here.
It's like be cool, like onvacation, like just leave them
alone.
You know, like like I don'tknow, you know, I think Billy
Dean was is down there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I know he's on the beach, but I just don't know
where exactly.
But I mean, we've had him onthe podcast and we talked about
it, but I know he's he's, he wasin Florida.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So yeah, that Gulf coast, like that whole, you know
from, you know really like thatpart of Alabama, like you know
Gulf Shores and Orange Beach,alabama all the way down to.
Panama City Beach.
Florida is definitely.
You know there's a lot ofNashville that spends time there
, so you kind of know who you'regoing to see.
(18:46):
So you kind of know who you'regoing to see.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
In Alabama.
They've got some pretty coolstudios down in the Gulf Shores
or whatever In that area.
They've got some cool studiosin that area and I know a lot of
artists will go there and cutwhatever they're going to cut.
Hang on, you know what I wantto do.
I want to check out thehurricane tracker for you.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, yeah, you might want to.
I haven't looked at it recently, sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm not paying attention.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Skip, it's not good.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, no, no, you know what?
You've been pretty lucky, let'sjust say I mean where you're
located with all the storms thathave been coming across, and I
think there's another one now,maybe not to the extent extent
of Milton or one of the previoushurricanes, but it's still
there.
No it is.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I feel so bad for the people south of us that had
such horrible luck.
It's one of the parts of livingin Florida on the coast, but it
doesn't make it any lessterrifying, did you say
Pensacola?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Are you say Pensacola ?
Are you near Pensacola?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
or no, we're close to like.
If you look at Destin on themap, we're close.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I know it's a great radio station, pensacola, so
yeah, it's 98.7, but I love them.
They're the cat, so it's prettycool, cool stuff.
But so you get up to Nashville.
When you're up there, do youget to play out at all besides
the writers' nights?
Do you do anything on Broadway?
Do you go to some of the bars,like out of town?
(20:18):
I?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
have.
I've played.
Well, I played at 12 Keys.
I haven't played on Broadwayyet because up until we moved in
May I wasn't really availableenough to dedicate that much
time to being there.
Um, so that's the promotioncompany that I work with.
That's one of the things thatwe've been kind of discussing is
(20:39):
starting to play on Broadway.
Some you know now that myschedule isn't as determined by
farm ownership, um, and havingto be available for that
lifestyle.
So that's kind of on.
The goal for this coming yearis to be playing in Nashville
more and to get out more and todo more in general with, you
(21:02):
know, the Writers' Nights, andmore just promotion, just
promotion.
I'm really lucky right nowbecause the single that I put
out in September is on the radioand been picked up by quite a
few stations, so I'm superstoked about that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And it sounds something like this it does, it
does.
It sounds really familiar toyou.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
It does sound kind of familiar.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Just play just that little bit of it.
Hang on, I will get that I'vebeen shooting whiskey.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I've been drinking wine Donnie on a tequila, a
little bit of lime and now I'mseeing double Baby.
It's me and you, my men, sayit's unhealthy, unhealthy.
I need to get on track, promiseyou just own me If I take it
back.
And I know they're right, butit's hard to find.
(22:00):
I'm missing you.
This circle, it needs to bebroken.
This pain is the path that I'vechosen.
The circle it needs to bebroken.
This pain is the path that I'vechosen, found my way to that
(22:21):
lost time place, back to thegirl that I was before.
I was the girl with you days.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Wow, wow, wow, you go girl.
Thank you.
Yeah, Now is that your regularband.
Did you hire studio musicians?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
That is a Nashville band, that we put together with
the help of the producer, nickWorley.
So I had a fan that wasrecorded at Blackbird, yeah, so
it doesn't really get a wholelot better than that.
And so I had a fantastic groupof musicians.
Xander Wyatt was the bandleader and on acoustic guitar
(23:10):
and mandolin, and I had GideonKlein on electric guitar,
gabriel Klein, his brother, onpercussion and drums, jay Weaver
on bass.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's like an all-star lineup.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It is and Ty Bailey on keyboards.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
A lot of people don't realize is that an artist like
yourself.
When you go into a studio,really the band is made up of
professionals.
They play from everybody, fromthe newest artist all the way up
to riba mcintyre or whoeverright what I'm saying.
So those are the people thatyou're hiring to be on your
album or on your single.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So, yeah, no everybody in that band is
currently touring with.
Someone like, for example, likexander wyatt is touring with
larry fleet right now, who'sbeen on tour with morgan wallen
yes, absolutely yeah.
So I mean, I was very, veryfortunate and I mean they're all
touring musicians and you know,and nick uh worley, the
producer, did a fantastic joband you know, um, and blackbird
(24:12):
is just an amazing studio is itall right there?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I mean anybody that knows anything about the music,
anything about what's going onin nashville, and blackbird
comes up, you go wow, okay,that's cool yeah, no, it's legit
.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Um, no doubt it's a.
It's a fantastic experience.
I mean, I could like move intoblackbird.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
It's very, very cool I geek out in those places yeah,
it's easy to do yeah, I go inand I I see everything that's
going on.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's like this is so freaking cool yeah, no, the I
mean it just it's an amazingfacility and you know the I love
the vocal booth, like that'sjust one of those places like
stay in the vocal booth all day.
You know um and and sing and II really love being in the
studio and it's.
(25:05):
You know it's such a coolcollaborative thing.
You know you walk in with yourscratch takes of your songs and
you know everybody adds theirown.
You know parts and flair andthen the next thing you know
it's like what you've beenhearing inside your head comes
to life.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It all comes together .
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, and it's amazing.
You know, it's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Are you the only musician?
Is your husband a musician?
Are the kids doing it at all,or is it just you?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
My husband is definitely not a musician.
He is a big fan.
He is a speaker carrier, but heloves music.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Good work, my son does do loves music.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
My son does do some music.
He plays a saxophone and hedoes do some writing and in fact
he and I have been co -writinga little bit recently, so that
would be kind of cool.
He does a lot of jazz and youknow stuff like that, Um, and
(26:11):
he's really very talented.
He does not do it for a living,although he could, Um, but he,
uh, it's, it's a good justoutlet for him and he enjoys
doing it.
You know what I mean on thatlevel.
So Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Saxophone is uh, how do I do it?
I would describe it as a verysexy instrument.
There's something about thesaxophone, you know.
Yeah, very.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I don't mean this in a creepy way, but it could be
very seductive, it's just noit's, you're absolutely right,
it's a very cool, sexyinstrument and, um, you know,
and he kind of grew up you know,I on a lot of r&b and old you
know, soul and stuff and uh, youcan really hear that influence
and in what he does, yeah, is ita alto or uh tenor sax alto
(26:57):
alto.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, john williard is.
Uh, I don't know if you can seethe comments there.
John williard is a voiceoverartist.
He was the voice of the cmasfor a lot of years uh-huh he's a
big fan of the Skip Happenspodcast.
We do a lot of things.
He's done a lot of things forme.
I just see he's chiming inthere.
(27:19):
He was the man, the voice, thatyou still hear it everywhere
nowadays.
I'll see a commercial come outor something.
I'll go.
It's John Williard.
He's watching, he's listeningright now hello John, yeah, I um
.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
No, I can't see the comments, so all right, see that
or not?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
yeah, he says happy to do it for you.
Well, thank you, john, but notsuch a cool guy, one of the cool
guys.
So I have to ask you traininghorses, traveling and doing what
you did, more or less you know,training horses going up and
down the East coast and all that, I mean it's gotta be a pretty
good job.
A lot of traveling, I get it,but it's something that you love
(28:01):
to do.
But now you've kind of put thaton the back burner.
You get to get tower up evenmore and you're really
concentrating on that.
Why?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You know, it was always.
I was always torn between mytwo loves.
You know what I mean of musicand writing and I'm very
fortunate in the sense that I'vesomehow been able to do both
his careers.
You know.
You know, I've known what Iwanted to do since I was three
years old.
You know what I mean If youlook at my baby book.
(28:31):
It's like what do you want to bewhen you grow up?
I want to be a singer and Iwant to ride horses.
You know, be a singer and acowgirl is what it said.
Um, you know, and so you knowthat hasn't changed and luckily
I'm crazy enough that I thoughtthat those could be, you know,
viable career paths and and itworked, you know, um, and the
thing is they're both veryall-consuming, you know, and I,
I went to school for music and Iwas kind of on that path and I
(28:57):
just had some opportunitiesarise, uh, with the horses that
I hadn't really counted on andthat it just sort of snowballed
into, you know, one thing ontothe next, and that was also like
a lifelong passion of mine.
So it was just kind of like,okay, that sort of became the
front runner as far as thecareer.
(29:18):
It was never a choice of whichone I liked more, it was just I
couldn't really do both at thatlevel at the same time.
