Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Kim McLean.
Hi Dr. Kim, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I moved to Nashville from my hometown, Greensboro, N.C. to write songs. My husband was a carpenter, and our two daughters were in pre-school at that time, so it was an exciting adventure for our little family. I’d written about 100 songs when we moved and had alot of musical training, so I was ready! I wrote Country and Christian songs. The big challenge was my shy nature, which made it difficult to go to events, but I was pretty good at one-on-one meetings. Next challege: I didn’t know anyone.
I have always found that when you want something badly enough, and you say yes to the dream that is calling you, things have a curious way of lining up. My step-mother worked at an ad agency in Greensboro and knew a guy who knew a guy who worked for an ad agency in Nashville who went to church with a guy in the music industry. Whew! Crazy. I was able to get a meeting with the ad agency guy in Nashville, so I marched in with my guitar and asked if he’d listen. He said, “I know nothing about the music industry, but I think you’re pretty good.” He called his friend from church and that friend became my first publisher.
I thought this might be easy after that serendipitous start, but it wasn’t. It takes more than talent to make it. You need emotional and spiritual support. You need business skills to go along with your musical and writing skills. In many ways I was ready; in many ways I wasn’t. But I had the opportunity to work with some of the best people – best musicians, best companies, best studios – in the business. They helped me in ways I didn’t even realize until I began to understand that it takes a village to build a music career.
My greatest secret and greatest asset, in spite of my limitations, was that I kept writing and I kept growing as a writer. I understood that part. I hungered for that part, to write the stories of people and life and to help the world feel better with a song. Music is so healing. It heals me to write. It heals me to sing, and it is amazing to be part of a music community that is pouring so much creative goodness into the world.
Because of songwriting, I have met some of the most amazing people in the world, travelled everywhere and seen beautiful places. I’ve been able to earn a living doing what I love., and I never take that for granted. I love being a performing songwriter and I find the stage to be a wonderful way to enjoy a crowd. (I’m no good at small talk, but music connects us).
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My greatest struggle was always understanding the value of my own work. This is a very personal struggle for me, and I think it may be why I love to encourage creatives so much. So many amazing colleagues and mentors of mine encouraged me to keep going and believed in me. I love paying that forward, too.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
THE WORK I DO
Songwriting is my bull’s eye. It’s how I find the center of my heart. So often when I think I’m finding the song to write, I realize it was the song that found me. My strength as a creative is knowing how to listen.
I’ve had seasons in my songwriting career when I was known for “finding the voice of the artist” because I love to intuit what the artist might be feeling and write specifically to their soul-story. But I also think it is important to pay attention to the audiences of the artists for whom you write, and write for them. We give “laboring humanity” a voice by telling their stories in our songs. So I guess you’d say my spirituality has always informed my creativity. I can’t really separate the two. And I don’t mean spirituality only towards God, but spirituality that awakens me to who I am, who you are, what life is, and how all of it is interrelated. Love is everywhere.
Songwriting begins long before you write the first song. It’s learning music, learning an instrument, finding your voice, and filling up with images and stories and words.
PROUD MOMENTS
I wrote with Loretta Lynn from 2018 until she left for Heaven. We wrote her final songs, and in those sessions we shared life stories and songwriting stories. Then we wrote a book to invite everyone into our conversations. It was amazing to work with a “shero” from my youth and realize that we had the same passion for great songs. It’s in the story-telling. She would never let me overthink a lyric, but would tell me, “Just say it how you’d say it, Kimberly.”
I worked with Dolly Parton in the studio once when she sang with me on a song I wrote for my daughters called Angels and Eagles. As with Loretta, it was not only surreal to be working with my “shero”, but SO real because of her bright creative presence.
Two of my songs have been recorded by Bettye LaVette, who is also a dear friend. She is a powerhouse soul and hearing her sing my songs unravels me. I sing them with a kind of veiled uncertainty. Ask me no questions; I’ll tell you no lies. But when Bettye sings them, I am exposed. The songs come full circle.
Every songwriter hopes for the artist who will be their creative twin, who will sing the songs the way you felt them as you wrote them. Two of my now best friends are that for me, Eve Selis and Shana Morrison. Both are California artists, San Diego and San Francisco respectively.
SETS ME APART
I’m so uncomfortable saying that anything sets me apart. I’m left-handed and born on April Fool’s Day. That’s all I got. LOL. As for my work, I try for excellence, to be so great they can’t ignore me, but truthfully I write for the connection not the distinction. Everyone has a voice, a unique voice.
I am a little unusual because I am a reverend and a doctor of education. Rev. Dr. Kim McLean. I am grateful to have fulfilled a second dream of getting more education and of becoming a minister. It all goes hand in hand and all stems from the initial desire to write. Life is good, and keeps presenting me with amazing ways to live it with gratitude. I taught songwriting at Trevecca University just around the corner from Music Row for 17 years while I continued to write and produce music. I left there to tour around a new project, and now I am the pastor of a new church in Nashville called Music City West.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
AI has changed things for the music industry, and created some unsettledness; but it will work out. Nothing can reproduce the human heart and the creative soul. Maybe AI itself is only another expression of who we are and what we can accomplish. I know creatives will use it….creatively! I do have concerns that is could make us creatively lazy and that in 5-10 years there will be much more money for some, and much less originality for all. I tend to trust the integrity of the human race. We shall see.
I should speak as a Pastor now, as well. The Christian Church has been in flux for a while. It has declined, yet there are revivals breaking out globally. I’m not great at telling the future, but for the U.S., I expect an emergence of whole-hearted real deal God loving, people loving faith communities. The idea of “organized religion” will be reframed as a creative expression of love and respect for and through the One in whose image we are created. Fear based faith is giving way to a more biblical faith that reflects Jesus’ ministry and the infinite love of God.
Pricing:
- Donations only for Music City West Church and our creative programs
- Book $25
- CDs $15
- Concerts $500-$5000
- Speaking $500-1000
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kimmclean.com
- Instagram: kimmcleanmusic
- Facebook: kimmclean
- LinkedIn: kimmclean
- Other: https://musiccitywestchurch.com
