05/19/05

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It is said that some genes only get expressed in the right environment and that nature only goes so far without a little nurture too.  So it may come as little surprise that Kristi Miller's purpose to sing flourished in some supportive surroundings.  She grew up in rural Kentucky, near U.S. 23 dubbed Country Music Highway, because it winds through the region that produced legends like Patti Loveless, the Judds, Dwight Yoakam, Crystal Gayle and Loretta Lynn.  On the top of that, Miller came of age in a home saturated by music.  Her mom san in church, while her dad was a songwriter and a record collector/dealer who always had thousands of albums around the house.  Not only did that her access to a huge variety of music to sample, it gave songcraft an important place in Miller's home.

"As I got older my dad told me to take my poems and encouraged me to put a tune to them and change them around so they could be songs," Miller says.  "Then he'd say: record that tune.  Don't go to sleep.  Don't lollygag.  Record it and go back to it to see how you cold make it better."

It was clear early on that Kristi needed to perform and express herself; she was the little girl singing for her folks on a turned over broom (her favorite song was  Bonnie Tyler's "It's a Heartache.")  And she was the preteen instantly captivated by Dolly Parton on her syndicated television show.

Miller took on work cleaning at night at a tool and die factory when she was just 14 to finance her music career, and she took to the mandolin, an instrument that fit her hands and her notions of country music.  Her folks bartered ads for studio time in their month Christian Magazine called The Seeker, a family business the Miller's built from a scratch into a profitable publication distributed in 20 counties.

But just when she seemed to be heading up the right career roads for a country singer from Berea, things got complicated.  Kristi's mother suffered from Chron's Disease, a chronic illness that confined her to a hospital, miles away in Lexington, for much the young singer's last years in high school.  Marti passed away when Kristi was just 20 years old.  But not before she taught Kristi most of the lessons in character that have shaped her pursuit of a music career.  " She was so strong willed, through pain and terrible circumstances," Kristi remembers.  "She said if you want something go after it.  If there's any possible way to reach within  and find the strength to press, press.  Because it's worth it."

Kristi had long helped out with The Seeker, so after her mother died, she opted to stay in Berea and take over the publication, doing everything from ad sales to writing to personally drive the two-day route to get it to gas stations, restaurants, hotels and grocery stores.  Simultaneously, she got herself on every stage she could, including Pigeon Forge's Tennessee's Memories Theater, where former Oak Ridge Boy Gar McSpadden cast her in several variety show.  While off stage, she recorded commercial customs for Clear Channel radio.  During the few slow days each month after the magazine came out, Miller began visiting Nashville.

All alone, Kristi's father continued to help her hone her songwriting.  "It really helped me a lot that he was honest with me and didn't just flatter me when I really need improving," she says her best, in her opinion, is called Wild Rose.  "I relate to it when I was 16 when I was having to go through my mom being in the hospital and when I was 20 taking on a business sink or swim," she says.  "There was a strength that rose up inside of me that said you have to survive.  You're on your own.  The wild rose is beautiful and delicate but year after year, after blizzards, she fades for a while, but she comes right back."

Above Beyond Management

Mary Matthews

615.382.3203

management@abovebeyond.com