Um, but I always felt likethere was just really something
missing because, you know, musicwas really supposed to be what
I pursued and it was just, youknow, it derailed a little bit
and I think, you know, I did myfirst album of original songs
(29:41):
when I was 17.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Oh, my god, just a couple of weeks ago.
Yeah right, we wish.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
But yeah, I mean exactly and I think you know
it's just a couple of weeks ago,yeah right, we wish.
But yeah, I mean exactly and Ithink you know this was a huge
part of what I wanted to do, andI sort of, you know, got to a
point where I had kind ofreached a lot of the goals that
I wanted to in the world.
And there was this, you know,just real longing for wanting to
(30:08):
really chase music on a levelthat you know I kind of hadn't
had the opportunity before, likea lot of people, regardless of
what the career path was.
You know my day job as it, youknow as unusual as my day job
was, but my day job and you knowwhat I was, you know doing
running a farm, having a family,you know all these things um
(30:31):
kind of kept, you know, limitingwhat I could do.
And at this point you know I amable to pursue it on a level
that I haven't had theopportunity to do before.
It's awesome.
Luckily it's, you know, movingforward in a very positive
direction.
So I'm stoked and I try reallyhard to kind of encourage people
(30:55):
.
Like you know, if there'ssomething you want to do, like,
just do it.
You know, take a step forwardand follow my own advice, you
know.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I hear you.
I mean I'm trying to branch offand do different things.
I'm okay over here now I don'thave to worry about certain
things and now I can dowhatever's over here.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, I totally can relate to that, Totally, totally
same life experience,necessarily, and that doesn't
mean that there aren't a lot of22 year olds, you know, writing
incredible stuff.
Like you know, taylor swiftstarted writing incredible stuff
when she was, you know, ateenager.
(31:37):
But I think you know, at everypoint in your life, um, you're
coming from a differentperspective and I think you know
, maybe my path as a songwriterand an artist is is coming from
a perspective, you know, becauseof where I've been and you know
(31:58):
how, how that got me to where Iam now.
You know, and I I think thatit's so easy to kind of lull
ourselves into, well, but Ichose this path, so I'm just
going to stick with it andthere's nothing wrong with that.
But I think if there'ssomething that you really have
like a hardcore desire to chaseand you can even it doesn't have
(32:19):
to be like, you know, full tilt, you know, but on any level, if
you can chase it on any level,I think it's important to do,
you know that's great advice.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Anybody that's watching this.
I mean do it, you know, do it.
Get out there and do it.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
You can do it, don't worry, I mean like what's the
worst thing that's going tohappen, you know, like it
doesn't work.
You know and you know.
So I mean, I think I thinkthat's kind of the lesson I've
been teaching myself is thiswhole process has gone on, you
know.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
No, absolutely Absolutely.
When you say you ride thehorses, are you running with
them?
Do you do the jumps?
Do you do?
You know what I mean?
No, I'm not the jumps.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yep, so I was a hunter jumper trainer, so I did
show horses.
I started Western as a kidactually, and I rode western
some, but, um, so english ridingI know you're not a horse guy
so I'll walk through so, uh,english primarily, um, and a
hunter jumper trainer, um, soyes, we would jump a course of
(33:23):
jumps like in an arena, um, andit's judged like on precision
and horse form and you know,smoothness, those kinds of
things, um, just to kind of giveyou the basics uh falling off
and, yes, definitely not fallingoff, although I've done that
plenty uh, I'll just say I'd bethe one falling off.
It's like oh, you would be.
(33:43):
Yeah, well, everybody does inthe beginning it's yeah, I guess
Sometimes it's okay.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and plus I think it would hurt a little bit
, if you know what I mean,Because I see them jumping up
and down on that set or the waythe horse is moving, and then
your body if it doesn't movewith the horse, it's not going
to be very comfortable.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Oh yeah, it does make sense.
I have six pins in a plate inmy right knee.
That would test my statement.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
How do you travel when you go through the airport?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
uh metal detector you know it's not very comforting,
but I'm there.
I rarely set it off, so I don'tknow what that says about tsa,
but but yeah, I, um, I, uh, Ihave set it off before, but yeah
it's yeah, six pins and a platein my knee and that was riding
a three year old like a newthree year old, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Right.
And I zagged a little bit, tellme and now I just played a
little clip of the single.
But tell me about the singleand how did it come about?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
OK, so it's called the Girl I Was Before, ok, and
it's, you know, basically astory song that we can all kind
of relate to.
I think of.
You know you're in arelationship with somebody for a
long time and you know,whenever you're in that
relationship your identity kindof becomes intertwined.
(35:05):
You know you're sort of a partof that couple.
And I think, think, you know,when we have to sort of redefine
ourselves post relationship,you know, you start to realize,
you know, maybe parts of youthat you've lost or changed or
whatever, and there's that sortof sense of returning, you know,
back to your kind of true self.
(35:25):
Um, and that's that's kind ofthe story of, of the, of sort of
you know, sort of lamenting theloss of the relationship but
kind of talking about returningto the girl that you were before
.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And how does the whiskey in the words the whiskey
?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I've been drinking whiskey.
I've been drinking wine Damianaand tequila with a little bit
of lime but, now I'm beingdouble, but it's me and you.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
So let me ask on one of those trips to Nashville, did
that song come about?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
You know.
So it's funny that line.
I will admit it's funny.
I had I had some friends thatwe were sitting around one night
and we were drinking a littlebit and we weren't drinking all
those things though but, um, andthey said, you know, you don't
have enough songs with alcoholin them.
And it was like this joke, youknow like you don't have enough
(36:23):
songs with alcohol in them.
And so the song started.
That part of the song startedas a little bit of a joke, you
know, like between us, and thenit then it took this turn and
evolved into that you knowcompletely different.
You know like a much moreserious, you know song.
Um, we started bits and piecesof personal life kind of mixed
(36:43):
in with a little bit of a storyinside my head.
But yeah, um, it's uh, yeah,that's a lot.
I would not recommend thatlineup.
Don't think that would be agood lineup.
I'm surprised I don't get askedmore allergies in florida,
giving me a hard time.
Um the.
I'm surprised I don't get askedmore about damiana um, because
(37:06):
a lot of people don't.
Do you know what damianaDamiana liquor is?
Have you ever had it?
Speaker 1 (37:10):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
No, okay, so it's a it's a it's a cactus liquor and
they make it in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
And I never knew about it, you know, being from
New York originally, andVirginia, yeah, we don't have
Damiana up there, but but myhusband introduced it to me and
it's uh, you can get it inCalifornia, which is where he's
from, and uh, and Mexico and uh,but anyway, you'll have to try
(37:38):
it in a margarita, Cause if youhave it in a margarita.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I have to make note of that.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yes, it will change your, your, your.
I'm doing margaritas that way.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It will change you in ways you don't.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It might, yeah, you might want to just a little bit,
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Moderation.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Oh my gosh.
So, Kimberly, where can we geta hold of your music?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
So I'm on every kind of platform, streaming platform
you could want to find me on.
So that single we just heardsnippets of is called the Girl I
was before.
Um, I also have, um, a coupleof albums that are out.
I have an album named flightrisk um, uh, that is out, that
(38:22):
you could hear of, one calledseasons.
It's, you know, been out for afew years now.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Um.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I have a single, uh that's out called no Better Love
, which is also from the FlightRisk album.
We are going to release anothernew single on Valentine's Day
Nice.
So that's something to lookforward to and it is sort of
Valentine's Day related.
So that should be coming out onValentine's Day, so kind of
(38:50):
excited about that and should begoing back into the studio to
Blackbird Not exactly sure whenwe haven't scheduled it yet, but
before too long.
So I have, I have enough nowfor a new album, so we're going
to start.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
So that'd be number three for you.
Yes, you have enough, that is.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I knew you had at least one.
Yeah, wow, that is, I knew youhad at least one, yeah.
Wow, that's great, kimberly.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
That is awesome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Do you get the opportunity to go to the country
radio seminar at all?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
No, but I actually just had Nancy, who you know
from grassroots.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I love Nancy.
Yeah, nancy's awesome, so sheand I were just talking about
that today and I'm going to begoing this year, so this coming
year I'll see you there becauseand we usually everybody kind of
hooks up and says hello and,you know, meet somebody in
person for the first time.
It's kind of cool so yeah I'vehad so many artists on a lot of
(39:48):
the newer artists now I wouldn'teven consider you a new artist.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I mean you're into your third album you you know I
I'm new in the sense that it'sfinally getting promoted in a
proper way, so more peopleexposure to it.
You know what I mean and so Imean thank you for thinking of
me in that way, but I'm I'm newto you and I'm new to a lot of
people and um, and, and that'sokay.
(40:12):
You know what I mean.
