Kim McLean
Encyclopedia
Kim McLean is a singer-songwriter
originally from Greensboro, North Carolina
of Irish
-Cherokee
heritage. Influenced by her grandmother, Sara Van McCoy McKinney McLean Redman, a songwriter
, roadhouse pianist, and program director of a Southern Gospel
radio station, McLean moved to Nashville
to pursue a career in songwriting. A month after arriving in Music City, she signed her first staff songwriting deal with an upstart publishing company, Little Big Town
, run by publishing mogul, Woody Bomar.
, who had recently received the CMA's Horizon Award. From that sprang a continuing career of over 200 songwriting credits including genres of country, bluegrass, Americana, AAA, pop, and blues. In 1999, McLean received a Dove Award for Country Gospel song of the year for "Count Your Blessing" which was recorded by The Martins
. Other artists who've recorded Kim McLean songs include Tim McGraw
, The Happy Goodmans, Trisha Yearwood
, Jennifer Hanson
, Lee Ann Womack
, Billy Gilman
, Sierra, and more. Since her first publishing deal with Little Big Town, she has also written for EMI
, Centergy, King Lizard
, New Haven, Worley World, Skyline
, and Sony-Tree. Her own publishing company, Kim McLean Music houses most of her Gospel copyrights.
Her songs have been used on several major network TV shows including JAG
, Early Edition
, As The World Turns
, The West Wing, and Hope & Faith
, which also included a cameo appearance by McLean. Rick Schroder
used "All We Ever Find", a McLean composition recorded by Tim McGraw
, for the feature film Black Cloud
, about a Native American
boxer who made the Olympic boxing team.
In 2001, McLean returned to her maiden name, and launched a solo artist career of her own with the creation of Hippie Chick Twang Records. Her album, Happy Face contains the song "Angels and Eagles" with Dolly Parton
starring as background singer. The title cut of the album, Kim McLean composed with Kenny Alphin, Big Kenny of Big and Rich.
in Nashville, just a stone's throw from Music Row. In 2005, McLean graduated with honors and a degree in music business from TNU, and re-enrolled in the fall for the Master's Program in Bible. At this time, McLean is teaching songwriting at TNU as Adjunct Professor of Songwriting.
Hippie Chick Twang, the company she founded, has grown from a small indie label co-op that touts "positive music for women and the men who love them" to a media company and music publishing house. McLean partnered with one of her co-writers, broadcaster Devon O'Day
to form the Hippie Chick Twang enterprises. In 2006, Kim McLean won the Just Plain Folk Awards' Americana Song of the Year with "Forever Everyday". Her album, Happy Face was voted third runner up in the Americana Album of the Year.
Goodbye My Friend: Celebrating the Memory of a Pet is a book/CD combination with text written by Devon O'Day and an accompanying CD written and performed by McLean. It is a gift of condolence and comfort for someone who's lost a pet. The project was published by Thomas Nelson
in 2007.
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
originally from Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
of Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
-Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
heritage. Influenced by her grandmother, Sara Van McCoy McKinney McLean Redman, a songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
, roadhouse pianist, and program director of a Southern Gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
radio station, McLean moved to Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
to pursue a career in songwriting. A month after arriving in Music City, she signed her first staff songwriting deal with an upstart publishing company, Little Big Town
Little Big Town
Little Big Town is an American country music vocal group. Founded in 1998, the group has comprised the same four members since its inception: Karen Fairchild, Kimberly Schlapman, Jimi Westbrook, and Phillip Sweet. The quartet's musical style relies heavily on four-part vocal harmonies, with all...
, run by publishing mogul, Woody Bomar.
Commercial success
One year later, she received her first songwriting credit for an artist named Terri GibbsTerri Gibbs
Teresa Fay "Terri" Gibbs is an American country music artist who was born blind. Between 1980 and 1990, she recorded seven studio albums, including four for MCA Records and one for Warner Bros. Records...
, who had recently received the CMA's Horizon Award. From that sprang a continuing career of over 200 songwriting credits including genres of country, bluegrass, Americana, AAA, pop, and blues. In 1999, McLean received a Dove Award for Country Gospel song of the year for "Count Your Blessing" which was recorded by The Martins
The Martins
The Martins are a Christian music vocal trio composed of three siblings: Joyce Martin Sanders, Jonathan Martin, and Judy Martin Hess.-Music career:...
. Other artists who've recorded Kim McLean songs include Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
, The Happy Goodmans, Trisha Yearwood
Trisha Yearwood
Patricia Lynn Yearwood, professionally known as Trisha Yearwood , is an American country music artist. She is best known for her ballads about vulnerable young women from a female perspective that have been described by some music critics as "strong" and "confident."Trisha Yearwood signed with MCA...
