Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Garner.
Hi Kelly, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mother started me singing at a young age, in local pageants, being the entertainment for pageants, singing in church at First Baptist Piedmont, AL & all-day-singing events at Mt. Olive Baptist on Sand Mountain in Alabama. I moved to Nashville in 1990 to pursue a Commercial Music (voice) degree at Belmont University after completing a Math Education degree at Auburn University. With my background, I started singing in sessions in Nashville immediately & soon landed the gig as a back-up vocalist for the Ray Stevens & Marie Osmond TV show, that turned into more session work with the Bev Darnell Singers. Then, I was singing a solo in church one Sunday when David T. Clydesdale & Bob McKenzie both came to me after the service & said they wanted to help me. They both called the same record company President that Monday & I was soon signing a record deal with George King at Diadem Music Group. He set me up to write with renown songwriting legend & publisher, Niles Borop, owner of Centergy Music group. The album was produced by myself & Ben Tankard, first producer for Yolanda Adams. After releasing the record in 1995 & touring for a year, my grandparents house burned down & we lost them in March of 1996. My mother was on a trip with me in Mississippi & we got a call one morning at 4:30am that the house was burning, so we drove back knowing they might be gone. I lived with mom & dad in AL for 2 years while we grieved together. In 1998, I came back to Nashville & built a home in Franklin. I immediately went to see Niles Borop & he immediately offered me a publishing deal with Centergy. I wrote for him for 5 years, penning songs like “I Stand Redeemed” for Legacy Five & “My God Will Always Be Enough” for Karen Peck, “Stand & Testify” for Vestal Goodman & the Martins & “God Will Provide” for groups like Greater Vision, Triumphant Quartet & Gold City. I also got many other songs recorded by groups like The Talleys, Brian Free & Assurance, The Perry’s & Joseph Habedank. I started my own publishing company, Yellow Tree Music Group in 2003 & built a recording studio, Big Dog Recording Studios in 2005. I taught Commercial Voice for Belmont from 2001-2005 & then took a hiatus to do music industry work & scored a short 15-minute short film, “Banana Bread” which was nominated in a few festivals. I then moved to Miami in 2011 to pursue a doctorate of musical arts (D.M.A.) in Jazz Performance (Voice) with a cognate in Music Technology & graduated with honors in 2014. My dissertation “Vocal Recording Techniques for the Modern Digital Studio” is in the Miami Repository, downloaded across the world as a reference. I then taught again at Belmont from 2014-2019, before moving to Union University in Jackson, TN, to build their Commercial Music program, get it accredited, along with a masters in Music Technology (M.A). I left Union after designing & building an on campus recording studio to be with my sick mother till she passed in October of 2022. I released a new artist recording in 2023, which is still releasing singles now in 2026. After my Daddy passed in April of 2025, I enrolled in graduate school at Auburn University for one semester of graduate work in Mathematics and made all A’s (Deans list) as a challenge & distraction. After getting through some difficult times, I am now back into the songwriting, publishing & recording artist business….where it all began….as well as traveling & managing family properties. The music industry career has been a fascinating journey & is on-going as I continue to be an entrepreneur and true “voyager!” I am also now writing scripts about mine & mother’s life adventures & am beginning to work them into movies for film & tv. I basically want to finish well!….do all that God requires of me…until he takes me home.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
e of the photos uploaded is when I was a back-up singer for Gloria Estefan while living in Miami.
Another photo is Mom & I at an Auburn game.
Dad & I, photos of performances, album covers from 1995 & 2023. Choir being recorded at OceanWay Studios, me mom & dad in Miami, logos. Hope those give you plenty.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Math degrees & graduate work in Music & Math, Doctorate in Jazz Performance
Pricing:
- $175/hr for voice
- Vocal & Songwriting seminars, various prices
- Studio day rates
- Property rentals Airbnbs at Auburn & PCB
- Songwriting coaching $175/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kellygarner.com
- Instagram: kellygarnermusic
- Facebook: kellygarnermusic
- LinkedIn: kellygarnermusic
- Twitter: kellygarnermusic
- Youtube: kellygarnermusic