It's, uh, just working on, youknow, getting it out so that
more listeners can hear it, andit's really been a very cool
experience.
I mean I'm thrilled to thinkthat you know it's getting
picked up by radio stations andand you know, every week I get
the report of, you know morespins are being added and and
(40:37):
I've gotten a really niceresponse from you know different
interviews that I've had andyou know the radio stations
liking it.
So that's all I can ask for.
And you know I have a nice, avery loyal fan base.
You know hoping to have a bigger, you know, fan base like
everybody, but the awesome fansthat I do have are very, very
(40:59):
loyal and very into my originalmusic and super positive.
You know about the direction mymusic is kind of taken.
You know, with this new single,kind of where we're going and I
think that's, you know that's.
I feel very fortunate, I feelvery blessed in that way, for
sure.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And, like I mentioned in the beginning, before you
went out live, the fact that youdo have grassroots and a lot of
different promotional companiesyou could go with, but this is
one company that's, you know,made up of musicians and radio
people, and to have that thosetwo people, or those two groups
of people working together, justmakes it for everybody
(41:38):
understands what's going on.
You know what I mean right.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
I mean it's, you know .
You know you're really only asgood as your team and you know
you can.
You can be writing good thingsor putting good, you know music
out and if you don't have theright team to put it in the
right hands to get the exposurethat you need, then you know,
unfortunately it just sits andit gets lost.
And you know it's.
I mean, these days we live in aworld that is more accessible to
(42:04):
musicians than it ever has been, but it's also very easy to get
lost you know, in the sea ofmusic, you know, and it's these
days we, we, we work on fightingthe algorithm you know what I
mean and using it to ouradvantage.
And I think, if you don't haveprofessionals, that that's what
they do all day long.
(42:24):
It's, it's difficult, you know,I do.
I think it's difficult.
So you know, grass rootspromotion has been fantastic.
They I have people helping mewith streaming.
I think it's difficult, so youknow, grassroots promotion has
been fantastic.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
They.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I have people helping me with streaming.
I have people helping me get itout on radio.
I have, you know, mentorsessions with Nancy, who you
meant, you know that youmentioned, and you know it's.
It's great to have thoseopportunities to be pushed and
to get really positive feedbackon.
You know what's good, whatcould be better.
(42:55):
You know direction, you knowand just really have it a
well-rounded attack, becausethat's what it kind of takes to
get to the next level.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Those are the people that know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Right, yeah, I know Absolutely, they can tackle a
certain situation as well.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
If they're not so happy with something, they're
going to tell you, but they'regoing to tell you how you could
do it better.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yeah, it's a very positive experience.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know and you understand I mean it's, it's one
of those things that you knownot all songs that you send down
the pipeline are going to be,you know like you're not going
to keep them.
You know there's a lot thatgets left on the cutting room
floor.
You know, and that's you know.
Like you write something like Iwrote a song, this morning and I
sent it to Nancy and you know,thankfully she likes it, you
(43:38):
know, and I I.
But you know, sometimes youwrite things and you're super
excited about it and then youlisten to them two weeks later
and you're like yeah, that's,you know certain things.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, that sucks, you know.
So that happens.
So I do some voiceover work andit's like, oh, this is great,
and I'll give it a little time,I'll go do something, then come
back and give it a listen and go.
That really sucked.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, it can be sad, but true, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
I know it's so true.
You know you're so awesome tochat with.
I know we haven't met beforetill tonight, but to be able to
talk about you, to talk aboutyour music and where it's going
and the team that's behind you,and I'm a little jealous that
you're in the panhandle ofFlorida, but yeah, I know, roll
the eyes, go ahead All right, Ilove New York, new York.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
I was born there.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I still love New York .
Well, do you love the snow?
You lived in a Swigo.
You got the wind off of LakeOntario, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Snowball, I mean snow belt action.
Um, yeah, so you know we, wecould cross country ski out our
back door.
I remember that as a kid.
Um, you know snowmobiles.
I mean, you know my favoritememory, my grandmother is still
around at 98.
And yeah, she's awesome.
(45:02):
But I like, one of my favoritememories as a kid is her like
jumping the snowmobile.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Like you know, like them, like having you know like
yeah, yeah, mounds of snow andmy grandmother, my little tiny
grandmother, like jumping thesnowmobile.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I mean it's a family affair.
I mean everybody was out on asnowmobile or skiing or you know
.
I mean you just the funcontinues outside.
It doesn't matter if there'ssnow.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
So I'll tell you that yesterday we got to 81 degrees.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
It was 70.
What's the temperature there?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh, it's been in the 80s, but it's been a little bit
cooler the past week or so.
It's actually been nice.
We've had a little bit of abreak.
But yeah, I mean, it'sbeautiful.
Not going to lie, I like it.
I like it a lot.
I'm sort of enjoying being alittle bit of a beach bum.
(45:50):
I try to go to the beach everymorning that I'm home in.
Florida.
Do you walk the beach everymorning that I'm home in?
Yeah, I take my dog, so I haveum, we have two dogs and okay I
try to take my dog every morningto the beach.
He's become a beach guy so whatkind of dog?
Uh, we have two.
We have a mini aussie uh, who's14 taylor like the guitar.
And then, uh, we have a vishla.
(46:11):
I don't know if you know whatthose are.
It's a hungarian pointer and, uh, they're kind of like a like a
german short hair, exceptthey're the red color um, okay
yeah, so he's a big like running, walking, hiking, busy kind of
guy and uh, so he and I go everymorning, you know, for a few
miles, and uh, um, his name iscash I know, but did you just
(46:33):
say miles?
Speaker 1 (46:35):
yeah, how many miles do you walk, is that?
Speaker 2 (46:38):
like at least three in the morning.
Yeah, like you know, at leastthree, sometimes more if we have
time, you know and it's quiettime of the year where the
beaches aren't crowded.
Yeah, it's.
It does get busy here for sure,and we're still in the
honeymoon stage of this area.
So you know all the locals arelike like they're waiting for
(46:59):
fall or you know they're.
You know, get kind of over itwhen it gets really busy and you
know there's lines and stuffwhere like hey, you know what?
Speaker 1 (47:11):
We don't care.
Like you know, we are stillkind of tourists, you know so
we're okay with it.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
All right, it's all right enjoy it can I ask what
does your husband do?
He's a builder.
Um, so yeah, he's a, uh like acarpenter and builder and
there's work just about any.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Wherever he goes, he can get work.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
That's awesome, yeah so he's uh did a lot of his
specialty is kind of oldhistoric homes like Victorian
homes and but he he doeseverything.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Does he watch this old house?
Speaker 2 (47:38):
He did, yeah, and you know he watches a lot of
YouTube stuff, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yes, I mean come on.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, he's one of those annoying people in the
sense that he can watch YouTubevideo about anything and then go
do it.
You know what I mean?
He just has that kind of mindthat, yeah, it's super cool.
I am not that person, but it iscool.
He can build just aboutanything if he studies how to do
(48:06):
it, so it comes in very handy.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It does.
I'm sure it does.
Kimberly Burke.
She's a musician.
You can go online, google hername, get her music.
It's on all the platforms.
It's the way it is.
It's on all the platforms.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
It's on all the platforms and I'm sorry to
interrupt you Social media.
I have to put in the plug.
Skip.
Social media is KimberlyBurkeB-U-R-K-E dot music.
You can find me on any of those.
If you want to follow me, itwould be great.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Kimberly Burke dot music.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
You're so sweet.
Good luck to you.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Oh, thank you.
Thanks so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
No, 100%.
I just love talking to peoplelike you.
I look forward to saying helloin person.
February will be here beforeyou know it.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
You know I've been going to CRS for probably 25, 30
years, so it's, you know, it'salways new people, you get to
say hello and all the good stuff.
So I look forward to that.
It's a great opportunity foryou as an artist as well,
because there's a ton of radiopeople, there's a ton of execs,
there's just anybody.
That's anybody is there.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah, no, I'm excited , it'll be great and it would be
super cool to see you, sothanks.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, absolutely, we can hang out in bar lines in the
Omni.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
All right, I'll show you about Damiana.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Don't give me shit face.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I'll be like bad influence, I know.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
It's a podcast, I can say that.
Um, very good.
Kimberly burke, thanks forjoining us here tonight and skip
happens.
It's just a pleasure talking toyou.
I love the music.
Um, I expect to hear a wholelot more and I know I'm gonna
like it, so I just I can't wait.
Keep me posted.
You say you got the new onecoming out in february.
Yeah, um, let's do this again.
We get a little bit closer.
(49:51):
I'll let shannon or nancy knowthat I definitely want to do
this again.
We get a little bit closer.
I'll let Shannon or Nancy knowthat I definitely want to do
this, or you could put a plug inas well.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
That would be great.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Absolutely, so stay right there.
