Meet Kathryn Shipley

We recently connected with Kathryn Shipley and have shared our conversation below.

Kathryn, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
We know resilience is from being able to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties. A few things outside of music come into play.. raising my now 3 year old Granddaughter since she was 10months old, and now being diagnosed with stage 3(a) Colon Cancer in Feb of this year. I may deem these “challenges” that I have overcome and going through. But the bottom line is God is never late and has always showed up for me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I started out around 2011, thinking i could take my singing to another level. And it was not a difficult season to be in to do this. But I kept pushing through and started out singing at a small church and really grabbed on it. But the thing for me, I loved singing Christian Music but I knew I was not showing up for God like I should. I was bouncing back and forth between Christian and Country Music. I feel like God always had a plan for me on the Worship side of things, and I kept back pedaling and focusing more on Country. 2016, I hit the ground running with Country and got added to a small indie label in New Jersey. I won my first music award, at an Independent show called The Josie Music Awards. I kept digging in deeper recording more, even on You tube taking voice lessons learning about Songwriting and just the music world. I knew starting late in life that it would be a challenge as well as being a black female wanting people to acknowledge I was as country artist. I have won several music awards as well as getting Blessed with being on the first ballot for the Grammy Awards, as well as the first ballot for the Dove Awards last year. But winning wasnt what is was about it was about growing professionally and personally. I kept reaching back to my faith, and focusing more on the Christian side of things and Gods timing is so amazing. I started a Christian Band, called “About The Journey” which is so ironic to me and things that have transpired in my life.. Just alot of good things going into this new season of my life.. God has been very good to me during..

Very proud of some songs I recently did –
Keep Your Eyes on Me
I’ll Be There with one of my best friends Lee Newton
Hope Wins with Danny Kensy

A HUGE project that was just completed that I was Blessed to be on is called “The Power Of One Movement” the song is called “Spread Hope Send Love” this song was created to Spread Awareness and Prevention for something that unfortunately continues to grow at an alarming rate .. Suicide.
In two days after it was released it reached #1 on Itunes
we are just getting started on this mission and we have some amazing folks on this collaboration from diff parts of the US and abroad.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
really I just listened… watched … and learned.. I even had a vocal coach in Canada that would help me , since I am a tenor by nature for a female.. I was bit of a rare breed in the Worship world with my lower octave voice. But with that it kind of made my voice unique on certain songs I have done over the years. SO I am diggin it, but I can go higher lol…I have honestly learned alot from the younger crowd to, Sometimes I think alot of folks will kind of razz on some of these younger singers, but i am telling you there are some really mature 15-23 year old singers out here that are really in tune with themselves and very confident in what they do, and they speak about it very well. We can learn from our younger generation.

How would you spend the next decade if you somehow knew that it was your last?
I won’t even call it a challenge but a piece of my journey. I started raising my Grand child (Kadis Marie) at 10 months old. she is now 3 and a half. I have another Grand child named Amaya, she is a Blessing as well, and my ex husband and his wife are raising her. Our daughter got caught up in making some very very poor choices and decisions. But we continue to prayer for her and she is doing better.

Then I found out in Feb I had stage 3(a) colon cancer I say had because I am claiming that the 4 rounds of chemo, took care of it. I have a scan November 1. But the cool thing is even though I have not been in the studio since March. My numbers continue to climb, I have won a few amazing awards along the way. I received a Silver medal for Outstanding Achievement Christian Contemporary from the Global Music Awards for my song “Keep Your Eyes On Me” then August 17th the day after my last round of chemo I won in Los Angeles at the HIMA Awards for Christian/Gospel song “Keep your Eyes on Me” I wish I could’ve been there me and my youngest son had plans on attending, but then I found out when my last round of chemo was and I needed to get that done. So this song “Keep Your Eyes On Me” has so much validity for me and my journey and how God has continued to do so. Not just about winning awards, but just helping me get through so many things that I never thought would be thrown my way. Then on top of it all I became a member of CMA and a Voting Member for the Recording Academy for the Grammy Awards… Blessing upon Blessings!
I am also going to team up with MusiCares which is part of the Recording Academy for 2024 to be more involved in the Colorectal Cancer Alliance to even create more Awareness for Colon Cancer. I also have a song out that was recorded with a good friend of mine Danny Kensy that was done for a charity for the Josie Music Awards called “Hope Wins” monies from downloads/purchases will go to the Colorectal Cancer Alliance. Good stuff..

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