On the Edge: Kelsey Waldon

Singer/songwriter Kelsey Waldonrecalls the eye-opening, skin-thickening experience she had when she briefly moved to Nashville at the age of 19. It’s a story that so many other hopeful performers have experienced over the years.

“I worked a minimum-wage job. It was really bad,” she says. “I was just trying to get out of my hometown and wanted to come here. I learned a lot in that year. I probably had some good songs for a 19-year-old, but I still had a lot of growing to do. I think I got my ass kicked in a really good way, for lack of a better word.” 

She returned to her native western Kentucky (she grew up in Barlow or the Monkey’s Eyebrow community, depending on who you ask) for school but is now back in Nashville, with an engaging new album, The Gold Mine.

Steeped in the sounds of ’70s country with weeping pedal steel and twangy Telecasters, The Gold Mine showcases Kelsey’s gritty songwriting and pure voice on ballads like “Not the First Time” and up-tempo numbers like “Town Clown.” 

“I’ve always tried to not be afraid to go there and not be ashamed of the way I was brought up or the things I’ve seen,” explains Kelsey. “I don’t think people should be ashamed of who they are. This album was kind of [an] embrace of all that and my passion for country music.”