Kat Edmonson

Kat Edmonson was born on August 3, 1983, in Houston, Texas, and was raised by her single mother who introduced her to the Great American Songbook and traditional pop music from the 1940s and ’50s. She wrote her first song at the age of nine. After attending the College of Charleston in South Carolina for a year, she moved to Austin, Texas, in 2002 to pursue a career in music. That same year, she auditioned for the second season of American Idol and advanced to the Top 48 contestants in Hollywood. Upon returning to Austin, she became a regular in the local club scene and, in 2005, committed to music full-time.

Her debut album, “Take to the Sky,” self-released in March 2009, reached the Top 20 on the Billboard Jazz chart. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, her second album, “Way Down Low,” was released in 2012, earning critical acclaim from The New York Times and NPR, and reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Her third album, “The Big Picture,” released through Sony Masterworks on September 30, 2014, also topped the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Beyond her own albums, Edmonson has collaborated with artists such as Lyle Lovett, appearing on his 2012 album “Release Me” and performing with him on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” She later opened for Lovett’s U.S. summer tour.

Edmonson has toured extensively, performing at notable events like the Taichung Jazz Festival, Tanglewood, the New York City Jazz Festival, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2013. She has also opened for artists including Jamie Cullum, Michael Kiwanuka, Chris Isaak, and Gary Clark Jr. Her television appearances include NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series and Austin City Limits in 2012, and multiple guest spots on “A Prairie Home Companion.” Her song “Lucky” was featured in the Coca-Cola Footprints commercial for the 2014 Winter Olympics, and “If” appeared in the Netflix series “Russian Doll.” In 2013, she received the Abe Olman Scholarship Award for Excellence in Songwriting from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.