Genre boxes mean very little when it comes to creating true art. Kären McCormick had to give herself permission to leap beyond those expectations. Once she did, the rising singer-songwriter bounded away from strict musical constraints to settle upon a healthy country, pop, and soul mix. Her debut EP, Retro, feels timeless and contemporary, running between genres with a silky ease, and McCormick’s voice has never sounded so smooth.
With “Congratulations” and “If This Bar Could Talk,” both premiering today, she continues to demonstrate her strength as a vocalist, painting with heart-torn lyrics that penetrate to the core. Constantly asking herself “is this country enough?” during the songwriting process, it took a good amount of time to discard preconceived notions about what her music should be and instead follow wherever her muse led.
“I’d constantly ask myself [that question] and send myself into a downward spiral of self-inflicted worry. By the time I was writing the last few songs, I really started to find the joy in not being too concerned with genre ‘rules,’ and I think you can hear that in the music,” she tells Audiofemme. “I want to write and create music that makes me and the listener feel something without feeling like I have to sacrifice anything in the process to meet anyone else’s expectations.”
“I guess at some point, we had to go our separate ways/That don’t mean you don’t cross my mind every single day,” she sings of her struggles with heartbreak on “Congratulations,” one of two solo writes on the EP. Its title is a little deceiving; her heart is weary from the breakup, as she tries to also convince herself to wish her ex good luck. But that would be a lie. She can barely muster up a weak smile.
Originally written a few years ago, the mournful ballad has a silver lining for her now. “With social media, it’s incredibly easy to watch someone live an entire life without you. The way I relate to this song now has shifted and become more of a positive,” she explains. “Just because two people go their separate ways doesn’t mean you wish ill-will or can’t wish them well. In fact, you can even learn to live comfortably in the notion that they’re alright and you’re alright. That’s something I’m continuing to learn in my 20s, and it’s starting to reflect in my songwriting.”
Landing at the other end of the musical spectrum, “If This Bar Could Talk” (a co-write with Dana Marie Rogers) is a bubbly and flirtatious piece of pop-country. “I thought we were romantics, falling in love in the fall/Writing our names on the bathroom wall/Snuck onto the rooftop, breaking all the rules,” she writes in darling confessional imagery.
Having grown up in Cheney, Washington, McCormick makes direct reference to one of the college town’s most popular watering holes. “Whether you grew up in a small town or big city, everyone has that one spot in their town that is the ‘go-to’ spot, and it’s the home to so many memories,” she reflects. “Particularly my last two years of college, I watched as this bar reunited friends, celebrated 21st birthdays, and so much more. I wanted to pay a bit of homage to this place and the town I grew up in while reminiscing on some of those personal memories.”
The singer-songwriter originally hails from Brazzaville, Congo. She first arrived in Nashville in 2018, and almost immediately she had to correct people who assumed she made R&B or hip-hop music simply because of her bi-racial background. It’s no secret mainstream country music is a traditionally white-washed format, with such vital players as DeFord Bailey being sidelined and their contributions nearly forgotten. “At some point, it became an accepted cultural narrative that country music is the domain of white people,” journalist Elamin Abdelmahmoud assessed in a Rolling Stone piece, celebrating the work of Rhiannon Giddens and Yola.
“I remember years ago picking up a copy of a magazine called Country Weekly and seeing Rissi Palmer and being so excited about finding someone who looked like me in this space. I still remember that moment years later. That itself is why representation is important,” says McCormick, citing Mickey Guyton’s recent, history-making performance on the Academy of Country Music Awards as another “beautiful moment.”
“It makes me feel like we are getting closer and closer everyday to having more diversity in the country music community,” McCormick says. “I’m confident that there are young girls and boys who watched Mickey on the ACMs and that sparked something in them to go after their dreams. I’m confident that we will move in the right direction, and I applaud the people like Mickey and the ACMs team for being a part of the positive change.”
With a string of singles over the last year, leading into her debut EP, McCormick has garnered nearly 200,000 streams, and it’s clear an audience is hungry for her talents. The five-song project was originally slated for release last summer, but something didn’t feel quite right. “One of the great things about being an independent artist is I get to call the shots,” she says.
“If I had released the EP last summer like I’d originally planned, I would’ve been happy with it ─ but I think I would’ve always thought something was missing. I went back to the drawing board with the mindset of ‘I can do better.’ I reached out to Dana and basically said, ‘I have more to say.’ I’m so glad I trusted that gut feeling, because I feel this EP represents my stories, my songwriting growth, and there’s a little something for everyone who listens.”
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