NASHVILLE – Her mother Carolyn says that the baby was supposed to be a boy. She was supposed to be like Billy “Bruiser” Kinnard, the pro football tackle. Her dad, Gil had been calling the baby that for months. What a surprise when Gil and Carolyn had a baby girl, Kimberly Ann. One thing you can say about Kimberly Ann Cook, she still tackles a song like her namesake. You’ll never hear a better pop singer deliver a torch song in your life. Maybe it’s the fact that she just reaches down inside all that soul and sings with the emotion of a stadium packed with fans, or it could be that she’s a winner who knows how hard it really is to get a break in this game of music, but whatever it is, it will make the hair stand up on your arms about the second song on her latest album.
The beginning for Kimberly Ann and her parents wasn’t easy for a military couple whose darling baby girl was born on December 18th. Kimberly’s mother, Carolyn grew up in Calera, Alabama. She met Gilbert Arthur Cunningham on the beach in Panama City, Florida on vacation. They were married in the Calera Baptist Church on May 9th after that chance meeting turned into a courtship, and a deep abiding love that has provided support for the career of their daughter ever since. Gil shipped out of Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida to the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado to start his family. They settled in a small apartment in a Victorian type home at the base of Pike’s peak.
Maybe it was the God given beauty of the peak, the spectacular Colorado rainbows that glisten over the snow-capped mountains, or the rushing of the pure Rocky Mountain spring water that poured out of the side of the hill country, but romance gave way to Kimberly Ann some two years after the move to Colorado Springs. Every year Kimberly’s birthday falls seven days before Christmas and every year Carolyn’s reminded that the Air Force hospital charged them a total of $7.00 for the military birth of their baby. “I’ve always heard that seven was God’s perfect number and Kimberly was God’s perfect gift to us that Christmas,” Carolyn remembers. The doctor told Carolyn to take Kimberly home and put her under the Christmas tree. That’s exactly what the young couple did.
The military stint was coming to a close. Gil prepared to move his young family to Twin Lakes subdivision, in Little Rock. Since Kimberly’s father was originally from Searcy, Arkansas it seemed like Arkansas was the place to start their family life. Uncle Sam had finished getting his piece of the family. Gil went into the sales business. Carolyn got a job because she thought she needed to help with the family’s overhead. She only worked at the Credit Bureau a few days. “I just became overwhelmed with the desire to be home with my daughter Kimberly who was only five months old. I quit the Credit Bureau and became a stay at home mom.”
At home, their little torch singer was listening to Elvis, Sam Cook, Vicki Carr and Roy Orbison. Gil and Carolyn found their daughter’s love of music was growing daily. “Kimbo,” as her dad affectionately calls her, sang everytime the radio came on from the time she was about three. Her parents loved music. Carolyn says, “Gil and I loved music. Music was such a big part of our lives. But there is nothing like hearing your own child sing the music that touches her.” Kimberly credits her father with giving her two extremely important things as a child. He always emphasized emotion and excellence in my singing.
“Dad would drive me to school when I was five and he and I would sing the song, Cattle Call, made famous by one of the superstars of country music, Eddie Arnold, on the way to school. As my singing expanded, my father would emphasize how important emotion was in my music.” Dad would say, “ It’s not enough to just sing the notes in a song Kimberly. You have to put the emotion in there. So, you need to sing those songs from the bottom of your toes.” Those guidelines have kept excellence and soulful emotion as a top priority in the torch singer’s career through the years.
Kimberly’s mother on Kimberly’s music career is filled with emotion. “I’m glad she’s gotten a break. She’s worked hard at her music her whole life and has always loved music. God gave her the talent to sing and I’m happy to see her doing what she’s always been so happy doing her entire life…..singing.” From age three, starting with Joel Ruminer’s School of Dance, through those years was in a dance group called, “The Pearls,” until she joined the Sylvan Hills United Methodist Church choir, Kimberly has loved to sing. Her first public solo performance was in the fifth grade. She sang the Streisand song, “My Heart Belongs To Me.” Afterwards, her dad patted her on the back and said, “Great job Kimbo.” The nickname stuck to her like glue. Gil was beaming over his daughter’s performance on stage instead of a football performance on the field. She’s still singing great music and performs her songs with a passion that is as pure and high as the Colorado mountains where she was born.
