Ken Pomeroy

Singer and songwriter Ken Pomeroy's richly literate, powerfully emotional songs and clear, emphatic vocals have made her a talent to watch in the Southwest's Americana community. Pomeroy was only 15 when she released the EP Hallways in 2018, but the songs and performances suggested a maturity beyond her years, and the 2021 album Christmas Lights in April found her experimenting with subtle yet sophisticated arrangements. After signing with the prestigious Rounder label, Pomeroy issued 2025's Cruel Joke, her most powerful and accomplished music to date.McKennan Pomeroy grew up in Moore, Oklahoma, and her family was of Cherokee heritage; the Cherokee name her mother gave her translates as "Little Wolf with Yellow Hair." She picked up the nickname Ken as a child, and it stuck among her family and friends. Her father was a musician who also ran a music venue, and she grew up surrounded by instruments and the people who played them. Pomeroy fell in love with music when she heard John Denver's song "Leaving on a Jet Plane," and was so fascinated with the tune that her stepmother burned her a CD with the track repeated 18 times in a row so that young Ken could listen to it over and over again. The song opened her eyes to the possibilities of music and songwriting, and at the age of nine, she had learned to play ukulele and took up writing songs. She graduated to guitar a year later, and at the age of 13, she'd written a nine-minute performance piece about fellow Oklahoman Woody Guthrie for a local history event; she was later invited to perform it in Washington, D.C. for National History Day. She made her recording debut with 2017's Minutes to Hours, a seven-song EP, and the following year, the Oklahoma-based Horton Records imprint released Hallways, a seven-song acoustic EP of Pomeroy performing her original songs. A full album followed in 2021, Christmas Lights in April, and she played and sang with a number of Oklahoma bands, including appearing on Kyle Nix and the .38s's 2023 release After the Flood, Vol. 1. In 2024, Pomeroy appeared on the soundtrack to the film Twisters, performing a cover of Richard & Linda Thompson's "Wall of Death" with Wilderado and James McAlister. Pomeroy began performing regularly with guitarist Dakota McDaniel, and on his advice, she focused on more personal material, and they blocked out plans for recording an album. With Pomeroy and McDaniel working with producers Gary Paczosa (who previously worked with John Prine and Alison Krauss) and Colton Jean (who engineered sessions for Zach Bryan, J.D. McPherson, and Kacey Musgraves), they crafted an album that featured her strongest material to date. Pomeroy struck a deal with Rounder Records to release the LP, and Cruel Joke was issued in May 2025.
© Mark Deming /TiVo