About

Elaina Kay comes by her self-reliance naturally. She grew up on her family’s ranch in Wichita Falls, Texas, south of the Oklahoma border known as “Texoma”. Up at 4 a.m. every day, she rode cutting horses, worked cattle, and did any other chore in between. “There was always something to do––being lazy wasn’t an option,” she says. “Then, it was a pain in my ass, but now, I appreciate it.”

In between working at dawn and dusk, Kay discovered music. Her grandmother, Memaw, noticed, and took her to perform at county fairs, beauty pageants, nursing homes, and everything in between. Kay remembers vividly when she began composing her own songs. They were living in a single-wide trailer while her dad built the family a new house. “He was stubborn and building it by himself,” she says. “He said, ‘We’ll be in this trailer for six months.’ Well, we ended up being there for about three years. I hated it. But now, I see I had more fun and more great memories living in that trailer. That is where I really started writing.” Country kids are the last to be dropped off, so on long bus rides home from school, she also took pen to paper.

For college, Kay loaded up two horses and her dog and headed to Tarleton State University, where she joined the rodeo team. “Rodeoing trained me to be on the road like I am now,” she says. “I was traveling then, too, just with horses instead of with long-haired dudes in a band.”

Kay’s album Issues, was produced by Paul Cauthen and Jeff Saenz and features fellow Lone Star State musicians the Texas Gentlemen as the backing band. Kay has been on the road supporting Rhett Miller of the Old 97’s, opened a handful of sold-out shows for Wynonna Judd, then headed out on a west coast tour with Jason Bolland & The Stragglers.

Currently a resident of Arlington, TX, Kay has been nominated for a Dallas Observer Music Award as well as a Central Track Music Honor for “Best Country Act”.

Kay’s talent doesn’t stop at music; she is a multi-faceted business woman and entrepreneur. She is currently a ranch realtor and founder of Cornbread and Country, an annual food and music festival at Sons of Hermann Hall, which is coming up for its sixth year in January.