Monarch Artist Feature: Kathryn Brooks

By Kelsey Knott • Photos By Matt Johnson 

A folk artist whose songs feel like they’ve been living in the back of your mind somewhere all along, Kathryn Brooks brings an intoxicatingly heartfelt nostalgia to Louisville’s music scene.

At age three, her dad began teaching her to play piano, so the music programs, bands, and choirs she found herself gravitating toward felt deeply natural. “I started to write and emote between eighth and ninth grade, and when I got back to Louisville as an adult about four years ago, I really started pursuing it. Music has always been there, and always new in ways.” Through her time spent in California, Pennsylvania, and New York, she realized how fitting Louisville felt for her music. “Being back with family and seeing from the outside that this is such a great music scene drew me back. This always has felt like home.” She feels the Keep Louisville Weird slogan perfectly encapsulates our quirky, fun, eclectic city. “A lot of people care about Louisville–not in a jaded way, but a homey way. It’s a tradition-based city with a ton of memory, where weirdos have found each other and intermixed their interests.” 

After Brooks played her first Louisville show opening for Chloe Kimes and Tyler Hood, Tyler asked her to open for the Hill Figs at Mag Bar and Kaiju. “You play a show and meet somebody every time. When I played Tyler’s show, I met a ton of people that became the Monarch community, specifically Mark, while it was in its budding phases. It’s lived out its mission for me–having some of the most memorable shows I’ve either played or seen, sitting around these tables playing guitar until 2 am, popping over after something else and always feeling like you can walk in to people playing music. I come here and always leave with a nice memory.”

Brooks is drawn to stories and storytelling writers, describing her music as memory based. “All of my songs have some personalstory to them, even if that story is something I heard or saw secondhand. I’m nostalgic and sentimental, which probably has a little to do with moving around and leaving places. Songs helped me keep a little bit of the people or place.” Her purpose in songwriting is guided by hopefulness and a love of the craft. “What’s important to me is making a song I believe in more than just writing to have something to play. I’ve had phases where I’m doing both, and I always come back to trying to write something honest and authentic that I still like to play for years to come.” As she finds herself in the process of wrapping up her debut album, Brooks feels inspired by the way songwriting snapshots moments in time. 

Beyond making music, Brooks is finishing a masters in Critical and Curatorial Studies at the University of Louisville, housing an exhibit at 21c downtown. She also wears her teaching hat, last year spending time with sixth, seventh, and eighth grade studentsat Waldorf and currently at Louisville Folk School, teaching dulcimerto young adults and retirees alike. Vulnerability is a core value when balancing the day-to-day emotions around their experience of learning an instrument as well as her own day-to-day. “I would hope that people know the joy of learning music, even if it’s not to perform live. I do what I do because people sat around a campfire and shared songs they heard on the radio, or from their mother, or from somebody passing through town. The folk tradition is non-recorded, passed down music. If people say, ‘I don’t ever want to play live, so I’m never going to pick up a guitar.’ I think, ‘No, pick up a guitar, and maybe someday you’ll sing a song to your kid who goes on to play for people and share that song with more folks than you could ever imagine.” Brooks desires for people to invite music into their lives always and learns continuously from her interactions with her students.

For Brooks, music boils down to capturing the art of living, through songs that ring both melancholy and joyful. “If my music works the way other people’s music works for me, it reminds me that I’m alive. I have lived and will continue to live, even if it doesn’t look the way I thought it would. And there’s joy in that, no matter the memory. People will tell me, ‘You brought a tear to my eye’ which is a heavy thing to do to people, but to me, is a success.” 

Stay tuned for Kathryn Brooks’ debut album release this summer! Until then, catch her at the Whirling Tiger on Sunday, April 19th and listen to her Last Looks EP and latest singles “Forgive Me For That Too” and “6:15.” See kathrynbrooksmusic.com for more.