INTRODUCTION | FROM SARAH
I have to admit that in the past I too have been a part of unacceptable trend of under appreciating female country signers. It has not been until recently that I have realized the prolific and overwhelming amount of talent that the women of country music have to offer and now a days these artists rock my country music lovin’ world.
Back Pocket Talk holds a special place for me due to the fact that it offers Megan and I a way to show our support for the women of country and do our part to offer a platform for more fans to be exposed to these talented singers and songwriters.
For our second addition of Back Pocket Talk we had the honor of catching up with Kalie Shorr.
To be honest I had no idea what to expect. Although I was familiar with her work I have to (shamefully) admit that I had never religiously stalked her insta stories or delved into her bio or backstory. After chatting with her for about an hour this last Tuesday and throwing all kinds of off the wall questions her way – keep reading to find out what they are – I can officially say that I am now just as obsessed with her as I was with her music.
She is not only an incredible advocate for female empowerment she is also just down right cool. I was impressed by how driven and confident she was for someone of her age and how much conviction she had for supporting the female movement; when I was 23 all I cared about was which bar I was going to that weekend. So, if you’re like I was and have been missing out on the awesomeness that is Kalie Shorr you need to not only keep reading to find out what all the hype is about but go immediately follow her and download her new EP – she is absolutely an artist you want to have on your radar! #letthegirlsplay
KALIE SHORR | QUICK BIO
Kalie Shorr was born and raised in Portland, Maine where she was the youngest of seven. She started writing songs and playing the guitar from a young age and gained her first performance experiences singing in a rock cover band. At the age of 19 she moved to Nashville to pursue a music career as she had always seen herself writing and performing country music. She landed a spot on the weekly Monday night songwriters showcase Song Suffragettes which raised her profile in Music City and helped to gain exposure for Shorr.
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BACK POCKET TALK WITH KALIE SHORR
- BBC S: Sarah
- BBC M: Megan
- KS: Kalie Shorr
BBC M: You are a part of the Song Suffragettes. Tell us more about the Monday night shows and your involvement?
KS: So I started playing with the Song Suffragettes at the very first show in 2014. We started it because as you have might of realized there is not enough women on country radio and they weren’t getting to the very top level of country music as the women did in the 90’s when I was growing up like Shania, Faith, Reba and Sarah Evans. So we wanted to give women in Nashville a place for them to play their songs and a place to be heard during a time when they were feeling like they weren’t getting heard at all.
Our first show we had around 15 people in attendance and its grown to sell out almost every night that we play. We play every Monday and we have had some really amazing girls play. It is where I have met a lot of my friends and even my tour mate, RaeLynn, so it has been a really great experience for me and it has made me a better performer having a place to play ever week in Nashville. It has also made me a better writer through meeting all of these amazing girls to write with and learn how to write from them. On top of all of that it has made me a better women with meeting so many other women and being conscious of being supportive and not tearing each other down.
BBC M: Are there any other writer’s rounds that are like that in Nashville?
KS: There is a couple; one stand out one is called Girls of Nashville. However it is more of a seasonal show. They definitely highlight female musicians but not a specific emphasis on country music. They include a lot of pop artsits as well and they are amazing. I go to all of their shows as well.
BBC M: Tell us a little bit about the Times Up song and the Female cover hitting the internet. I will be honest my first introduction to the Song Suffragettes were these songs especially because I do not live in Nashville.
KS: Times Up was inspired one night while I was at my friend Kim Paige‘s house, who was also featured on Times Up, we were all watching the Golden Globes, and she had us all wear black to stand in solidarity with the women in Hollywood. As we were sitting there, a bunch of girls who were either singer/songwriters or in the industry and being really struck by the speeches that night and the red carpet interviews and the images of the women wearing all black, it was just absolutely beautiful.
So I wrote the song with another Song Suffragette (Lacy Green) a couple days later and we got 23 girls to sing on it. It was really cool that we got it done so quickly because everyone was so enthusiastic about it. The Female cover was something that really showed what we were capable of by getting all of the girls together to record one song and getting someone to record the video. So Female I really feel like set up the ground work for something like Times Up.
BBC S: Speaking of female solidarity tell us about an influential female in your life?
KS: My mom has been super influential in my life. She raised me by herself and is a breast cancer survivor. I got to give her a little bit of a shout out in my song Fight Like a Girl but she just never ever once raised me to believe that being a girl is a bad thing or that we couldn’t do anything less because I was a women.
I never even realized how unfairly women were treated until I moved to Nashville because I grew up in such a supportive environment and she was never trying to hold me back. As I have gotten older I have realized not everyone’s mom is that way so I feel very lucky to have her be supportive and with everything she has gone through in her and how she has always maintained a lot optimism. As much as I talk about how hard it is for girls I want to always have that hope and not to be ever negative about it.
