Kimberly is happy to announce that “The Road” is now available for purchase on iTunes. The Road is her second EP release, following 2011’s “One Foot Over The Other.”

Recording for the new album was done in Austin, TX at Bismeaux Studios, with Will Harrison and Scott Willson producing. An impressive list of musicians appear on the record with Drew Womack providing harmony vocals, Will Armstrong on drums, Haydn Vitera on fiddle, Jondan McBride on guitar, mandolin, banjo and upright bass, David Grissom on electric guitar, Chris Gage on organ piano and dobro, Cody Braun on harmonica and Sam Seifert on steel guitar.

The Road is now available at all of Kimberly’s tour stops and on iTunes, we’ll announce when the record will be available for purchase from her online store.

Track listing
01. The Road
02. Common as the Rain
03. Long Ride
04. Tank of Gas
05. I Don’t Want You to Go

In an article published by the Bryan-College Station Eagle on April 13th, Randy Rogers described his first time he met Kimberly and what he thought about her first single, “Randy Rogers.”

“I got to meet her and give her a hug and tell her thank you,” Rogers said.

The article reflected on Rogers’ return to Chilifest this weekend and the success he and his band have experienced since the last time they performed in Snook, TX.

View the whole story originally published in the April 13, 2012 edition of The Bryan-College Station Eagle.

Kimberly is pleased to announce that she will be performing at this year’s Chilifest in Snook, TX with Johnny Cooper. Kimberly is set to join Cooper on stage at the Starlight Ballroom for a performance of “Moving On,” a track recently released in March by Cooper.

The Friday night performance will be Kimberly’s first at Chilifest. Attendance Friday, April 13th is for Chilifest teams only. For more information, visit Chilifest’s ticketing info page.

Kimberly appeared on this morning’s edition of Good Day Austin on Austin’s Fox afflilate, Fox 7.

Kimberly and the band performed “I’d Rather” off her debut EP, “One Foot Over The Other.” The appearance was promoting tonight’s show at The Rattle Inn in Austin, TX.

View her performance here.

Kimberly appeared on this morning’s edition of Great Day SA on San Antonio’s CBS affiliate, KENS.

Kimberly and the band performed “I’d Rather” off her debut EP, “One Foot Over The Other.” The appearance was promoting tonight’s show at John T. Floore’s Country Store in Helotes, TX with Johnny Cooper.

View her performance here.

Kimberly Dunn’s victory at MSC Town Hall’s Battle of the Bands last year came with an unexpected bonus. The singer-songwriter met Scott Willson and Will Harrison of Up & Out Artists backstage, and they quickly became her management team, setting her on a Texas country career path.

Dunn returns to headline this year’s battle on Friday at Rudder Theatre. The San Antonio native’s brand of country is miles away from her initial musical endeavor upon enrolling at Texas A&M: She played alto sax in the Aggie Band for a semester.

“I loved it,” says the bubbly 23-year-old during a phone interview. “It’s the coolest thing to march on Kyle Field. I still know how to turn around in the Aggie Band. I know every part. It’s something you never forget. It’s ingrained in you.”

Her time in the band and the Corps of Cadets was short-lived, however, because of the amount of yelling involved. Dunn says it caused nodes on her vocal cords.

“I wanted to sing, to become what I’m doing now, and I couldn’t do it in the Corps,” she says. “It was one of the most difficult decisions in my college career because I loved it so much.”

Dunn graduated in August with a degree in agricultural leadership. Her One Foot Over the Other EP was released on Nov. 1. You can hear select tracks at KimberlyDunnMusic.com.

The EP’s standout track comes with a clever twist — a nod of sorts to Texas country hero Randy Rogers.

Dunn was coming out of a difficult relationship and wrote Randy Rogers as a wistful look back at the music that marked that time. Word traveled fast, and Rogers caught wind of the track. The two met at a Texas Country Music Hall of Fame event.

“He said, ‘I’m so flattered,’” Dunn says. “He had seen videos of me singing it on YouTube, and he loved it.”

She also name-drops Granger Smith, Eli Young and Stoney LaRue in the catchy chorus. That helped to score opening dates for Aggie favorite Smith. It’s an example of what Dunn calls the “totally supportive” Texas country scene, especially from such artists who have graduated to successful careers.

