Toby Keith - see artist discography

Brian Kelley "Sunshine State Of Mind" (Warner Records, 2021)
(Produced by Corey Crowder & Brian Kelley)
The first solo album from Brian Kelley, one half of the duo, Florida Georgia Line, which was in the process of breaking up... Tyler Hubbard also went solo, but I ain't heard those album either.

Brian Kelley "Tennessee Truth" (Big Machine Records, 2024)
(Produced by Dann Huff)

Josh Kelley "Georgia Clay" (MCA Nashville, 2011)
Rock-pop songwriter Josh Kelley "went country" on this album -- maybe the fact that his brother Charles's band, Lady Antebellum, has been making bookoo bucks on the Nashville circuit had something to do with the decision to make the big switcheroo... Or maybe there just isn't that big a difference between 21st Century "adult pop" and Nashville Top 40...?? Anyhooo...

Josh Kelley "New Lane Road" (Sugar Hill Records, 2016)

Wayne Kemp - see artist discography

The Kendalls/Jeannie Kendall - see artist discography

Jerry Kennedy - see artist discography

Matt Kennon "Matt Kennon" (Bamajam Records, 2010)
(Produced by James Stroud, et. al)
Growly, tough-guy top country, with a strong rock'n'roll influence. Georgia-born Matt Kennon's style sounds a lot like old Charlie Daniels Band stuff, both musically and thematically, with maybe a bit of John Mellencamp in there as well. Kennon strikes me as a decidedly underwhelming singer, but he does make some of these songs work -- the real issue is really whether or not you're into overwrought redneck-y novelty songs, particularly ones that have marginally redeeming social massages built into them, like "Some People Piss Me Off," where it's not the guy who cuts Kennon off in traffic that ticked him off, but rather deadbeat dads and urban muggers (who he'd like to lynch, if he had a chance...) Another song, "The Call," is even more provocative -- in one verse, a woman is moments away from getting an abortion when her boyfriend phones her to propose (which I guess redeems him for not coming to the clinic in the first place...? Not sure if this is a happy ending, or not. ) This album is full of forced-sounding material, songs that seem corny or overworked. But lots of people like corny stuff, so who knows? Not my cup of tea, though.

Matt Kennon "77" (Roaddawg Records, 2011)

The Kentucky Headhunters - see artist discography

David Kersh "Goodnight Sweetheart" (Curb Records, 1996)
(Produced by Pat McMakin & Steve Tillisch)
Bright, glossy, entirely vapid Nashville country-pop. Catchy and inoffensive, but eminently forgettable. That said, Lone Star loverboy David Kersh scored two #3 hits and several other decent chart entries, so I guess he was doing something right. Included on this album was his super-sappy big hit ballad, "Another You," one of several formulaic, prefab tunes that stand among the blandest of 'Nineties Top Forty twang, credibly in line with similar stuff from the likes of Garth Brooks or George Strait. Kersh was born in a little place called Humble, Texas, which is just about as wonderfully stereotyped a bio entry as a country artist could hope for...

David Kersh "If I Never Stop Loving You" (Curb Records, 1998)
(Produced by Pat McMakin)
This album's title track, "If I Never Stop Loving You," was Kersh's other big hit, also peaking at #3 on the Billboard charts. The other singles didn't do as well, though, falling outside of the Top Twenty. Apparently David Kersh retired from show business due to health problems, and never looked back, releasing these two albums and then fading from the spotlight.

Sammy Kershaw - see artist discography

Hal Ketchum "Threadbare Alibis" (Sawdust Records, 1989)
(Produced by Hal Ketchum & Brian Wood)

Hal Ketchum "Past The Point Of Rescue" (Curb Records, 1991)
(Produced by Allen Reynolds & Jim Rooney)
His Curb Records debut. Goopy, but strangely compelling soft-poppish country. Hal Ketchum (1953-2020) had a Michael Bolton-esque crooner quality, but he was still inherently country, or at least strangely soulful... I guess he's in the same category as Vince Gill, a rootsy fellow who threw in his lot with the sappy romantic ballads market. It's kind of embarrassing to admit, but I could listen to this album more readily than many of the more cluttered pop-country options that have come down the pike since. It's cheesy, but it ain't bad. Includes a kinda groovy slowed-down version of the Vogues' old pop hit, "Five O'Clock World."