BBC S: I just have to ask, I know you have a bunch of siblings, do you have a good mix of boys & girls?
KS: I have three brothers and three sister. My family is very Brady Bunch and we are all over the place.
BBC M: What is the most trouble you have gotten in with your mom growing up?
KS: As a kid, I snuck out a lot. I wouldn’t even do anything horribly bad I would just go sit outside. We lived right near the beach so I would sneak out and go to the beach in the middle of the night. So one time, I had this red wig, I don’t know why because I have red hair… but I stuffed my bed with pillows and put the red wig on the pillow and I got a call from my mom at 3:00 AM and she was really upset until she realized I was out there not even doing anything terrible. Literally just sitting outside on the beach probably writing a song. I got in pretty big trouble for that one though. I was always pretty sneaky.
BBC S: Scenario – You are broken down in your tour bus, in the middle of nowhere. For some reason you only have one album and there isn’t any service out there… AAA does not exist… which album would you wish it to be?
KS: Either Fly by the Dixie Chicks or Everything You Want by Vertical Horizon. They are one of my favorite bands ever.
BBC S: Your tagline on instagram “country singer still recovering from her emo phase” we want to throw it back… what is your favorite emo band?
KS: I literally just bought a Fall Out Boy shirt today for their new album Mania. But I also really love Paramore. Those were my two favorites back in the day. Hayley Williams is queen. They are the type of bands that you put them on and it immediately takes you back. I was literally screaming in the van to All I Wanted the other day.
BBC M: So you mention Paramore and Fall Out Boy, we want to know about your other early influences in music?
KS: My first ever concert was the Dixie Chicks with Michelle Branch opening up at Madison Square Garden in New York City. I still have not been to better show but that show, I remember watching and being so abstract and thinking about how cool it would be to do that every night. It was such a huge show, the lights were amazing and it was just absolutely incredible. I feel like you can trace my sound back to that very first show. I listen to Michelle and the Dixie Chicks record so much that they both have to be two of my biggest earliest influences.
BBC S: Do you have any random things that you collect?
KS: I keep all of my All Access lanyard from all of the shows or festivals that I play. I also keep all of the red carpet and backstage for every show.
BBC M: Congratulations on CMT Next Women of Country. Such an honorable line up to be a part of with Sara Evans and RaeLynn.
Which leads us to our next question, if you were to have anyone… any genre… alive or dead on a tour with you, who would you choose? Three acts? You are the fourth act.
KS: Okay I would go girl power; Dixie Chicks, Paramore, Cardi B. I want to hit every genre and have them represented. I mean who wouldn’t want to go that tour?
BBC M: Would there be a specific city on that “dream tour” that you would have to include?
KS: Yes. We have to go to New York City. No tour is complete without New York. But this past summer I played a show in Newport Beach, California and that has become one of my favorite places on earth. Any chance I have to get back to Newport I would be there. That area is my fav.
BBC M: When was your last “Pinch Me Moment”?
KS: Literally this entire last week on tour. It was the first run of the CMT Next Women of Country tour and I get to go out and not only sing with RaeLynn every night for her encore but also RaeLynn and Sara Evans. Just being out on stage with two women that I look up to is a pinch me moment. I would listen to Sara growing up with my allowance money and I have always thought RaeLynn was the coolest. Getting up on stage every night and then the times where I look out in the crowd and I see my best friend from middle school and then my mom, I had to stop and think “What is even happening right now?!”
BBC S: Being a touring artist now… what are you the essential items that you like to pack on your carry on for flights?
KS: I always bring a book and I must have my ear buds that block out all of the noise. They are super small so you can just shove them in your pocket. I also bring a roller ball of perfume because who knows how quickly you are going to have rush off somewhere after traveling.
BBC S: So on this topic, I have been instagram stalking you and you pretty much have #hairgoals. What is your “Holy Grail” hair Product?
KS: I love the whole “Not Your Mothers” line. They sell it at Ulta and I am a big animal supporter and I love anything that has not been tested on them. Their entire line is cruelty free and it also works really well. I love their dry shampoos, their root sprays and they also have this dry texture spray that is absolutely amazing. Being that they are $5 they are that much more amazing.
BBC M: Black Panther is out in the theaters – I am personally obsessed with Michael B. Jordan who is the bad guy in the movie – if you could be any VILLAIN in any movie who would you like to be?
KS: I love that you ask this because I am literally going to see Black Panther tonight. It is the last thing I am doing in town before tour. As far as villain… I would honestly be like Margot Robbie. I have such a girl crush on her and I know I would like to be Harley Quinn. I mean i already kind of dress like Harley Quinn to go to the grocery store so that would make most sense. I am a huge super hero person.