, Jennifer Hanson
Jennifer Hanson
Jennifer Kathleen Hanson is an American country music artist, as well as a former Miss California. Married to songwriter Mark Nesler since 1997, Hanson began her own musical career in 2002 with a self-titled debut album being issued on Capitol Records...
, Lee Ann Womack
Lee Ann Womack
Lee Ann Womack is an American country music singer and songwriter, who is best known for her old fashioned-styled country music songs that often discuss subjects such as cheating and lost love....
, Billy Gilman
Billy Gilman
William Wendell "Billy" Gilman III is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 12, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to a Top 40 hit on the country music charts...
, Sierra, and more. Since her first publishing deal with Little Big Town, she has also written for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, Centergy, King Lizard
King Lizard
- Biography :The band first formed in 2002, and after extensive line-up changes, took its final form in 2006.Lead singer Flash Roxx started the band aged 19 Sky London joined the band when he thought he could do a better job than the existing drummer. Israeli guitarist Niro Knox was in a band...
, New Haven, Worley World, Skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
, and Sony-Tree. Her own publishing company, Kim McLean Music houses most of her Gospel copyrights.
Her songs have been used on several major network TV shows including JAG
JAG (TV series)
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...
, Early Edition
Early Edition
Early Edition is an American television series that aired on CBS from September 28, 1996 to May 27, 2000. Set in the city of Chicago, Illinois, it follows the adventures of a man who mysteriously receives each Chicago Sun-Times newspaper the day before it is actually published, and who uses this...
, As The World Turns
As the World Turns
As the World Turns is an American television soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1956 to September 17, 2010. Irna Phillips created As the World Turns as a sister show to her other soap opera Guiding Light...
, The West Wing, and Hope & Faith
Hope & Faith
Hope & Faith is an American sitcom that aired for three seasons on ABC from September 26, 2003, to May 2, 2006. For its first two seasons the show was part of a revived TGIF comedy block....
, which also included a cameo appearance by McLean. Rick Schroder
Rick Schroder
Richard Bartlett "Rick" Schroder, Jr. is an American actor and film director.He debuted in the 1979 hit film The Champ, going on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons...
used "All We Ever Find", a McLean composition recorded by Tim McGraw
Tim McGraw
Samuel Timothy "Tim" McGraw is an American country singer and actor. Many of McGraw's albums and singles have topped the country music charts with total album sales in excess of 40 million units in the US, making him the eighth best-selling artist, and the third best-selling country singer, in the...
, for the feature film Black Cloud
Black Cloud
Black Cloud is a 2004 American film directed and written by Rick Schroder.- Plot:Black Cloud , a young Navajo man, must take a journey of personal growth to prepare himself for a chance at boxing in the Olympics...
, about a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
boxer who made the Olympic boxing team.
In 2001, McLean returned to her maiden name, and launched a solo artist career of her own with the creation of Hippie Chick Twang Records. Her album, Happy Face contains the song "Angels and Eagles" with Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
starring as background singer. The title cut of the album, Kim McLean composed with Kenny Alphin, Big Kenny of Big and Rich.
College and record label founding
At the same time she began her artist career, she used her songwriting royalties to reclaim a lost dream of a college education, cut short in her teen-age years due to an almost fatal struggle with an eating disorder. Treatment, recovery, and years of hoping led her to Trevecca Nazarene UniversityTrevecca Nazarene University
Trevecca Nazarene University is a private Christian liberal arts college located in Nashville, Tennessee.-History:TNU was founded in 1901 by Cumberland Presbyterian minister J. O. McClurkan as the "Pentecostal Literary and Bible Training School"...
in Nashville, just a stone's throw from Music Row. In 2005, McLean graduated with honors and a degree in music business from TNU, and re-enrolled in the fall for the Master's Program in Bible. At this time, McLean is teaching songwriting at TNU as Adjunct Professor of Songwriting.
Hippie Chick Twang, the company she founded, has grown from a small indie label co-op that touts "positive music for women and the men who love them" to a media company and music publishing house. McLean partnered with one of her co-writers, broadcaster Devon O'Day
Devon O'Day
Devon O'Day is an American radio personality, former plus-sized model for the Ford Modeling Agency, songwriter, and an author....
to form the Hippie Chick Twang enterprises. In 2006, Kim McLean won the Just Plain Folk Awards' Americana Song of the Year with "Forever Everyday". Her album, Happy Face was voted third runner up in the Americana Album of the Year.
Goodbye My Friend: Celebrating the Memory of a Pet is a book/CD combination with text written by Devon O'Day and an accompanying CD written and performed by McLean. It is a gift of condolence and comfort for someone who's lost a pet. The project was published by Thomas Nelson
Thomas Nelson (publisher)
Thomas Nelson is a publishing firm that began in Scotland in 1798 as the namesake of its founder. Its former US division is currently the sixth largest American trade publisher and the world's largest Christian publisher. It is owned by the private equity firm Kohlberg & Company...
in 2007.