Hal Ketchum "Sure Love" (Curb Records, 1992)
(Produced by Allen Reynolds & Jim Rooney)
Pretty soft, and pretty slick, Ketchum croons -- ala Vince Gill -- atop poppy, light arrangements, and yet he has a way of making the material not seem too cloying. Although the bit hits -- the title track, in particular -- are super poppy, and even Kenny Loggins-esque, Ketchum's vocals are still very appealing, and I found all the songs on here very listenable. For variety, there's "Mama Knew The Highway," an upbeat, rollicking trucker tune, and "When The Coast Is Clear," a slinky, blues-laced number that sounds quite a bit like Lyle Lovett's hillbilly lounge-lizard routine. Also noteworthy is the doleful "Daddy's Oldsmobile," and folkish ballad about a family of migrant workers who live in their car. The only track I didn't like was the album's biggest hit, "Hearts Are Gonna Roll," about a young girl who's a bit of a tease -- the music didn't grab me, and the lyrics are a little sexist. But other than that, this is a pretty good album, for the territory.

Hal Ketchum "Every Little Word" (Curb Records, 1994)
(Produced by Allen Reynolds & Jim Rooney)

Hal Ketchum "I Saw The Light" (Curb Records, 1998)
(Produced by Chuck Howard, Steve Bruton & Bob Campbell-Smith)

Hal Ketchum "Awaiting Redemption" (Curb Records, 1999)
(Produced by Steve Bruton & Dan Bosworth)

Hal Ketchum "Lucky Man" (Curb Records, 2001)
(Produced by Rodney Crowell)

Hal Ketchum "The King Of Love" (Curb Records, 2003)
(Produced by Hal Ketchum, Steve Marcantonio & Tony Palacios)
A 1990s "top country" idol who's rebounded with an unusually rootsy, diverse album. Ketchum slips easily from funky New Orleans-style roots ballads to country ballads and Americana-ish acoustic numbers. It's a big question whether there are Nashville-ready radio hits on here, but, hey, if there aren't, more power to Ketchum! This isn't entirely my cup of tea, but it's closer than most of the synthy fluff that's coming out of Music City these days. Worth checking out!

Hal Ketchum "One More Midnight" (Curb Records, 2007)

Hal Ketchum "Father Time" (Curb Records, 2008)
(Produced by Hal Ketchum)

Hal Ketchum "I'm The Troubadour" (Music Road Records, 2014)
(Produced by Jimmy LaFave)

Jerry Kilgore "Love Trip" (Virgin Records, 1999)
(Produced by Steve Bogard, Scott Hendricks & Jeff Stevens)
A likeable yet wholly unremarkable soft-country set, with mainly traditional-sounding arrangements -- fiddle, steel, a light touch of drums -- and lots of mid-tempo romantic tunes. Songwriter Jerry Kilgore, who'd had a few hits recorded by folks like Tracy Byrd in the early '90s, dropped his hat in the ring as a singer on this solo debut... He has a modest, conversational vocal style that might have fit into the early '80s urban cowboy scene a bit better than the brash, over-orchestrated Nashville of the 1990s... But if you like those old Johnny Lee and Don Williams albums, this might be a disc you'd like to get acquainted with...

Jerry Kilgore "Loaded And Empty" (Nic-Nic Neer Records, 2007)
Wow. Honkytonker Jerry Kilgore, who had a smidge of success in 1999 playing the Top 40 game, is back with a slam-bang album packed with one great song after another. As far as I'm concerned, this is what Nashville ought to have been doing for the last twenty years. The album opens with "What's It Take To Get A Drink In Here," a Kilgore original in which he wonders whatever happened to his bartender, and makes it known to the world that he is a man who definitely needs a drink, if anyone could be bothered to make it down to his end of the bar. The track is muscular and propulsive, a fiddle-drenched, alcohol-fueled Texas shuffle anchored by a thumping backbeat and a wicked sense of humor. It's the kind of no-holds-barred, straight-ahead, hardcore country that gets your blood pumping while you crank up the volume and start singing along. The next track is equally strong, and the shuffle beat continues through the first half of the album. On "Ain't Got One Honky Tonk (Under His Belt)", Kilgore takes his obligatory shots at the Nashville establishment, questioning whether any of those pretty boys you see on TNN could really take a punch if they were in a bar fight, while on "Both Be On Our Way," he asks a distant lover if it's time for one last tumble. The second half of the record is slower and sees Kilgore trying fancy stuff with his singing that sometimes gets in the way, but mostly sounds just fine. Along with the sizzling hard-country arrangements and Kilgore's rugged, leap-right-out-at-ya vocals, this disc is packed with Kilgore originals -- and the two tunes he didn't write come from the pens of Shawn Camp and Mark Sanders, who ain't slouches, either. If you're wondering where the vigor has gone in modern country music, look no further: you'll want to check this guy out! (Also available through Kilgore's My Space fan site )