As a child, Kimberly often begged her parents to let her stay up late and watch Sonny & Cher’s television show. Her favorite song, “I’ve Got You Babe.” Music has been the simple focus of her entire life. If she did anything, it was because there was music associated with it. Guitar lessons from Jackie Dickson, and vocal lessons from her church choir teacher Barbara Ernst, only helped fortify the desire to perform in her. To sing became compelling to her nature. Looking back at the awards she received, like “Most Outstanding Choir Student,” Carolyn gets tears in her eyes. “As an 8th grader, Kimberly made all region choir and later all state choir.” Her drama participation at North Pulaski High School in Fiddler On The Roof, and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown cemented her now growing commitment to perform in front of audiences.
Yes, she was on the drill team, yes she was a girl scout, she was elected Student Council President, and voted, “Best All Around Student,” at Northwood Jr. High School, but nothing lights up the fire in her eyes like asking her about her music. She sang with the Reach Out Singers, performed at Magic Springs theme park in the show, “How This Land Can Sing,” but she began to really broaden her talents in the music field at Ouachita Baptist University, located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
Kimberly as a senior received a music scholarship in vocal performance and found herself a music major studying theory, voice, piano, and performing arts. Joining the Ouachita Baptist University all female touring group, the Ouachi-tones provided Kimberly with an opportunity to branch into secular music as well as Contemporary Christian music. Her musical director and voice teacher, Mary Shambarger was also working with her at the theme park. Somewhere in all of this activity was a heart that longed to just sing and found its way into the Miss America pageant system as a freshman in college.
Every year the Miss Arkansas Pageant was held in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Kimberly starts to recall. Magic Springs is in Hot Springs and the shows from the Magic Springs theme park always performed at the Miss Arkansas pageant. “I competed for the first time in the Miss Arkansas pageant between my freshman and sophomore years of college. I competed as “Miss East Central Arkansas,” and won the Bob Evans Talent Award. At this point in my life, I was far more interested in becoming Miss Ouachita Baptist University than becoming Miss Arkansas.” Her sophomore year at Ouachita, Kimberly Ann was selected to represent OBU as Miss Ouachita Baptist University in the Miss Arkansas pageant. I was the 20th annual Miss Ouachita Baptist University that year.
Kimberly toured with the Arkansas Repertory Theater in a play called, “Pageant.” She transferred to the University of Arkansas to pursue her studies where she graduated with a BA in Communications and a minor in Journalism. She became a member of a local Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas and continued to work in the church in a musical capacity both as a member and as a singer. Her Master’s program in communications and interpersonal organizational skills furthered her desire to work in the field of training and development.
Kimberly was married at the Temple Baptist Church. He was in his junior year in medical school. His father who is a leading historian and also a minister, married the couple two years prior to his going into active military duty and moving to North Carolina. Kimberly Ann and her husband worked in the military for three years until they moved to Texarkana, Texas to finish his residency. There Kimberly involved herself in singing at the local Baptist Church. She taught the second and third grade children’s choir and continued to sing herself as the opportunities presented themselves. The move to Tennessee was to spark a life long dream in the soulful torch singer’s life. “Sometimes we don’t always see the things that life has in store for our future,” Kimberly remarks. “A lot of events that led up to my recording the first album, remind me of my dad’s half brother. Grady plays all kinds of musical instruments. He’s also handicapped with blindness. That handicap has never stopped him from pursuing his music or his profession.”
"There is no handicap greater than the desire to sing and no opportunity to do so". It was Nashville that opened the door for this album of sizzling torch numbers that move like a “live” Tina Turner show from the first song, “I’ve Got The Music In Me,” to the tearfully wrenched heart-felt emotion crying out in the soulful delivery of, “Wee Small Hours.” Kimberly’s husband, was about to finish his residency in Texarkana, Texas. Kimberly had been contacted by some recruiters in Tennessee in a small suburb of Nashville’s music community. The young couple really had no intentions of moving to Nashville. However, it has been well said that “the doors of destiny swing on very small hinges.” The couple interviewed and decided to take the job. When Kimberly was looking for houses, she met her next door neighbor, and told him that she taught voice. By September of 1999, Kimberly was working with ten year old country music performer, Emily Horton. That led to her break into the music business today. Zig Ziglar has said, “If I help enough other people get what they want in life, then God gives me what I want in return.”