“My managers always tell me that in Texas country, it’s not who’s the best vocalist or guitar player or songwriter,” she says. “It’s the people who work the hardest. In Nashville, it’s more who you know. But in Texas country, if you work your butt off, you’re going to see results.”

Dunn’s performance Friday won’t be in competition with this year’s battlers, but her story may inspire them.

“People told me that one day, something’s going to happen, and it did at the Battle of the Bands,” she says. “It’s been exactly a year. It’s incredible how much somebody can get done — 70 shows without a booking agent or radio promoter.”

“It’s proof of the hard work my management company has done and I’ve done as an artist. It’s like a ball rolling down a hill, and it’s rolling faster and faster.”

IF YOU GO

Dunn headlines MSC Town Hall’s Battle of the Bands, which also features four competing bands: The Jeremiahs, The Off Brand, The Votary and The Year of Happiness. Friday at 8 p.m. at Rudder Theatre. Free. townhall.tamu.edu.

Dunn also performs Saturday at 10 p.m. at Fitzwilly’s Bar & Grille, 303 University Drive.

This story originally appeared in the November 17, 2011 edition of The Bryan-College Station Eagle.

Kimberly will make an appearance on San Antonio’s KABB FOX 29’s Daytime @ 9 program tomorrow morning.

Kimberly will be the featured artist throughout the hour-long television show, playing as the show goes to — and comes back from — commercial break. She will perform one song and be interviewed during the show.

Kimberly will be appearing to promote her new EP, “One Foot Over The Other,” and her show that night at Sam’s Burger Joint with Johnny Cooper.

There was a time when homegrown singer-songwriter Kimberly Dunn wanted to be a veterinarian. She’s moved on to stalking Texas music star Randy Rogers.

He’s OK with it.

Dunn is pretty much resigned to being “the girl that wrote that Randy Rogers song.” And to be fair, she name-checks the Eli Young band, Granger Smith and Stoney LaRue in the song Randy Rogers, too.

The release this week of her debut EP, the five-song One Foot Over the Other (which includes the fun, catchy track Randy Rogers), confirms that running a pet hospital is not where her true future lies.

One Foot Over the Other is a first-rate Texas-country effort, more organic than slick, recorded at Ray Benson’s Bismeaux Studios in Austin.

It features players from Pat Green and George Strait’s bands, and was recorded and produced by her management team, Will Harrison and Scott Willson.

But that’s not to say there isn’t room in her heart for her first love.

“I love animals,” said Dunn, 23, a graduate of San Antonio’s Health Careers High School and Texas A&M University, where she earned a degree last year.

“I decided I wanted to be a veterinarian, and I got really involved with riding horses and in the Girl Scouts. I worked at a Girl Scout camp, and I taught girls how to ride horses.”

At the same time, she quietly kept journals - which included mournful poetry and lyrics.

“I never showed anybody,” Dunn said. “I wrote songs in middle school before I played guitar.”

In high school and at A&M, Dunn played alto saxophone in the school bands.

She’s kept up her chops, but she’s quick to say that she doesn’t play her sax onstage now because “that’s not Texas country.”

“I keep telling everybody one of these days I’m gonna whip out the sax. It’s just gonna happen,” Dunn said with a giggle.

That clunky, shiny instrument actually brought her to Americana and country.

“I had been in band since the sixth grade and was really involved in it. The boys in the band played guitar and I said, ‘Hey, I play guitar, too.’”

The teenagers started using their lunch break to play guitar. “We’d plink around,” Dunn said. With her courage building, Dunn debuted an original country song, The Dance, at her junior-year talent show.

Kimberly & the Boys, as the makeshift cover band was called, soon played a few gigs.

The newcomer admits she once considered using the stage name Kimberly Sparrow, inspired by the character Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean Disney films.

“I just thought that would be hilarious,” Dunn said about her fantasy to perform a concert with Sheryl Crow and billing it as a “meeting of the birds.”

Dunn, an avid golfer, says much of her college experience in College Station revolved around seeing live music.

“Texas country really is king in College Station. It’s the mecca for Texas country,” Dunn said. “Randy Rogers or anybody that’s Texas country is popular. For the most part, if it’s got an electric guitar and a steel guitar, I call it Texas country. It definitely has its own sound and isn’t Nashville country.

Written last year, the song Randy Rogers was born in College Station. Dunn admits that the song began as a stream-of-consciousness lark about trying to forget an ex-boyfriend.