Jerry Kilgore "Telephone, Texas" (Nic-Nic Neer Records, 2012)

Jerry Kilgore "Those Seven Years" (Nic-Nic Neer Records, 2015)
(Produced by Jerry Kilgore)

Cheyenne Kimball "The Day Has Come" (Epic Records, 2006)
(Produced by Eddie Head, Cheyenne Kimball, Billy Mann & Christopher Thorn)
The lone solo album from multi-instrumentalist and "reality" show contestant Cheyenne Kimball, who won something called "America's Most Talented Kid" back in 2003, when she was just twelve years old. This led to a major label record contract and to this album, which came out a few years later. It has an odd look it, with roughly fourteen thousand producers credited, and just about each individual track with its own technical crew. She also briefly hosted her own television show, which was broadcast by the Canadian branch of MTV. Two singles were sent out to both pop and country outlets, and while the song "Hanging On" cracked the pop Top Thirty, the whole project had a mish-moshy, test-tube, made-by-committee feel. Kimball later joined the country band Gloriana, but was only present on their first album, and seems to have retired from show business after that.

Claude King - see artist discography

Shawn King "In My Own Backyard" (Lofton Creek Records, 2005)
(Produced by Keith Folesse, Carl Jackson, & Steve Tyrell)
Hey, the words "trophy wife" never left my lips, I swear... But, yeah, this is Larry King's wife, and she is awfully well-sculpted and blonde enough to blind a Swede. But, she can also sing, and has been doing so professionally for most of her life -- as a child, as a teen and as an adult -- albeit mostly in anonymous studio efforts. So, here's her bid to make it as a solo artist, a slick bit of modern Nashville pop, with lots of tinkly piano and confessional/topical lyrics, with songs from several modern songwriters such as Leslie Satcher, Jamie O'Neal and Rebecca Lynn Howard, as well as a few from co-producer Carl Jackson, who also plays guitar throughout. Vocally, there's a hint of Rosanne Cash in her voice and a heavy stylistic debt to Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood and any number of 'Nineties Nashville divas. It's not my cup of tea musically, but King does it pretty well, particularly on the title track, which is one of the album's stronger tunes. There's not a lot of variety here, though -- King seems to love slow songs where she can linger on the lyrics and let her voice crack with emotion -- a few more uptempo tunes might've helped break things up a bit. But if you like the slow, sappy stuff, this disc'll do it for ya!

Sherri King "Almost Persuaded" (United Artists, 1976) (LP)
(Produced by Steven A. Davis)
The lone album by pianist/singer Sherri King, a Knoxville native who was backed here by a ton of top talent, including studio pros such as Tommy Allsup, Pete Drake, Buddy Emmons, Johnny Gimble, Hargus Robbins, Pete Wade and a couple of stray Gatlins on backup vocals. King is a decent but flawed vocalist with kind of a '70s Olivia Newton John/Karen Carpenter AOR undertone, along with a sincere country feel, maybe in sort of a Linda Ronstadt/Lynn Anderson kind of way. She's best on slower passages, and has rough patches on big key changes and big, emphatic moments. But overall this album has a nice feel, with a few mild standout tracks, particularly "I'm Alright 'Til I See You (Then I Fall Apart)". She also has a couple of notable good-girl tunes worthy of Tammy Wynette, "A Good Woman Waits For Her Man" and "I Don't Know What's Wrong (But I Know What's Right)" which show the virtues of suffering in silence. Clearly meant to be a commercial record, this one tanked: the title track grazed the Top 100 (at #95) though I suspect Ms. King must have done some studio work as a backup musician on a record or two. Anyone know more about her?

The Kinleys "Just Between You And Me" (Epic Records, 1997)
(Produced by Tony Haselden)
Super-blonde, identical twin sisters hailing from Philadelphia who have sort of a Judds-like close harmony, and a penchant for fairly generic pop-crossover production and wordy, folk-ish relationship songs. The Kinley sisters wrote more than half of the material on this album, but none of the songs really made much of an impression on me; producer Tony Haselden also contributed several songs, one of which, "Please," wound up as a Top Ten hit. Honestly, though, I had a hard time telling most of these songs apart from one another.

The Kinleys "II" (Epic Records, 2000)
(Produced by Tony Haselden & Radney Foster)
Bringing Radney Foster on board as a co-producer helped add a little ooompf to their sound, but overall they're still pretty bland and undistinctive. At least it doesn't do much for me.