On May 24th, Carolyn’s birthday, an agent for Emily who had missed a couple of meetings prior to May 24th, called. The agent said that she wanted to get together for a third try at finding Emily Horton a producer. The now eleven year old performer was taken to the offices of Capitol Management in downtown Nashville to meet with producer Robert Metzgar. Metzgar has been working in the music industry for over 25 years and has promoted such top acts as Kenny Rogers, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Billy Joel and Charly McLain. His story is found in the current Random House book, 'American Thunder' which is the biography of Garth Brooks. Arriving at the producer’s office at 3:00 p.m., Emily was accompanied on that meeting by her mother, Betty Horton and Kimberly Ann Cook. The agent had given Mr. Metzgar about ten minutes notice by cell phone and asked if she could drop by with some people in tow. It’s Nashville remember, not Los Angeles.
Robert asked Emily to sing for him in the office. Emily, while not feeling well, decided to sing anyway and sang the Jessica Andrews song, “I Will Be There For You.” Written by one of Mr. Metzgar’s most admired friends, Tom Shapiro, the song touched his heart. Metzgar was extremely impressed with a child who had been vocal coached so well. During the interview, Mr. Metzgar asked Kimberly Cook to please stay involved in the future project. Metzgar said, “Artists are like athletes and sometimes they fall apart in the studio without their vocal coach.”
After Metzgar recorded Emily Horton’s first session, he invited Kimberly Cook along with some friends of his from Florida to see the Elvis impersonator Michael Dean, perform at a concert in Nashville on Friday, June 30th. Kimberly was talking with Robert about the background singers for the Elvis impersonator and said, “Is there a lot of work for people like that in Nashville?” Robert said, “As a vocal coach, you will always have a job. There’s a world of bad singers out there.” “No,” Kimberly explained, “Not as a vocal coach, as a singer?” Robert got a big question mark in his facial expression and said,” Do you sing?” Kimberly answered, “Yes, and I’m pretty good at it.” The rest of that conversation is now history.
They left the concert. Producers are always a little taken back by singers. Finally, on Tuesday, July 11th, Robert called Kimberly and wanted to know, “What type of music do you sing?” Kimberly said, “I sing everything, but I really love torch songs.” Those words were like music to the ears of a producer who had been sincerely praying for a different sound and a new artist to produce in the Nashville market. “In the past,” Metzgar says, “Nashville was known as the home of country music. Today, it is known as the home of America’s music.”
Metzgar said, “Tony Migliore and I have always wanted to record and produce a torch singer. I have wanted to work on a torch album for such a long time.” So, Kimberly and Robert met on a Thursday night at a local Nashville restaurant. Here, they started to discuss at Valentino’s the actual dates that the torch album could begin. The next morning, Friday July 14th, they started looking through original material. Two weeks later on July 25th, they were in the studio with some of Nashville’s most renown session players cutting the first session of their torch album. At that session, Gil, Carolyn and Kristen (Kimberly’s sister) got to watch a major album session in a world class studio for the first time. During the rendering of the song, “Butterfly,” which is an original piece on the album, Mr. Metzgar turned to see Gil Cunnningham with tears in his eyes. Kimberly’s dad said, “I’ve always wanted to see her have this opportunity.” Metzgar said later that the entire expense of the album would have been worth it all for that one moment in history.
It’s been a whirlwind of activity since that first session with renown photographer Dan Helland, taking the commercial pictures for the album on August 14th and then the second session of songs in the studio on August 21st. Kimberly Ann Cook has passed the Nashville litmus test. She still shows up at the studio but now the players call her by her nickname. A bond and relationship has been built in the Nashville music community between this incredibly gifted performer from Little Rock Arkansas and the long time musicians that have played on so many hit albums. “ There are lots of songs in Nashville, but very few people who can bring them off in the studio like Kimberly” Metzgar commented. “ She’s got the music in her spiritual soul and that’s where it counts.” For further information on the torch singer or to purchase this album online just go to Purchase Kimberly Ann Cook Album with credit card.
Source: http://www.angelfire.com/tn/capitolmanagement/kac/biography.html
