Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Lyon.
Hi Katie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m from a small town called Alta, Iowa – Population 2087. There I was raised by a distant father and a hardworking mother until we picked up and moved to Naples, FL in 1999.
I didn’t play music then, I played sports. I rode motorcycles, I climbed trees, I played video games – kid stuff. But all the while I was singing.
I came into songwriting completely by accident. No one in my family is a musician. They hardly know what the term genre means. However, I’ve always loved to sing and write.
I played college basketball at Florida Gulf Coast University but ended that early to pursue an internship for a record label in Nashville. I’d never been to music city and didn’t know a soul there, but I was going.
I had $600 to my name. My mom drove me up to Tennessee and got me settled in an apartment in Bellevue the day after Christmas in 2013. I was 15 minutes from Broadway and a million miles from home.
I hated everything about the corporate music industry, including my internship. So instead of working for musicians, I became one. I learned guitar on YouTube and started playing my songs at Nashville open mics. My favorite back then was Douglas Corner’s Tuesday night jam. Shout out to my pal, Donnie Winters who ran the show!
After realizing that I had a lot to learn, I set out to leave Nashville. I moved around a lot in search of myself and my sound. I moved back in 2016 for a brief time and still frequent music city several times a year. I’ve cut two records independently along with a few singles. Some of these were recorded at forty-one fifteen Recording Studio in Nashville and Juniper Recordings in Cape Coral, FL.
Although I haven’t had a home base in years, my new home in Charleston is proving to be a very inclusive scene. Shout out to my pal Foxy G and the songwriters’ soapbox at Chico Feo!
I am a BMI songwriter, an NSAI member, and an independent musician. New records and a local projects are on the horizon for me here in Charleston, SC!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Learning who to trust in the music industry is tough. Sticking to your guns is even tougher. But the hardest struggle for me as a musician has been losing my mom to breast cancer in 2020. As moms are, she was my biggest fan. Moving on and creating has been tough without her. During her chemo treatments in 2019, I stayed in FL with her. I worked with Caleb Neff at Juniper Recordings and we created my latest record “Some Things Take Time”.
I didn’t know it then, but I’d only have my mom around for a few more months. I’d record with Caleb during the day and come home and show my mom what we had done. Those are special moments that I will never forget – headphones on the couch with her after a long day in the studio. Knowing that I won’t get to do that again is by far my hardest struggle when creating more music, but as Julie would say “The show must go on”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
First and foremost, I’m a songwriter. But I’m also a traveling musician.
My bread and butter is storytelling.
I occupy space on the country music scene, but I sound nothing like what you hear on the radio.
I am a queer artist.
I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve been able to accomplish a lot as an artist without backing of a manager, record label, or booking agent. I am my own team.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
A lot of people don’t know that I also work a full-time job as a Performance Consultant. Long story short, I work in business and client relations and started doing this to put my wife through medical school.
Contact Info:
- Email: klyonmusic@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.katielyonmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katielyonmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Katielyonmusic/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJg4JfDcw_8yutwobhj43GA
Image Credits
Jesi Cason Photography