The Kinleys "All In The Family" (Identical Records, 2004)

Dave Kirby - see artist discography

Dave Kirby "I Got Here As Fast As I Could" (Self-Released, 2006)
FYI - this is a different Dave Kirby than the guy listed above. No problem, though: since it's no fuss, no muss on these independently-released sessions - a nice balance of commercial and "outlaw" sensibilities, with plenty of uncomplicated, twangy guitar work. It's only seven songs, but nice stuff nonetheless. Standout tracks include "Outlaws Make The World Go Round" and "Three Chords And A Bad Memory," which close the album. Not sure where he was from, though...

Fred Knoblock "Why Not Me" (Scotti Brothers, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by James Stroud)
The fine line between urbane, sophisticated countrypolitan Top Forty and sappy, goopy 'Seventies-style soft-pop is laid bare on this album, which features songwriter Fred Knoblock's adult contemporary chart-topper, the tinkly-keyboard ballad, "Why Not Me," which also scraped its way into the Country Top 30. Knoblock pivoted more towards Nashville in a short string of non-album singles the following year, when he had two singles hit #10, notably the song "Killin' Time," which was a duet with a California gal named Susan Anton, who was better known as an actor and TV variety show host. A second solo album was not forthcoming for Mr. Knoblock, though after moving to Nashville he banded together with Paul Overstreet and Thom Schuyler in a sort of Music City songwriter's supergroup called SKO (aka Schuyler, Knobloch & Overstreet) which had one big hit, then morphed into Schuyler, Knobloch & Bickhardt after Overstreet leaned into his own solo career. Knoblock, who was originally from Jackson, Mississippi, became one of those gadabout Nashville singer-songwriter types, playing quiet little club dates while pitching songs to Top Forty stars such as Faith Hill, George Strait and Trisha Yearwood. Indeed, his second kinda-solo album was a live set recorded at the fabled Bluebird Cafe... (See below.)

J. Fred Knoblock & Jelly Roll Johnson "Live At The Bluebird Cafe" (American Originals, 2000)

Buddy Knox "Gypsy Man" (United Artists, 1968) (LP)
(Produced by Bob Montgomery, arrangements by Sonny Curtis)
A nice, mellow album from '50s rocker Buddy Knox, who was retooling the bouncy pop sound he used on "Party Doll" into a softer folk-country style, in an effort to fit into the pop-oriented Nashville Sound of the late '60s. The title track, "Gypsy Man," cracked into the middle of the country charts, though commercially I don't think this album made much of a dent. It's pleasant to listen to, though, sort of a mix between Glen Campbell and Bill Anderson, with several songs written by co-producer Sonny Curtis, along with others by Jim Chesnut, Bobby Russell and Roger Miller, as well as one by Knox himself, called "Night Runners."

Kostas "Kostas" (First American Records, 1980) (LP)
(Produced by Dik Darnell)

Kostas "XS In Moderation" (Liberty Records, 1994)
(Produced by Val Garay & Kostas)
Although he was born in Greece, songwriter Kostas Lazarides certainly made a name for himself in American popular music. Starting with the 1989 Patty Loveless #1, "Timber, I'm Falling In Love," he cut a wide swath through the Nashville music machine, penning numerous Top 10 hits, and bazillions of songs on albums by artists such as Wynonna, Brooks and Dunn, Tracy Byrd, The Dixie Chicks, Vince Gill, Emmylou Harris, The Mavericks, Jo Dee Messina, George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, and others. This is his sole album as a performer, recorded at the peak of his fame, with backing vocals from Patty Loveless, the artist whose career probably most benefited from his work. This wasn't his first solo album, though the previous one from over a decade earlier was more of a pop-rock kinda thing... This was was more country, and although it didn't make a dent in the charts, it's still a testament to his power as a songsmith and, surprisingly, as a relatively rootsy performer, putting a catchy country backbeat on uptempo tunes like "She's So Lonely" and "Blame It On Your Heart." He did have kind of a thin voice, which is why I suppose he didn't really go for a recording career-- but actually, after a few tunes, I found myself really enjoying the way he sounds. It's interesting to hear his versions of songs that other artists recorded... Too bad he didn't include more of the big hits, but this is still a swell showcase for his work. A nice album, definitely worth checking out!

Kostas "Paradise Valley" (Recording Edge, 2006)

Kostas "That's My Ocean" (Recording Edge, 2006)

Kostas "Kostas Songs" (Recording Edge, 2009)

Kris Kristofferson - see artist discography

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Hick Music Index

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