Kathy Louvin

She could be called "Country Music Royalty". Born to a country music legend and growing up in Nashville during the heyday of the Grand Ole' Opry, she truly is a living testimony to a family immersed in the tradition of creating and performing great American music. Her father is the late Ira Louvin, tenor half of Country Music Hall of Fame members, The Louvin Brothers. Her mom's side of the family was not lacking in musical destiny either. Her uncle, Johnny Johnson, (mom's brother) played rhythm guitar and sang backup for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs during the high point of their successful career. Another uncle and aunt, Kitty and Smiley Wilson, (mom's sister and her husband) had a very successful indie career performing for the Armed Services Network, as backup for Ferlin Husky, The Louvin Brothers, and as the main attraction on Eddie Hill's Country Junction, a live news/entertainment morning show on the WSM affiliate network in Nashville for several years. Smiley later opened one of the first booking agencies in Nashville, (Wil-Helm Agency) and handled artists such as Loretta Lynn, Porter Wagoner, The Wilburn Brothers, Little Jimmy Dickens, and many of the veteran artists that have gone on to become legends themselves. Their daughter, Little Rita Fay, was a child star with MGM Records, and later signed with Capitol Records, Nashville. Kathy's rich musical heritage ranges all the way back to the Woottens of Sand Mountain, Alabama (The Louvin Brothers' mother's side of the family) and the origin of Shape Note or Sacred Harp Singing style. It was a group of these same Woottens who performed in the major motion picture, Cold Mountain. Kathy began following in her dad's footsteps all the way back to grammar school when she was writing plays, prose, and poetry. Then, in the early eighties, she signed for first exclusive publishing contract and began getting cuts by major recording artists such as Randy Travis, Ricky Van Shelton, Confederate Railroad, Martina McBride, Dwight Yokam, Patty Loveless, and Rhonda Vincent. It wasn't long until she started scoring long-play awards and became a member of BMI's prestigious 'Millionaire's Club', appearing in the ..1 slot on Billboard Magazine's country chart. She recently won two 2004 Grammy Awards for her work as co-Executive Producer and performer on a shining tribute to her father and uncle entitled, 'Living', Loving', Losin', Songs of the Louvin Brothers' on Universal South Records. But it hasn't always been that way. She lost both her parents at a young age, (her father at seven and her mother at seventeen) and spent years "searching for something to fill the void". She had sworn off the music business and the lifestyle that had claimed the lives of her parents. She is writing everything down in an autobiography she calls "Daddy Was A Hillbilly Singer", available soon on kathylouvin.com She is now married to drummer and producer, Chuck Pearson and together they own and operate Honeyboy Productions, a full-scale music production company. They are currently producing a project for Dualtone Records, which is a salute to guitar great, Joe Maphis, and his lovely wife/performing partner, Rose Lee.They live in a suburb north of Nashville with their son, Jacob.