I just want to thank everybodyfor watching and don't forget to
subscribe to Skip Happens.
There's a whole lot of these onthere, from the newest artist
to a, a very well establishedartist, and some of those that
have been around a long, long,long long time.
It's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool.
I'm just saying it's prettycool.
So, anyways, thanks for joiningus everybody.
Stay right there, kimberly anduh, good night.
(50:22):
Thanks for having us on skiphappens podcast.
Hey, we are live.
My name is Skip Clark.
This is Skip Clark.
Well, the Skip Happens podcast,and thank you for joining us
here again tonight.
We're live on YouTube, we'relive on my Facebook page and you
know you're going to bewatching it live.
You can see it right now,obviously.
If not, you want to wait andwatch it a little bit later,
that's okay too, because it'llall be posted.
(00:21):
As you know, when I come, comeon here because of what I do my
connections to uh nashville Ilove to sit down with the new
artists.
I don't know she's exactly anew artist, but she's been for a
little bit and uh, she's uhhooked up with some really good
people in nashville.
That's a good sign.
Right there, she's off andrunning, is well.
(00:43):
Let me just put it this way Hername is Kimberly Burke and
Kimberly hello.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Hey, thanks for having me Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
First of all, I need to ask where in the world is
Kimberly?
Where are you?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I am in the panhandle of Florida on the Gulf Coast
right now and I split timebetween here and Nashville.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Really Well.
Do you like drive up toNashville?
Is it a pretty easy drive?
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's not bad.
It's like six and a half hoursso it's not a big deal, you know
.
You can leave in the morningand be there midday.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So it's an easy drive .
And how often do you get toNashville?
Speaker 2 (01:22):
About once a month right now.
Yeah, I go, you know about oncea month.
Do songwriter nights, you knowperform, do you know some
promotional stuff?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
But yeah, All right, I got to ask some basic
questions.
How long have you been doingmusic?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
My whole life.
I went to school for music, Ihave a degree in music and you
know I've been singing since Iwas teeny, tiny, uh, performing
in anything they'd let meperform in, and all different
kinds of bands.
I mean, you name it Um, but Iwent to school for it but it
wasn't um, it was supposed to beplan a actually Um.
(02:00):
But I also rode horses my wholelife and that was my other
passion, and um, that actuallybecame my job for many years.
Um, but I also rode horses mywhole life and that was my other
passion, and um, that actuallybecame my job for many years.
Um.
So I'm kind of switched gearsnow and I'm back to music full
time, which is awesome.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
So do you still have horses?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I do, I do.
I'm greatly downsized fromwhere I was, cause.
I ran a working show barn foryears, you know.
So we would have anywhere from15 to 25 horses, you know, at
any given time, and now I haveone horse that made the cut as
my pet you know a buddy who camewith me to Florida and that's
(02:38):
it right now, actually one oldretired horse that's at a
friend's farm in Virginia.
We didn't want to try to movehim.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
He's 28 years old.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
We didn't want to move him to Florida.
It was going to be too hard onhim.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I'm not up on horses.
I like horses.
I'm not up on horses.
What is the average lifespan ofa horse?
Speaker 2 (02:59):
It depends on the type of horse.
Honestly, there are somehardier than others.
But you know, late 20s or somid to late 20s um, you know
this guy's, you know, looks likea movie star.
You know he's a young lookingguy, but he's 28 years and
what's his name?
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I mean, do they respond to their names and all
that?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
yeah horses are super smart.
Um, they're kind of like people, though.
You know there's some smartones, but uh, his name's wally,
uh, that's my return guy, and uh, virginia, and then, uh, I've
got casey uh here in floridawith me, so awesome, but let's
talk about your music.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
So you've been doing that quite a while.
You make yeah.
Well, wait, I want to back upeven a little bit further.
We were talking.
We were talking before weactually went live.
Yeah said have you ever been toupstate new york and what did
you do?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I was born in oswego.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I'm a hometown girl technically, yeah wow so, but
how long were you there till youmade the move?
To where'd you go?
Florida, and then actually.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So we, um, I was in new york until I was 10 and then
we moved to knoxville for twoyears to talk about culture
shock.
Um, I moved to knoxville fortwo years and then to virginia.
So I kind of grew up invirginia, you know what I mean
for the most part, and was wasin Virginia for a really long
time until recently, and we justmoved to Florida this year,
(04:29):
like in May, so it's a new thing.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You talk about Virginia, I think of horses.
My daughter in Virginia andthere's a lot of farms, a lot of
just beautiful beautifulacreage and you know the
beautiful white fences and thebeautiful barns and you see a
lot of horses.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
So that would be huge and I mean we were super
fortunate, we were right in whatthey call the Shenandoah Valley
outside of Winchester.
Patsy Cline, you know territoryand I mean it's really a
beautiful area, you know.
But you're right, it's tons ofhorse farms, you know, we kind
of eat, sleep it and breathe itthere.
So you talk about.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
You know, we kind of eat, sleep it and breathe it
there.
So you talk about.
You say we moved to florida.
I would assume my husband andprobably have a couple of kids I
do.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I have a son and he's uh kind of back and forth
between florida and tennessee aswell and uh.
But yeah, my husband and Imoved here and my husband got to
check off.
He said I was wanting a boat,so he has a boat now.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So yeah, we've gone from uh farmers to you know it's
like, kimberly, I need you togo work a few more gigs.
We've got to make anotherpayment on this boat.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, exactly, you know it's astep down from horses, though.
You know there's nothing.
You know horses are crazy.
You know.
At least the boat you can, youknow, put in the dock and walk
away, you know well, you couldtie up a horse and walk away, or
not for long, not for long.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Horse whisper right Because you've been training
horse.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I um been a horse trainer for a
professional horse trainer sinceI was 18.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, so, do you play your music for the horses?
Do you like grab your guitar?
Do you go like, let's say, yougo into the barn, and I think
that'd be cool to do, I think.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, they love music .
It's very soothing.
Um, they do, uh, uh, I meananimals like music, but um, I do
it's been known to happen, youknow to sit in the barn,
especially in Virginia.
You know, right now my horsedoesn't live at our house, you
know he's at a boarding facility.
So I don't usually go over therewith my guitar very often,
although I have, but yeah, itwas a regular thing to kind of
(06:49):
play music and sing, and I meanI sing, you know, kind of hum
and sing to myself 24-7 anyway.
So whoever's around me for anyperiod of time is going to hear
something.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
So tell me, and tell all of us, a little bit about
your music.
How would you describe it?
Speaker 2 (07:05):
I would describe it as country.
You know definitely what I'mwriting now.
I would definitely describe ascountry, maybe a little
undercurrent of soul and blues,but definitely country and
writing a lot of country.
It's not all I have ever done.
I mean I, you know, have been.
I have a degree in voiceperformance and I've studied
classical music and I'm aclassical singer as well, which
(07:27):
you would never know fromhearing the stuff that's on the
radio.
But I've been in rock bands,funk bands, blues duos, you know
, you name it over the years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Well, it all crosses over now.
Anyways, I mean a lot of that.
You know, years ago we neverhad horns in country music.
Now we have horns in countrymusic, and it goes the other way
too.
I mean, a lot of bands popularbands didn't have a steel guitar
.
Now a lot of them are gettingthe steel guitar.
So it kind of goes both ways.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
No for sure.
Yeah, I think you know goodmusic is good music right and of
goes both ways.
So no for sure.
Yeah, I think you know goodmusic is good music right.
And I think you know the thegenre lanes have broadened a lot
.
I mean, you know this issomething I've talked about with
friends.
You know, like you look atartists you know from the past,
like, say, tom petty, like whatwould tom petty be now?
Would he be a country artist?
You know, quite likely he mightbe.
(08:21):
You know what I mean.
Like you know it's.
You know, uh, a lot of stuff.
Like you know what I mean, likeyou know it's.
You know a lot of stuff likethat, janis Joplin, like a lot
of Janis.
Joplin would be consideredcountry, you know.
So I think it's a broader genrewhich, you know, makes some
people happy and some people notso happy.
I mean, I I think it's justgood music is good music, and I
think the thing I love aboutcountry music is how it tells a
(08:44):
story.
I like songs that you canreally connect to with a story,
and I think that's a keycomponent of country music.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
You're reading my mind because I was going to talk
about that a little bit.
Whether it's you or somebodyelse in the country genre, when
you write a song, it's a lotabout your real life, it's about
things that are going on.
It's about things that aregoing on and it's about things
that just about anybody canrelate to.
I mean, I've caught myselfdriving down the road in my
(09:12):
truck and I'm listening to acertain song and I go damn, you
know what that?
That was me, yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's really been written for me, yeah.
