Rising Stars: Meet Kaitlin Walker of Nashville

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kaitlin Walker

Hi Kaitlin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I began singing when I was 3 years old. My father bought a karaoke machine back when karaoke was a brand new thing, and I learned how to read on the karaoke machine by the words to my favorite songs lighting up. As I grew up, I never lost my passion of singing. In fact, it grew like crazy. I knew that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I lost my Dad when I was 16, but had a super supportive family with my Mom and my step dad, Tom. We were extremely close and they helped enter me in contests or anything that could help this passion When I was 17, I moved to Nashville, TN by myself to purse the real dream of making it “big”. I went to college for sound engineering here in Nashville at SAE. I got my first record deal when I was 21, and that label folded when I was 24. I have been lucky enough to have done countless tours opening for some pretty big artists like Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, Montgomery Gentry, Diamond Rio, Jason Aldean, etc. Today I am still writing, recording and singing – and doing some of my favorite things I have ever been lucky enough to do – a lot of USO and MCCS tours, where I travel around the world and support our troops by entertaining them with my band. We have been on 9 tours and counting to places like Tokyo, Okinawa, Doha, Honduras, Guantanamo Bay, Bahrain, Djibouti, and more coming in 2025! My Dad, who has also since passed away, was a Marine and I know he’d be very proud of this. We’re about to head to Jordan in March and I have a brand new song releasing next Friday the 14th called “The 90’s” – it’s a fun pop punk song all that will bring you back if you also grew up in the 90’s.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Lots of struggles along the way. I have had 2 record deals and lost them both – one due to the label folding and one due to them shelving the band. I have had many personal stories that make you believe people in the music industry can be cruel, but not everyone is like that! It’s an expensive industry as well, and when you’re funding it on your own, there can be hard times. The point of struggles is to grow and learn and don’t let them make you anything but stronger and better.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a singer/songwriter in Nashville, TN from Bloomington, Indiana. I have been singing since I was 3 years old. I write all kinds of songs, but I think my specialty is country/rock and I like to toss some humor in there. I think anyone should be most proud of going after their dreams, because it takes some real courage to do that. I am extremely passionate about music – I love ALL kinds of music. Something that could set me apart is you will never hear just one cookie-cutter genre from me. However I feel, that’s right I write.

Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
After Covid I lost my day job and did music 1000000% full time. I had always done music pretty much full-time, but this was interesting because it forced my hand to really dive deep and continue to press forward doing music as a full time career, in arguably the most difficult times to do so. Nothing was open! I can only speak for myself of course, but I think we all learned a little about creativity during that time with getting our music out there.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kaitlinwalkermusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intoxikaitlin/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaitlinwalkermusic