A Superbloom of talent

Country star, Kimberly Perry, returned to Green Bay for a moment as part of CMT’s Next Women of Country tour and lit up Gather’s stage with her warmth and passion for music for her first solo tour.

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“Every year, CMT instates a new class of female artists, and this year I’m serving as a mentor to the class of 2024,” Kimberly Perry explained. “I’m playing a 90-minute set in the theme of Storytellers, weaving through many chapters in my career and telling the stories of what was happening behind the scenes and what inspired the songs. I play everything from my first solo work, Superbloom, to The Band Perry hits, and even some new songs!”

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“My booking agency, Wasserman, who put this tour together, has the best taste in venues and towns,” she glowed. “I’ve loved everywhere I’ve gone so far, and I specifically really adored how the stage was designed at Gather for my show; it had such an intimate vibe, capturing the storyteller’s theme we were going for. I don’t know that we’ve been to another venue quite like Gather, it’s definitely upped my expectations.”

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As much as Perry has been traveling for this tour, she hasn’t stayed at any stop for very long in account of her newest journey, motherhood, though she’s been sure to enjoy her time through the experiences and fans she’s meeting.

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“My time back in Green Bay was pretty quick, I flew in the day of my performance and out the next morning,” she revealed. “I’m the mother of a one-year-old in East Tennessee, so I don’t typically stay in the areas I’m performing in, but it felt like such a special show. The food was amazing, the show camaraderie was fun – we thoroughly enjoyed our day. I even got to see some familiar faces in the crowd!”

“We arrived at Gather a couple of hours before the show and relaxed upstairs in their green room with amazing food and drinks. They had my favorite brand of Saki waiting for me, which is my pre-show drink, and it was super convenient to just walk downstairs and get everything set up when it was time for the show. It was a really comfortable day and I felt very much at home.”

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Chef Jyll Everman, always one for a theme, loves to exceed expectations and show her guests why she loves to cook and play in the kitchen, and her menu for this show definitely resonated with Perry. The menu centered around a southern theme, featuring chicken sandwiches and a brownie dessert, and followed that southern theme right down to the hospitality.

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“There was a brownie situation that I'm always partial to, but it was also just the hospitality of the entire evening,” Perry smiled happily. “Everybody was so welcoming, and went out of their way to make sure our day felt comfortable and that we felt welcomed. It was really sweet.”

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While this is a solo tour for Perry, she is joined by two other musicians, who play bass and electric guitar for about 20% of the show while she focuses on her vocals, and for the other 80% Perry plays her acoustic guitar and sings solo on stage.

“I really liked the format of Gather because it felt a lot like a dinner theater,” Perry compared. “It reminded me of one of my favorite venues, Bluebird, back in Tennessee, because of the intimacy of it all, similar to a listening room. The crowd was intent on listening, and it’s always a special night for an artist when there’s an attentive crowd.”

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Kimberly Perry has been performing with her brothers, Reid and Neil Perry, since she was 15 years old, her brothers being between eight and 10, so to begin performing solo work after years of the companionship of her family, she has certainly noticed some changes in her travel plans. 

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“The wake-up calls are just as early,” she laughed. “But I’m so happy to have this space to think with a solely female perspective. I get to decide what songs to put on my set, the stage presence for the performance, and what stories I want to share with the audience.”

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Perry had a packed set, performing everything from old hits from The Band Perry’s first album to recent work, and she even reached out to her followers on social media for song requests on the setlist. 

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“When I was thinking about what songs I would perform in this 90-minute set, I didn't know exactly where to start with the setlist because I have such an extensive body of work at this point,” explained Perry, “so I jumped on Instagram and asked my followers for requests. I was so excited when ‘Comeback Kid’, a song I wrote with Rita Neil a handful of years ago, was one song that kept getting requested. When I played it in Gather, a really sweet atmosphere fell around the room, it felt like people were truly resonating with it. It was my favorite performance and moment of the evening.” 

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With Perry’s extensive history in music and performing, she has racked up quite a discography, some of which she hasn’t even released onto streaming platforms and can’t wait to share with her supportive audience, others she has had lengthy moments in the spotlight for and is just as excited to see the faces in the crowd light up with familiarity and comfort.

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“I always preface my unreleased song ‘Swinging for Fences’ with ‘If you’ve been to a show before, it’s good to see you again, and if this is the first time we’re meeting, this song introduces me better than words ever could,’” she smiled. “It’s always fun to watch people’s reactions to the lyrics of that song, and because of Gather’s intimate setting and format, I feel like they were really able to hear and understand the lyrics. I was grateful for that interaction.”

“I played a new song I'm working on called ‘Mama, Now I Know,’ so we had a few surprises mixed in as well, but I close my set with ‘If I Die Young,’ and everybody was singing that together before they gave us a standing ovation at the end of the night. It was really cool, and I felt very blessed to be there. I hope people in attendance found it a blessing to be there as well. We can't wait to do it again.”

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The Perry siblings are grateful for the space they’re currently taking from playing as a band to focus on individual works and pursue projects they’ve been looking for time to work on, though Kimberly also admits to missing her family camaraderie on stage every now and then.

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“It’s been fun for us to do our own things, but I definitely miss playing music with my brothers, it's the thing I know best and it was such a fun stage in my life, but I'm excited to headline for this next women's tour and my first solo tour,” said Perry contently. “I'm sure my brothers and I will reunite on the stage eventually.”

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Perry assured she’d be more than happy to return to the Green Bay area yet again, but will continue to keep her visits to the warmer months, and Gather looks forward to seeing her again in the future.

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“My team and I can’t thank Gather enough for having and hosting us, and we cannot wait to come back, just probably not in the winter months,” she laughed. “I'm a warm-weather girl and I had so many people telling me about your Wisconsin winters, I’ll be avoiding those months. Ask me back for the spring, summer, or fall!

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https://www.gatheronbroadway.com/ 

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