Kelly Parkes was born and raised in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. She loved to perform in front of anyone who would listen, whether it was for the neighborhood, or while standing in line at the grocery store. She would soon find herself singing in dorms for her sorority and shows held on campus, in fact when she left college she just “kept on singing”. For her 19th birthday, she spent the day in a recording studio cutting all her favorite cover songs, and then realized she wanted to pursue it further. She worked tirelessly and finally made contact with Nashville songwriter Liz Rose, who cowrote many of the Taylor Swift hits. After meeting with her in Nashville, Parkes realized she needed to get to Nashville to pursue a new career. Short of her 20th birthday, Parkes moved to Nashville to begin developing a recording career “full time”. She researched online to find Kim Copeland Productions which produced an “artist pitch package” including original songs, photos and a bio to attract record labels. This led her to Carol Perdew at Springbarrel Publishing who had one of the songs on Parkes “artist pitch package”. Parkes would soon meet music industry veteran Mike Borchetta, and her recording career began to “take off”. Through an extensive song search, her first single “Nothing” proved to be a winner by impacting the New Music Weekly charts. Borchetta and his team went to work sending Parkes out on radio tours. Her first national appearance was performing the National Anthem for Nascar on the Speed Channel in front of millions. Parkes went on to release the singles “Girl With A Fishing Rod” (co-written by Hillary Scott) and “Don’t Make Me”, which took the #1 spot on the New Music Weekly charts. A debut video soon followed for her single “All Cried Out”, which found a home at Music Choice On Demand. She just released a new single “As Good As Me” and has recently been awarded the 2013 Country Breakthrough Artist of the Year during the New Music Awards. “Thank you Radio, New Music Weekly and all my fans for this wonderful award. I have been totally blessed with wonderful people around me and thankful to you all for believing in me. Also, thank you to my promoters and a very special thank you to my main promoter, Mike Borchetta, who in the two and a half years of working together has inspired me to never stop. Thank You” – Kelly Parkes