No I think that's, that's thecool part about songs, right, is
like I mean, a song is reallykind of a frozen moment in time,
sure, you know, and you know Ithink our job as songwriters is
to really take people on ajourney you know, paint a
picture of, you know it's sortof that movie inside your head.
(09:39):
You know that you take peopleon a ride there and, um, what it
means to the songwriter, youknow.
What it means to me might notbe what it means to the person
listening and that's cool, Imean it's, you know, because
you're able to connect to it inyour own personal way.
Um, and you know that emotionalconnection is, you know, one of
the coolest things about music.
(10:00):
You know for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
It is the pandemic.
What was that four years agonow?
Yeah, I mean that was.
There was a time for whetherit's doing what I do or doing
what you do.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Right.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
We know.
That's when we started doing alot of it this way.
It just and I imagine for yoursongwriting it was pretty much
the same that you, you couldn'tgo certain places, but yet you
would do a zoom call orsomething along those lines.
But it's right, it's not aseffective.
You don't feel the bodylanguage, you don't.
I don't know something about.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Yeah, well, there's, you know, I think you know I I
love songwriting, but I reallylove performing as well, and you
know there's just the energythat you get from a live
audience really just can't beduplicated.
You know, um, and it's in,every performance is different
because you have differentenergy from different crowds.
(10:54):
You know, and some, some nights, certain songs really resonate
and then the next night it'smaybe a completely different
song.
You know, and you know that'sone of the fun parts about
playing gigs and even playingcovers is, you know, I like to
try to really kind of customize.
When I'm looking out at a crowd, like you know, you kind of get
clues.
You know, as the night goes on,like OK, well, this crowd's
(11:15):
really feeling this, you knowand then you might take things
in a different direction thanyou did before.
you know 100 percent.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Tell me about your songwriting, how your creative
process and I know that soundslike a pretty generic question.
Well, maybe it is, but tell usabout your creative process.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
I would say most of the time, you know, I might have
like a general idea.
Like you know, something kindof comes up in conversation or
I'm going through something orsee something, feel something,
and then maybe like like, sortof like a hook line might come
out of that or an idea, you know.
But as far as the process itself, I mean, I generally kind of
(11:55):
write everything together.
So it's, you know, I'll sitdown with my guitar and, you
know, start to kind of play achord progression and that sort
of melody and lyrics tend tokind of filter in.
You know all together.
But then I also write a lotwhen I'm driving, you know,
because I drive a lot and I, youknow, go back and forth to
(12:17):
Nashville and you know, myhusband and I we make jokes that
I should just get in the carand drive to Nashville, like
whether I need to be there ornot, because I inevitably write
something, you know, when I goback and forth, and so that's
kind of like a little differenttype of process.
You know, it's that sort ofstream of consciousness almost.
You know, you're like goingdown the road and of thinking
(12:44):
when you're driving.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
I mean, you're cruising along and you just, you
know, hey, I got a six hourdrive and you, whether you got
that, you're listening to theradio or maybe you just you want
to think about certain thoughtsand whatever comes out of those
, yeah, stuff starts to kind ofnoodle its way in, you know um,
and I think like that's kind ofa.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I've had some pretty cool songs that have manifested
from just drives, you know.
But yeah, typically I writewith my guitar, you know I love
that.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
So you get to Nashville.
You've been at certain writersright arounds.
Writers get involved with that.
You've also been at oh God, Ijust had a brain fart the
bluebird, yes, yes, and what'sthat feel like to you?
I can't believe I couldn'tthink of that.
(13:29):
It's like I just had a brainfart.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
I don't know that's okay.
It happens to all of us.
It will probably happen to meat some point, so don't feel bad
, I get older.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
I know a lot of those .
Speaker 2 (13:38):
You know.
You know everybody talks aboutthe bluebird is, um, I think it
is a very unique animal becauseit is such a listening crowd.
(14:00):
You know, um, you can hear apin drop in that place because
they hang on every word, onevery.
You know every line and um, itdoesn't really matter how much
you perform.
When you perform at thebluebird it's different.
You know, there's an intensity,um, that is a little
intimidating but also inspiring.
You know, and um, yeah, it's acool experience.
(14:21):
Every time I've done it it's acool experience, and um, I also
do, uh, a lot of the writersnights at the Commodore grill in
Nashville.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
And she's been really supportive and, you know,
invite me out to play a lot ofthose.
But yeah, I you know both ofthose places.
You know the caliber ofsongwriting and of artists that
you can meet is phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
You never know who's going to walk in, correct?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
No, you don't.
You don't know who's going towalk in.
And I mean, you know I've met,I've been at writers nights
where I'm performing, and youknow I'm sharing the stage with
Grammy winning, you knowsongwriters that have written
multiple hit songs and you knoware friendly and welcoming and
and you know it's a pretty coolcommunity.
I mean I have to say on thewhole it's a welcoming,
(15:13):
encouraging community.
I mean sure it's competitive,but it's not.
I would say it's an encouragingenvironment.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
You say competitive, but everybody helps each other
out.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah, it is, and I think you know I've been in a
lot of things in my life thatare competitive.
The horses are very competitivewhen you get to the higher
levels and, and I have to say,music like Nashville in
particular, you know you wouldthink would be, you know, kind
of a rough town as far as thecompetition.
(15:44):
And it is very competitive inthe sense that you have so many
ridiculously talented people inone spot.
But every time I go people arelike hey, I used to do this
writer's night and yeah, I usedto meet so-and-so, and maybe we
can get together and co-write,or you know, I mean it's a very
encouraging, like you know,artistic place where everybody's
(16:05):
trying to kind of, you know,just get to the next level and,
you know, I think it's supercool.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
But there's so much of that going on.
Yeah, it could be like 12things going on in one night and
you want to go there, and thenyou want to go here, and then
you want to go there, and it'slike I don't know which one
should I go to.
You know, it's just greatopportunity, no matter where you
go.
I would assume.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
It is.
I mean, every time you go out,I mean you don't even have to go
to a writer's night, you couldgo out for lunch and bump into
somebody.
Amazing, you strike up aconversation.
I mean I've gone out for coffeethere and been like, oh my God,
that's you know.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, no exactly yeah .
Right there with you?
Yeah, of course that.
Right there with you.
Yeah, of course that's.
That's what nashville is allabout.
I mean, if you go to jill, youjust had that's what happens?
you just be the fan.
That's over the top.
You just got to be cool, right?
You know, the funny story isthe very first time, many, many,
many years ago, I went tonashville and I was at this
(17:04):
event and, uh, I think lone starwas there, brooks and dunn were
there, and right, oh my god, ohmy god, I'm calling home going.
Honey, honey, honey.
I see richard mcdonald, lonestars, right now.
He's wrote you know, I'm doingall that now.
It's like you just gotta belike yeah, good to see you, man,
you know what I mean.
You gotta be cool, yeah, butthere is that initial.
(17:24):
You know like, oh, my god.
But oh, yeah, they live a lifelike you and I.
They go grocery store.
They have to get.
Yeah, they gotta.
You know they're paying a lotfor groceries, just like we are,
so it's all the same, it's allthe same well, yeah, and here at
the beach.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
So where we are, we're in the area that they call
30a okay and there's a lot ofum nashville that have like like
successful nashville, that haslike second homes here and
there's a lot of people thatsplit time so like you could be
walking through the grocerystore here and see, you know,
like major stars.
You know what I mean fromnashville and that's the same
(18:03):
thing here.
It's like be cool, like onvacation, like just leave them
alone.
You know, like like I don'tknow, you know, I think Billy
Dean was is down there somewhere.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I know he's on the beach, but I just don't know
where exactly.
But I mean, we've had him onthe podcast and we talked about
it, but I know he's he's, he wasin Florida.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So yeah, that Gulf coast, like that whole, you know
from, you know really like thatpart of Alabama, like you know
Gulf Shores and Orange Beach,alabama all the way down to.
Panama City Beach.
Florida is definitely.
You know there's a lot ofNashville that spends time there
, so you kind of know who you'regoing to see.
(18:46):
So you kind of know who you'regoing to see.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
In Alabama.
They've got some pretty coolstudios down in the Gulf Shores
or whatever In that area.
They've got some cool studiosin that area and I know a lot of
artists will go there and cutwhatever they're going to cut.
Hang on, you know what I wantto do.
I want to check out thehurricane tracker for you.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, yeah, you might want to.
I haven't looked at it recently, sorry.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
I'm not paying attention.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Skip, it's not good.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, no, no, you know what?
You've been pretty lucky, let'sjust say I mean where you're
located with all the storms thathave been coming across, and I
think there's another one now,maybe not to the extent extent
of Milton or one of the previoushurricanes, but it's still
there.
No it is.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
I feel so bad for the people south of us that had
such horrible luck.
It's one of the parts of livingin Florida on the coast, but it
doesn't make it any lessterrifying, did you say
Pensacola?
