Country Music by a Country Girl - Kenna Elpers

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Local Talent Spotlight Kenna Elpers Story & Photos by Guest Writer Jennifer MacKay

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 13- years-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 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.

Dolly Parton is noted as her biggest musical influence and it is a dream of hers to meet Dolly one day. One fan recently met her at a show and presented her with a signed by Dolly photo that is 45-years-old because he felt that Dolly would want a fan like Kenna to have it more.

Listening to Dolly’s story coming from the middle of nowhere and ending up a country music idol inspires Kenna to continue pushing for her own dream. Kenna stated, “It shows if you believe in yourself and work hard enough you will get your dream.” The one thing she wishes for is to meet Dolly Parton one day. Kenna added, “If I could talk to anyone for 30 minutes, it would be Dolly Parton.”

Kenna is a rising star for sure. She is already getting recognized when she visits Nashville, Tennessee as a young celebrity. Her mom told me a story of a time they visited some places in Nashville to listen to some music with the family. They felt they were getting some stares and worried they were in someone’s seat and went to move and were abruptly stopped by a young woman who asked if she was Kenna Elpers. This kicked off a photo session of many fans who were happy to run into this talented young performer they all followed.

The horizon is bright for Ms. Kenna Elpers. She feels so blessed since just a few short years ago she was the one reaching out to venues to play in but the tables have now turned and she is the one being sought out by venues to show off her talent.

Kenna plans to attend college when she graduates high school and has looked at many schools in the Nashville area to follow her dream of being a country music star, while obtaining possibly a degree in music business so she has something to fall back on and to be more knowledgeable in this ever changing industry. She also understands the importance of having a job that you love and wants to see how far she can take her love of music and performing.

Kenna has two quotes that have inspired her continues to live by, “where words fail, music speaks” and “she believed she could, so she did.”

With a budding music career she is definitely holding her own in a hard industry to break into. I have no doubt she will soon be an even bigger star than she already is. She shows a level of maturity that you do not often find in someone her age and she handles it with grace and common sense.

If you would like to book Kenna Elpers for a show, go to her website: http://www.KennaElpers.com or her Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/ kennaelpersmusic .

The local music world recently lost a great young talent. Evan Twitty died in a car accident on February 8th. He was part of the Wood & Wire band and was only 18-years-old. He had great musical talent and will be missed.

Kenna Elpers at the Nesbit Inn

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