'Curiosity has become my superpower': Kelleigh Bannen enjoys a star-making country moment

Kelleigh Bannen's modern-era country music stardom is predicated on having no fewer than three different lines of work to make a living.

The post-COVID-19 quarantine era has seen unprecedented commercial and social patterns emerging for country music's star-making future. However, the most profound leap of late has arrived in the form of independent-minded female singer-songwriters operating within but without country's traditions.

Head to Nashville's Wedgewood-Houston neighborhood to find one of them — veteran mainstream country performer and Apple Music Radio broadcaster Bannen.

The Nashville native spoke to The Tennessean while taking a break from her frenetic schedule as an independent country artist with a new single ("I Know Better Now") and redefined dreams that equate critical acclaim and economic sustainability with crossover stardom and global appeal.

"Having as many personal and professional outlets creates touchpoints for achieving as many successful creative and social impacts as possible," Bannen says.

In short, it appears as if her pursuit of country music acclaim has led her back to herself.

Before finding herself 15 years into a "10-year town," Bannen was an overachieving, childhood violinist and graduate of the private Ensworth School and Harpeth Hall in Belle Meade, plus an aspiring law school student at the University of Virginia.

A deviation in her career path via Christian music into country found her signed to EMI Records for five years during the 2010s. The era defined by Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood was not ideal for Bannen, who more than anything is driven by writing through, not to, her lived-in realities.

What label executives saw as an artist unwilling to be streamlined is instead one of the genre's most dynamic, involved, and vivid thinkers.

"There's a difference between being distracted and having a hunger for avenues for greater success," Bannen says. "In every industry — music included — we no longer have the luxury of single-occupation careers."

Bannen's latest release has benefitted from her work as a broadcaster and podcast host for the past decade. In 2015, she started her blog-turned-podcast "This Nashville Life."

The outlet allowed her focused and practical demeanor to shine, as did the fearless vulnerability she cultivated as a singer-songwriter after the death of her brother Grant from a drug overdose in 2008 and a half-brother, Shawn, a year later.

Her lifelong interest in acts as diverse as Garth Brooks and the Chicks to Lauryn Hill always interested her in preserving '90s-era evolutions in the timelessness of inherently personal singer-songwriter work.

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Being hired by Apple Music Radio in 2020 allowed a fascinating thing to occur. The storyteller set upon a career path that allowed her nearly 800 podcast episodes over eight years to blend her relentless creativity with listening to country's broadest-appealing era ever.

On her broadcasts (which are radio shows airing live on Apple Music Country but then become available on-demand on Apple Music and Apple Podcasts), she has talked to a who's who of the genre, including Warner Music executive Cris Lacy, hit songwriter-producers like Shane McAnally, and stars such as Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Luke Combs, Eric Church, Ashley McBryde, Miranda Lambert and Luke Bryan.

"Curiosity has become my superpower," Bannen says.

Curiosity, but at what cost?

Bannen took the job with Apple Music as she had just passed the imaginary decadelong "expiration date" for success in Nashville. She feared it would signal to Nashville that she had ceased being creative as a studio-ready mainstream country performer.

"I was filled with self-doubt and shame that people would think I threw in the (metaphorical) towel."

She hasn't.

Given what she's learned since evolving her learning curve from traditional Nashville singer-songwriter norms, Bannen's thoughts about "I Know Better Now" resonate differently.

"I've never been more moved by a lyric I've heard or seen in Nashville," she says. "The song knows me and my healing path better than I know it myself. It expresses everything I could want to say about this season of my life most perfectly and beautifully."

In a poignantly phrased performance of the Logan Wall-written song, Bannen sings: "I learned time works like a medicine / Your scars are the evidence / That whatever's in the past is irrelevant."

"Holding onto the many fears and insecurities I've had about my failures and successes with a white-knuckle grip made me lose sight of the power of authentic and honest performance and songwriting," Bannen says.

She cites being lost in a web of introspective confusion coupled with concerns about the music industry's commercial expectations and dealing with being happily married but having to sell her truck and list her home on Airbnb for a sustainable income.

"Accepting that we're all super messy people and not begrudging myself about that fact put me in an ideal creative and personal space," Bannen says. "Couple that with accepting a job (with Apple Music) that eases my load as an independent artist and gives me the confidence to make music that moves myself and others consistently.

"Yes, I've arrived where I currently am as a happy accident. But now, aided by the foresight of understanding the potential of my future somewhat, I feel able to chase the feeling of being filled with the pure love of the privileged blessing of this magical moment in my life."

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Kelleigh Bannen's talent shines on new single 'I Know Better Now'