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Are you say Pensacola ?
Are you near Pensacola?
Speaker 2 (19:50):
or no, we're close to like.
If you look at Destin on themap, we're close.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Cool, cool.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
I know it's a great radio station, pensacola, so
yeah, it's 98.7, but I love them.
They're the cat, so it's prettycool, cool stuff.
But so you get up to Nashville.
When you're up there, do youget to play out at all besides
the writers' nights?
Do you do anything on Broadway?
Do you go to some of the bars,like out of town?
(20:18):
I?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
have.
I've played.
Well, I played at 12 Keys.
I haven't played on Broadwayyet because up until we moved in
May I wasn't really availableenough to dedicate that much
time to being there.
Um, so that's the promotioncompany that I work with.
That's one of the things thatwe've been kind of discussing is
(20:39):
starting to play on Broadway.
Some you know now that myschedule isn't as determined by
farm ownership, um, and havingto be available for that
lifestyle.
So that's kind of on.
The goal for this coming yearis to be playing in Nashville
more and to get out more and todo more in general with, you
(21:02):
know, the Writers' Nights, andmore just promotion, just
promotion.
I'm really lucky right nowbecause the single that I put
out in September is on the radioand been picked up by quite a
few stations, so I'm superstoked about that.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
And it sounds something like this it does, it
does.
It sounds really familiar toyou.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
It does sound kind of familiar.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Just play just that little bit of it.
Hang on, I will get that I'vebeen shooting whiskey.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I've been drinking wine Donnie on a tequila, a
little bit of lime and now I'mseeing double Baby.
It's me and you, my men, sayit's unhealthy, unhealthy.
I need to get on track, promiseyou just own me If I take it
back.
And I know they're right, butit's hard to find.
(22:00):
I'm missing you.
This circle, it needs to bebroken.
This pain is the path that I'vechosen.
The circle it needs to bebroken.
This pain is the path that I'vechosen, found my way to that
(22:21):
lost time place, back to thegirl that I was before.
I was the girl with you days.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
Wow, wow, wow, you go girl.
Thank you.
Yeah, Now is that your regularband.
Did you hire studio musicians?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
That is a Nashville band, that we put together with
the help of the producer, nickWorley.
So I had a fan that wasrecorded at Blackbird, yeah, so
it doesn't really get a wholelot better than that.
And so I had a fantastic groupof musicians.
Xander Wyatt was the bandleader and on acoustic guitar
(23:10):
and mandolin, and I had GideonKlein on electric guitar,
gabriel Klein, his brother, onpercussion and drums, jay Weaver
on bass.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
That's like an all-star lineup.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It is and Ty Bailey on keyboards.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
A lot of people don't realize is that an artist like
yourself.
When you go into a studio,really the band is made up of
professionals.
They play from everybody, fromthe newest artist all the way up
to riba mcintyre or whoeverright what I'm saying.
So those are the people thatyou're hiring to be on your
album or on your single.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
So, yeah, no everybody in that band is
currently touring with.
Someone like, for example, likexander wyatt is touring with
larry fleet right now, who'sbeen on tour with morgan wallen
yes, absolutely yeah.
So I mean, I was very, veryfortunate and I mean they're all
touring musicians and you know,and nick uh worley, the
producer, did a fantastic joband you know, um, and blackbird
(24:12):
is just an amazing studio is itall right there?
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I mean anybody that knows anything about the music,
anything about what's going onin nashville, and blackbird
comes up, you go wow, okay,that's cool yeah, no, it's legit
.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Um, no doubt it's a.
It's a fantastic experience.
I mean, I could like move intoblackbird.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
It's very, very cool I geek out in those places yeah,
it's easy to do yeah, I go inand I I see everything that's
going on.
Speaker 2 (24:43):
It's like this is so freaking cool yeah, no, the I
mean it just it's an amazingfacility and you know the I love
the vocal booth, like that'sjust one of those places like
stay in the vocal booth all day.
You know um and and sing and II really love being in the
studio and it's.
(25:05):
You know it's such a coolcollaborative thing.
You know you walk in with yourscratch takes of your songs and
you know everybody adds theirown.
You know parts and flair andthen the next thing you know
it's like what you've beenhearing inside your head comes
to life.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
It all comes together .
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Yeah, and it's amazing.
You know, it's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Are you the only musician?
Is your husband a musician?
Are the kids doing it at all,or is it just you?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
My husband is definitely not a musician.
He is a big fan.
He is a speaker carrier, but heloves music.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Good work, my son does do loves music.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
My son does do some music.
He plays a saxophone and hedoes do some writing and in fact
he and I have been co -writinga little bit recently, so that
would be kind of cool.
He does a lot of jazz and youknow stuff like that, Um, and
(26:11):
he's really very talented.
He does not do it for a living,although he could, Um, but he,
uh, it's, it's a good justoutlet for him and he enjoys
doing it.
You know what I mean on thatlevel.
So Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
Saxophone is uh, how do I do it?
I would describe it as a verysexy instrument.
There's something about thesaxophone, you know.
Yeah, very.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
I don't mean this in a creepy way, but it could be
very seductive, it's just noit's, you're absolutely right,
it's a very cool, sexyinstrument and, um, you know,
and he kind of grew up you know,I on a lot of r&b and old you
know, soul and stuff and uh, youcan really hear that influence
and in what he does, yeah, is ita alto or uh tenor sax alto
(26:57):
alto.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, john williard is.
Uh, I don't know if you can seethe comments there.
John williard is a voiceoverartist.
He was the voice of the cmasfor a lot of years uh-huh he's a
big fan of the Skip Happenspodcast.
We do a lot of things.
He's done a lot of things forme.
I just see he's chiming inthere.
(27:19):
He was the man, the voice, thatyou still hear it everywhere
nowadays.
I'll see a commercial come outor something.
I'll go.
It's John Williard.
He's watching, he's listeningright now hello John, yeah, I um
.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
No, I can't see the comments, so all right, see that
or not?
Speaker 1 (27:40):
yeah, he says happy to do it for you.
Well, thank you, john, but notsuch a cool guy, one of the cool
guys.
So I have to ask you traininghorses, traveling and doing what
you did, more or less you know,training horses going up and
down the East coast and all that, I mean it's gotta be a pretty
good job.
A lot of traveling, I get it,but it's something that you love
(28:01):
to do.
But now you've kind of put thaton the back burner.
You get to get tower up evenmore and you're really
concentrating on that.
Why?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
You know, it was always.
I was always torn between mytwo loves.
You know what I mean of musicand writing and I'm very
fortunate in the sense that I'vesomehow been able to do both
his careers.
You know.
You know, I've known what Iwanted to do since I was three
years old.
You know what I mean If youlook at my baby book.
(28:31):
It's like what do you want to bewhen you grow up?
I want to be a singer and Iwant to ride horses.
You know, be a singer and acowgirl is what it said.
Um, you know, and so you knowthat hasn't changed and luckily
I'm crazy enough that I thoughtthat those could be, you know,
viable career paths and and itworked, you know, um, and the
thing is they're both veryall-consuming, you know, and I,
I went to school for music and Iwas kind of on that path and I
(28:57):
just had some opportunitiesarise, uh, with the horses that
I hadn't really counted on andthat it just sort of snowballed
into, you know, one thing ontothe next, and that was also like
a lifelong passion of mine.
So it was just kind of like,okay, that sort of became the
front runner as far as thecareer.
(29:18):
It was never a choice of whichone I liked more, it was just I
couldn't really do both at thatlevel at the same time.
Um, but I always felt likethere was just really something
missing because, you know, musicwas really supposed to be what
I pursued and it was just, youknow, it derailed a little bit
and I think, you know, I did myfirst album of original songs
(29:41):
when I was 17.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Oh, my god, just a couple of weeks ago.
Yeah right, we wish.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
But yeah, I mean exactly and I think you know
it's just a couple of weeks ago,yeah right, we wish.
But yeah, I mean exactly and Ithink you know this was a huge
part of what I wanted to do, andI sort of, you know, got to a
point where I had kind ofreached a lot of the goals that
I wanted to in the world.
And there was this, you know,just real longing for wanting to
(30:08):
really chase music on a levelthat you know I kind of hadn't
had the opportunity before, likea lot of people, regardless of
what the career path was.
You know my day job as it, youknow as unusual as my day job
was, but my day job and you knowwhat I was, you know doing
running a farm, having a family,you know all these things um
(30:31):
kind of kept, you know, limitingwhat I could do.
And at this point you know I amable to pursue it on a level
that I haven't had theopportunity to do before.
It's awesome.
Luckily it's, you know, movingforward in a very positive
direction.
So I'm stoked and I try reallyhard to kind of encourage people
(30:55):
.
Like you know, if there'ssomething you want to do, like,
just do it.
