When Kaylee Rutland was just eight years old she recalls raising her hand to sing a solo during her church choir show and was immediately bit by the performance bug. “It was the best feeling in the world and I knew I wanted to do this all of the time. It is something that I will always remember.”  She spent her childhood in Flower Mound, Texas, and grew up  listening to Christian music and Radio Disney, before falling in love with country music.  “It’s always been country music for me, in particular, I would listen to Reba, Carrie Underwood, and Sara Evans,” she recalls.

After graduating high school, Rutland made the move to Nashville to attend Belmont University as a Music Business major. She graduated this past December and attributes so much to her college experience.  Having heard from songwriters in the industry how they wished they had gotten a degree in the inner workings of the music industry, she decided to pursue that track and outside of class take voice lessons and go to songwriting sessions, ultimately creating a good balance of knowledge.  “Getting to take what I learned in the classroom at Belmont and then apply it to my own career and mix being a student with being a musician has been fantastic,” she says of her four years at Belmont.