L ocal T alent S potlight
Kenna Elpers
Story & Photos by Guest Writer Jennifer MacKay
Kenna Elpers – Local Country Girl in the Country Music World How many 16-year old juniors in high school do you know that can say they have been on the big stage opening for country music stars like Maddie and Tae or Craig Campbell? Well North Posey Junior Kenna Elpers can say that! Kenna Elpers grew up in Southern Indiana’s small town of Cynthiana and is currently a junior at North Posey High School. Many kids her age are worried about dating, parties and other school activities. This girl is too busy booking her next gig! Kenna knew at a very young age that she wanted to be a country music singer. Her family spoke of Kenna at age three singing and making up random songs about anything that crossed her path. Around age six she officially announced to her family that she wanted to be a country music star. Kenna’s instrument of choice is the guitar but recently she started learning the piano as well. Three years ago she started taking guitar lessons from Evansville Musician Chris Tapp when she was just 13years-old and now barely puts her guitar down. When a song comes to mind, she grabs her guitar and goes to work on the rest of the lyrics. Even a big exam won’t stop her. She recalled a time when she was taking a big test at school and lyrics popped into her head. She started scribbling the lyrics down on her test paper and advised her teacher that she would need that back. Although the teacher would not give her back the test to keep, Kenna was allowed to have it back long
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enough to copy down the lyrics she earlier scribbled out. Growing up in a small southern Indiana town and having the full country experience has been a helpful benefit to Kenna’s flourishing career. Her corn field life and family connections in Posey and Gibson counties’ keep her connected and in tune to her southern roots. That in turn comes out in her passion for singing as well as her genre of choice, country music. Kenna is known to perform one, two and sometimes even three times per week on a regular basis. She does this all while juggling school, student council, National Honor Society and volunteering for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization. This leaves her with little time for any other hobbies, but she doesn’t seem to mind because she has made music her life! Her first album was released in 2018 and CDs can be purchased at her shows. Her songs can also be found on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Amazon Music and YouTube. Kenna performs a lot of her original songs as well as many cover songs originated by other artists and plans to roll out more of her original music for her fans and followers in the near future. There are also plans for a second album release, quite possibly this year! Kenna credits her family and musician mentors as her biggest supporters. Specifically her mom is appreciated for being her soundboard for her music, helping her critique her music in a constructive way that really helps Kenna fine tune the finished product.
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March 2020
Small Town Living