You know, take a step forwardand follow my own advice, you
know.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
I hear you.
I mean I'm trying to branch offand do different things.
I'm okay over here now I don'thave to worry about certain
things and now I can dowhatever's over here.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
Yeah, I totally can relate to that, Totally, totally
same life experience,necessarily, and that doesn't
mean that there aren't a lot of22 year olds, you know, writing
incredible stuff.
Like you know, taylor swiftstarted writing incredible stuff
when she was, you know, ateenager.
(31:37):
But I think you know, at everypoint in your life, um, you're
coming from a differentperspective and I think you know
, maybe my path as a songwriterand an artist is is coming from
a perspective, you know, becauseof where I've been and you know
(31:58):
how, how that got me to where Iam now.
You know, and I I think thatit's so easy to kind of lull
ourselves into, well, but Ichose this path, so I'm just
going to stick with it andthere's nothing wrong with that.
But I think if there'ssomething that you really have
like a hardcore desire to chaseand you can even it doesn't have
(32:19):
to be like, you know, full tilt, you know, but on any level, if
you can chase it on any level,I think it's important to do,
you know that's great advice.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Anybody that's watching this.
I mean do it, you know, do it.
Get out there and do it.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
You can do it, don't worry, I mean like what's the
worst thing that's going tohappen, you know, like it
doesn't work.
You know and you know.
So I mean, I think I thinkthat's kind of the lesson I've
been teaching myself is thiswhole process has gone on, you
know.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
No, absolutely Absolutely.
When you say you ride thehorses, are you running with
them?
Do you do the jumps?
Do you do?
You know what I mean?
No, I'm not the jumps.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Yep, so I was a hunter jumper trainer, so I did
show horses.
I started Western as a kidactually, and I rode western
some, but, um, so english ridingI know you're not a horse guy
so I'll walk through so, uh,english primarily, um, and a
hunter jumper trainer, um, soyes, we would jump a course of
(33:23):
jumps like in an arena, um, andit's judged like on precision
and horse form and you know,smoothness, those kinds of
things, um, just to kind of giveyou the basics uh falling off
and, yes, definitely not fallingoff, although I've done that
plenty uh, I'll just say I'd bethe one falling off.
It's like oh, you would be.
(33:43):
Yeah, well, everybody does inthe beginning it's yeah, I guess
Sometimes it's okay.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, and plus I think it would hurt a little bit
, if you know what I mean,Because I see them jumping up
and down on that set or the waythe horse is moving, and then
your body if it doesn't movewith the horse, it's not going
to be very comfortable.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (34:03):
Oh yeah, it does make sense.
I have six pins in a plate inmy right knee.
That would test my statement.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
How do you travel when you go through the airport?
Speaker 2 (34:13):
uh metal detector you know it's not very comforting,
but I'm there.
I rarely set it off, so I don'tknow what that says about tsa,
but but yeah, I, um, I, uh, Ihave set it off before, but yeah
it's yeah, six pins and a platein my knee and that was riding
a three year old like a newthree year old, yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Right.
And I zagged a little bit, tellme and now I just played a
little clip of the single.
But tell me about the singleand how did it come about?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
OK, so it's called the Girl I Was Before, ok, and
it's, you know, basically astory song that we can all kind
of relate to.
I think of.
You know you're in arelationship with somebody for a
long time and you know,whenever you're in that
relationship your identity kindof becomes intertwined.
(35:05):
You know you're sort of a partof that couple.
And I think, think, you know,when we have to sort of redefine
ourselves post relationship,you know, you start to realize,
you know, maybe parts of youthat you've lost or changed or
whatever, and there's that sortof sense of returning, you know,
back to your kind of true self.
(35:25):
Um, and that's that's kind ofthe story of, of the, of sort of
you know, sort of lamenting theloss of the relationship but
kind of talking about returningto the girl that you were before
.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
And how does the whiskey in the words the whiskey
?
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I've been drinking whiskey.
I've been drinking wine Damianaand tequila with a little bit
of lime but, now I'm beingdouble, but it's me and you.
Speaker 1 (35:57):
So let me ask on one of those trips to Nashville, did
that song come about?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
You know.
So it's funny that line.
I will admit it's funny.
I had I had some friends thatwe were sitting around one night
and we were drinking a littlebit and we weren't drinking all
those things though but, um, andthey said, you know, you don't
have enough songs with alcoholin them.
And it was like this joke, youknow like you don't have enough
(36:23):
songs with alcohol in them.
And so the song started.
That part of the song startedas a little bit of a joke, you
know, like between us, and thenit then it took this turn and
evolved into that you knowcompletely different.
You know like a much moreserious, you know song.
Um, we started bits and piecesof personal life kind of mixed
(36:43):
in with a little bit of a storyinside my head.
But yeah, um, it's uh, yeah,that's a lot.
I would not recommend thatlineup.
Don't think that would be agood lineup.
I'm surprised I don't get askedmore allergies in florida,
giving me a hard time.
Um the.
I'm surprised I don't get askedmore about damiana um, because
(37:06):
a lot of people don't.
Do you know what damianaDamiana liquor is?
Have you ever had it?
Speaker 1 (37:10):
I have not.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
No, okay, so it's a it's a it's a cactus liquor and
they make it in Mexico.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
And I never knew about it, you know, being from
New York originally, andVirginia, yeah, we don't have
Damiana up there, but but myhusband introduced it to me and
it's uh, you can get it inCalifornia, which is where he's
from, and uh, and Mexico and uh,but anyway, you'll have to try
(37:38):
it in a margarita, Cause if youhave it in a margarita.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
I have to make note of that.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yes, it will change your, your, your.
I'm doing margaritas that way.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
It will change you in ways you don't.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
It might, yeah, you might want to just a little bit,
just a little bit.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
Just a little bit.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Moderation.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Oh my gosh.
So, Kimberly, where can we geta hold of your music?
Speaker 2 (38:01):
So I'm on every kind of platform, streaming platform
you could want to find me on.
So that single we just heardsnippets of is called the Girl I
was before.
Um, I also have, um, a coupleof albums that are out.
I have an album named flightrisk um, uh, that is out, that
(38:22):
you could hear of, one calledseasons.
It's, you know, been out for afew years now.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Um.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
I have a single, uh that's out called no Better Love
, which is also from the FlightRisk album.
We are going to release anothernew single on Valentine's Day
Nice.
So that's something to lookforward to and it is sort of
Valentine's Day related.
So that should be coming out onValentine's Day, so kind of
(38:50):
excited about that and should begoing back into the studio to
Blackbird Not exactly sure whenwe haven't scheduled it yet, but
before too long.
So I have, I have enough nowfor a new album, so we're going
to start.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
So that'd be number three for you.
Yes, you have enough, that is.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:10):
I knew you had at least one.
Yeah, wow, that is, I knew youhad at least one, yeah.
Wow, that's great, kimberly.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
That is awesome, thank you.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Do you get the opportunity to go to the country
radio seminar at all?
Speaker 2 (39:23):
No, but I actually just had Nancy, who you know
from grassroots.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
I love Nancy.
Yeah, nancy's awesome, so sheand I were just talking about
that today and I'm going to begoing this year, so this coming
year I'll see you there becauseand we usually everybody kind of
hooks up and says hello and,you know, meet somebody in
person for the first time.
It's kind of cool so yeah I'vehad so many artists on a lot of
(39:48):
the newer artists now I wouldn'teven consider you a new artist.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I mean you're into your third album you you know I
I'm new in the sense that it'sfinally getting promoted in a
proper way, so more peopleexposure to it.
You know what I mean and so Imean thank you for thinking of
me in that way, but I'm I'm newto you and I'm new to a lot of
people and um, and, and that'sokay.
(40:12):
You know what I mean.
It's, uh, just working on, youknow, getting it out so that
more listeners can hear it, andit's really been a very cool
experience.
I mean I'm thrilled to thinkthat you know it's getting
picked up by radio stations andand you know, every week I get
the report of, you know morespins are being added and and
(40:37):
I've gotten a really niceresponse from you know different
interviews that I've had andyou know the radio stations
liking it.
So that's all I can ask for.
And you know I have a nice, avery loyal fan base.
You know hoping to have a bigger, you know, fan base like
everybody, but the awesome fansthat I do have are very, very
(40:59):
loyal and very into my originalmusic and super positive.
You know about the direction mymusic is kind of taken.
You know, with this new single,kind of where we're going and I
think that's, you know that's.
I feel very fortunate, I feelvery blessed in that way, for
sure.
Speaker 1 (41:16):
And, like I mentioned in the beginning, before you
went out live, the fact that youdo have grassroots and a lot of
different promotional companiesyou could go with, but this is
one company that's, you know,made up of musicians and radio
people, and to have that thosetwo people, or those two groups
of people working together, justmakes it for everybody
(41:38):
understands what's going on.