BBC M: Well what super hero would you want to be?
KS: Wonder Women… obviously. I want to be Wonder Women and I want to date Super Man. They would make such pretty babies.
BBC S: 2018 is looking like to be a strong year with the growth of “Awake” and abundance of shows coming up; is there anything on the horizon your fans should be on the lookout for?
KS: I am just really excited for more tour dates. We are just finishing up CMT Next Women of Country and that ends in April but I am involved some other stuff as well. I am just taking the time to own that show with the full band and have a lot of fun. So I would say keep an eye out for more tour dates.
BBC S: Being so into fashion, how do you like to rock a bandana?
KS: I am a big fan of a bandana around the neck as like a choker. So that is always a go-to but I also love throwing my hair up in a messy bun and Rosie the Riveter look. I love them in pastel colors.
BBC M: This is Back Pocket Talk; do you have any talents that you like to pull out of back pocket every once in a while?
KS: Oh yes girl. So my Karaoke song is Waterfalls by TLC and I can do the rap. It is literally one of my favorite songs ever. I was at a Christmas party guitar pull with Charlie Worsham and Frankie Ballard this last December. I was a bit starstruck and didn’t want to sing one of my own songs so us three sang Waterfalls all together. Mickey Guyton was also there and she was jumping in on harmony and it was just super fun. So that is my one and only back pocket party trick.
BBC S: Your EP Awake was released just about a month ago, what song do you most enjoy singing live and why?
KS: I think my favorite to play live is Cool Kids because that song impacted the whole project for me. I wrote it as a song for haters. It was first time doing that and it is for all the people who say “oh you aren’t country or I don’t like what you do,” and it just got to the point on this project that I love what I was making so much that I don’t care if anyone else likes it. That should be the goal in life for yourself with your work, that you realize that all that matters is that you enjoy it.
So it has been really fun to play that song every night. My fans have really great stories in how it has applied to their life and how they have needed something like Cool Kids to help find within themselves to be happy. Also to not listen to the people who are trying to put them down and it was really cool to see them singing along which has further made me love this song that much more because it means so much to me.
BBC M: What is your message to young women in the world?
KS: I feel really lucky that my first single was Fight Like A Girl because I got the opportunity to talk about feminism and girl power really openly as opposed to beating in over people’s heads during interviews about the topics. I got the chance to explain what the song was about so it gave me this platform and now with everything I do I want to honor that mentality. I want to stay true to it and practicing what I preach because you are only as good as how you actually apply that to your life.
My message can be found in my music but it is all about empowerment and finding it in yourself to pick yourself up. I grew up in a rougher neighborhood, with not a lot of money and a single mom; it is important for girls and boys to know that you can be from anywhere and do anything if you have the right attitude and you don’t let people put you down.
BLUE BANDANA COUNTRY | SONG SELECTION
Megan’s Choice | Fight like a Girl | Written by Kalie Shorr, Lena Stone & Hailey Steele
There will come a time in life that the assumptions of others might make us feel inferior but rather it should empower us. Fight Like a Girl is a perfect anthem to play if you ever begin to question your strength as a female. Kalie had released this song as her first single and it remains to be a amazing product of her early work. As we got to know her in our interview and what this song is a testament to, it now more than ever is my favorite.
Sarah’s Choice| Who What When Where Why
“Who What When Where Why” is my Kalie Shorr anthem. It’s melodic, bluesy and a little dark which I really love. It highlights her pop and rock influences while still sticking true to the storytelling roots of country music, which makes it transcend classic genre constraints. It takes me back to the days of blasting Paramore in my car singing at the top of my lungs- aka some of my best memories ever! So for me this song has it all and is one that will stay on heavy rotation for a very long time.
TO KALIE FROM BBC
Thank you for taking the time this last week to answer all of our questions. We hope to catch up with you soon and we were so thrilled to have you as our second interview for the Blue Bandana Country “Back Pocket Talk.” We hope to continue down this journey and preach empowerment to all females and can’t wait to share this beginning with talented and powerful women like yourself.
TO BBC FOLLOWING
Y’all – if you aren’t in love with this girl… I don’t know what to tell you. To keep that incentive going I have made an Apple Music playlist and Spotify playlist that coincide perfectly with this interview. I mean… Kalie Shorr combined with Cardi B, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, RaeLynn, Song Suffragettes, etc… what more could you want on a Tuesday?
Apple Music – Kalie Shorr Back Pocket Talk Playlist
Spotify – Coming Soon…
Don’t forget to follow Kalie on social media and to check out her music!
YouTube | Instagram | Apple Music | Twitter | Facebook | Sound Cloud
Thank you for tuning into our second Back Pocket Talk!
Peace, Love, Champagne & Cali Kisses
Sarah & Megan
Blue Bandana Country 
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