American Roots Concert Series: Chloe Kimes

Raised on the lakeshores of western Michigan, Kimes has been honing her craft and independently building an audience from Nashville, TN for over a decade. Through relentless touring and a deeply personal connection with audiences, she’s carving out her place among the next generation of great Americana troubadours while redefining the genre on her own terms. 

After the release of her 2022 debut self-titled record, she wrote the viral hit “Coors Light”, an uninhibited ode to her love of drinking beer, playing in a band, and finding contentment in the small treasures of life. In the wake of internet spotlight and an Album of the Year Jammie Award from her homestate’s WYCE Michigan Public Radio, Kimes forged ahead with a focus on reaching her growing audience through a defiant courage to be herself and the tenacity to do it without the support of a record label. Written over a couple of years of near constant travel, Kimes took the lessons, doubts, disciplines, and fears tied to being an independent touring artist and created Daredevil, a record that coalesces years of hard work and hard knocks. In her sophomore release, Kimes substantiates her own tendency to present the complicated parts of life in a sweeping diorama of thought and feeling while addressing the elephant in every room and leaving you glad she did.