You know what I mean right.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
I mean it's, you know .
You know you're really only asgood as your team and you know
you can.
You can be writing good thingsor putting good, you know music
out and if you don't have theright team to put it in the
right hands to get the exposurethat you need, then you know,
unfortunately it just sits andit gets lost.
And you know it's.
I mean, these days we live in aworld that is more accessible to
(42:04):
musicians than it ever has been, but it's also very easy to get
lost you know, in the sea ofmusic, you know, and it's these
days we, we, we work on fightingthe algorithm you know what I
mean and using it to ouradvantage.
And I think, if you don't haveprofessionals, that that's what
they do all day long.
(42:24):
It's, it's difficult, you know,I do.
I think it's difficult.
So you know, grass rootspromotion has been fantastic.
They I have people helping mewith streaming.
I think it's difficult, so youknow, grassroots promotion has
been fantastic.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
They.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
I have people helping me with streaming.
I have people helping me get itout on radio.
I have, you know, mentorsessions with Nancy, who you
meant, you know that youmentioned, and you know it's.
It's great to have thoseopportunities to be pushed and
to get really positive feedbackon.
You know what's good, whatcould be better.
(42:55):
You know direction, you knowand just really have it a
well-rounded attack, becausethat's what it kind of takes to
get to the next level.
Speaker 1 (43:03):
Those are the people that know how to do it.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
Right, yeah, I know Absolutely, they can tackle a
certain situation as well.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
If they're not so happy with something, they're
going to tell you, but they'regoing to tell you how you could
do it better.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Yeah, it's a very positive experience.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
You know and you understand I mean it's, it's one
of those things that you knownot all songs that you send down
the pipeline are going to be,you know like you're not going
to keep them.
You know there's a lot thatgets left on the cutting room
floor.
You know, and that's you know.
Like you write something like Iwrote a song, this morning and I
sent it to Nancy and you know,thankfully she likes it, you
(43:38):
know, and I I.
But you know, sometimes youwrite things and you're super
excited about it and then youlisten to them two weeks later
and you're like yeah, that's,you know certain things.
Speaker 1 (43:52):
Yeah, that sucks, you know.
So that happens.
So I do some voiceover work andit's like, oh, this is great,
and I'll give it a little time,I'll go do something, then come
back and give it a listen and go.
That really sucked.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, it can be sad, but true, you know.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
I know it's so true.
You know you're so awesome tochat with.
I know we haven't met beforetill tonight, but to be able to
talk about you, to talk aboutyour music and where it's going
and the team that's behind you,and I'm a little jealous that
you're in the panhandle ofFlorida, but yeah, I know, roll
the eyes, go ahead All right, Ilove New York, new York.
Speaker 2 (44:26):
I was born there.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
I still love New York .
Well, do you love the snow?
You lived in a Swigo.
You got the wind off of LakeOntario, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:35):
Snowball, I mean snow belt action.
Um, yeah, so you know we, wecould cross country ski out our
back door.
I remember that as a kid.
Um, you know snowmobiles.
I mean, you know my favoritememory, my grandmother is still
around at 98.
And yeah, she's awesome.
(45:02):
But I like, one of my favoritememories as a kid is her like
jumping the snowmobile.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Like you know, like them, like having you know like
yeah, yeah, mounds of snow andmy grandmother, my little tiny
grandmother, like jumping thesnowmobile.
Speaker 2 (45:11):
I mean it's a family affair.
I mean everybody was out on asnowmobile or skiing or you know
.
I mean you just the funcontinues outside.
It doesn't matter if there'ssnow.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
So I'll tell you that yesterday we got to 81 degrees.
Speaker 2 (45:23):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (45:25):
It was 70.
What's the temperature there?
Speaker 2 (45:28):
Oh, it's been in the 80s, but it's been a little bit
cooler the past week or so.
It's actually been nice.
We've had a little bit of abreak.
But yeah, I mean, it'sbeautiful.
Not going to lie, I like it.
I like it a lot.
I'm sort of enjoying being alittle bit of a beach bum.
(45:50):
I try to go to the beach everymorning that I'm home in.
Florida.
Do you walk the beach everymorning that I'm home in?
Yeah, I take my dog, so I haveum, we have two dogs and okay I
try to take my dog every morningto the beach.
He's become a beach guy so whatkind of dog?
Uh, we have two.
We have a mini aussie uh, who's14 taylor like the guitar.
And then, uh, we have a vishla.
(46:11):
I don't know if you know whatthose are.
It's a hungarian pointer and, uh, they're kind of like a like a
german short hair, exceptthey're the red color um, okay
yeah, so he's a big like running, walking, hiking, busy kind of
guy and uh, so he and I go everymorning, you know, for a few
miles, and uh, um, his name iscash I know, but did you just
(46:33):
say miles?
Speaker 1 (46:35):
yeah, how many miles do you walk, is that?
Speaker 2 (46:38):
like at least three in the morning.
Yeah, like you know, at leastthree, sometimes more if we have
time, you know and it's quiettime of the year where the
beaches aren't crowded.
Yeah, it's.
It does get busy here for sure,and we're still in the
honeymoon stage of this area.
So you know all the locals arelike like they're waiting for
(46:59):
fall or you know they're.
You know, get kind of over itwhen it gets really busy and you
know there's lines and stuffwhere like hey, you know what?
Speaker 1 (47:11):
We don't care.
Like you know, we are stillkind of tourists, you know so
we're okay with it.
Speaker 2 (47:16):
All right, it's all right enjoy it can I ask what
does your husband do?
He's a builder.
Um, so yeah, he's a, uh like acarpenter and builder and
there's work just about any.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
Wherever he goes, he can get work.
Speaker 2 (47:24):
That's awesome, yeah so he's uh did a lot of his
specialty is kind of oldhistoric homes like Victorian
homes and but he he doeseverything.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Does he watch this old house?
Speaker 2 (47:38):
He did, yeah, and you know he watches a lot of
YouTube stuff, you know.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Yes, I mean come on.
Speaker 2 (47:46):
Yeah, he's one of those annoying people in the
sense that he can watch YouTubevideo about anything and then go
do it.
You know what I mean?
He just has that kind of mindthat, yeah, it's super cool.
I am not that person, but it iscool.
He can build just aboutanything if he studies how to do
(48:06):
it, so it comes in very handy.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
It does.
I'm sure it does.
Kimberly Burke.
She's a musician.
You can go online, google hername, get her music.
It's on all the platforms.
It's the way it is.
It's on all the platforms.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
It's on all the platforms and I'm sorry to
interrupt you Social media.
I have to put in the plug.
Skip.
Social media is KimberlyBurkeB-U-R-K-E dot music.
You can find me on any of those.
If you want to follow me, itwould be great.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Kimberly Burke dot music.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (48:40):
You're so sweet.
Good luck to you.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Oh, thank you.
Thanks so much for having me.
I really appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (48:45):
No, 100%.
I just love talking to peoplelike you.
I look forward to saying helloin person.
February will be here beforeyou know it.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
You know I've been going to CRS for probably 25, 30
years, so it's, you know, it'salways new people, you get to
say hello and all the good stuff.
So I look forward to that.
It's a great opportunity foryou as an artist as well,
because there's a ton of radiopeople, there's a ton of execs,
there's just anybody.
That's anybody is there.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah, no, I'm excited , it'll be great and it would be
super cool to see you, sothanks.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
Yeah, absolutely, we can hang out in bar lines in the
Omni.
Speaker 2 (49:21):
All right, I'll show you about Damiana.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (49:25):
Don't give me shit face.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I'll be like bad influence, I know.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
It's a podcast, I can say that.
Um, very good.
Kimberly burke, thanks forjoining us here tonight and skip
happens.
It's just a pleasure talking toyou.
I love the music.
Um, I expect to hear a wholelot more and I know I'm gonna
like it, so I just I can't wait.
Keep me posted.
You say you got the new onecoming out in february.
Yeah, um, let's do this again.
We get a little bit closer.
(49:51):
I'll let shannon or nancy knowthat I definitely want to do
this again.
We get a little bit closer.
I'll let Shannon or Nancy knowthat I definitely want to do
this, or you could put a plug inas well.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
That would be great.
Thanks so much.
Speaker 1 (50:01):
Absolutely, so stay right there.
I just want to thank everybodyfor watching and don't forget to
subscribe to Skip Happens.
There's a whole lot of these onthere, from the newest artist
to a, a very well establishedartist, and some of those that
have been around a long, long,long long time.
It's pretty cool.
It's pretty cool.
I'm just saying it's prettycool.
So, anyways, thanks for joiningus everybody.
Stay right there, kimberly anduh, good night.
(50:22):
Thanks for having us on skiphappens podcast.
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