“I just pick up my guitar and start making up words,” she said. “I don’t even know what’s coming out of my mouth. My subconscious takes over, and sometimes things make sense.”

What was she feeling as she was writing it? “Holy cow, this is awesome!”

Dunn has had a chance to talk to Rogers about it. They were recently together at the announcement of the Texas Music Hall of Fame at an event in Austin.

Before that, they’d met at a meet ‘n’ greet at the rodeo. “I was so nervous,” Dunn said.

“At the (hall of fame) event, I just said, ‘I’m going to go up to him and see if he remembers me.’ I went and shook his hand. I was like, ‘Hey, Randy. I’m Kimberly Dunn. I don’t know if you remember me or not. I wrote that song about you.’

“He was just super flattered.”

Dunn, who performs Nov. 17 at Sam’s Burger Joint with Johnny Cooper, says she’s ready to tour wherever her fortunes lead. But she won’t be forgetting her hometown.

“I’m a huge Mama Margie’s fan, and those 89-cent bean-and-cheese tacos. I could eat, no joke - I’m a true San Antonian - I could eat, like, five bean-and-cheese tacos in one sitting and still be hungry.”

Can Randy Rogers top that?

This story originally appeared in the November 1, 2011 edition of the San Antonio Express-News.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Shuler Theater in Raton, New Mexico hosts the Southwest Regional Final of the 30th Annual Texaco Country Showdown, America’s largest and longest running country music talent search, on November 5, 2011 at 7:00 pm. Eight talented country music acts from: Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, North Texas, Central Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and South Texas compete for an all-expense paid trip to Nashville where they will perform at the National Final in January for the opportunity to win $100,000 and the title, “Best New Act in Country Music.”

Contestants competing for the Southwest Regional title are: Dumptruck Butterlips (KMXN-Lawrence), Katey Laurel (KCCY-Colorado Springs), Jeremy Collins Band (KTFX-Muskogee), Hatti Bridges (KWRD/KPXI- Henderson), Kimberly Dunn (KORA-Bryan), Keeira Lyn Ford (KNIX-Phoenix), Nicole Unser (KBKZ-Raton), and Cody Brunette (KMRK-Odessa).

About the Showdown: Annually, over 450 radio stations across the country sponsor local contests. Winners advance to their state events where prizes include $1,000 and the opportunity to compete in one of five regional events. Regional winners receive an all-expense-paid trip to the National Final in Nashville to compete for $100,000 and the coveted title, “Best New Act in Country Music.”

Each year, more than 50,000 artists compete throughout the U.S. Past local, state, and regional winners include: Martina McBride, Garth Brooks, Miranda Lambert, Neal McCoy, Sara Evans, Brad Paisley and Billy Ray Cyrus.

This story originally appeared in an October 26, 2011 press release from the Texaco Country Music Showdown.

AUSTIN — Music attorney Ed Fair announced the formation of the Texas Music Hall of Fame at a star-studded, if casual, outdoor event at advertising agency GSD&M on Wednesday.

Launched by the nonprofit Can and Will Music Foundation, the Texas Music Hall of Fame has an advisory board that includes a diverse group of music, sports, television, legal, journalism and municipal professionals, including Danny Eaton, Gary Hartman, Terry Lickona, Mark Meyer, Casey Monahan, Leslie Moore, Steve Moore, Margaret Moser, Donnie Nelson, Rose Reyes, Roy Spence and Dan Workman.

Fair will be the Texas Music Hall of Fame’s first executive director. Texas musicians across all genres will be honored at annual events beginning in 2012.

According to Fair, a 150-member electoral group will begin the selection process in 2012, and it’s expected five performers and one nonperformer will be announced in the spring, with an induction concert gala set for the fall.

The Texas Hall of Fame will exist mostly online, at www.texasmusichof.com, partnering with museums and collectors.

San Antonio brothers Jonathan and Jude Morales, teen and tween sensations better known as The Zots, played power pop renditions of classic Freddy Fender, Buddy Holly, Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan songs for an audience that included Marcia Ball, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ray Benson, Randy Rogers, Kimberly Dunn, Joe Ely, Lee Roy Parnell and Kathy Valentine.

This story originally appeared in the October 20, 2011 edition of the San Antonio Express-News.