Kree Harrison just released her latest album, Chosen Family Tree. The American Idol alum wrote and chose songs that were personal to her, making the 12-track record an intimate look into her own life, and the impact of the decisions she has made.
“I love to write songs,” Kree told Everything Nash. “That’s one of my favorite things to do. And I believe one of my purposes in life is to share my heart through lyrics, but I also love to have outside songs, especially because I live in Nashville, where we have such amazing songwriters. So even though I could write my whole record, I feel like that would be ignorant for me to want to do that. There’s so many songs that I’ve been pitched that had something that I’ve actually fallen so deeply in love with that. And also, there’s songs that I’ve wanted to cut for a really long time, that I don’t think were right until this record. It just kind of felt like it fit in this puzzle.”
The Texas native chose all of the songs on Chosen Family Tree based on her own experience of moving from her home state to Tennessee to pursue music full-time.
“I moved away from where I grew up and most of my family when I was a really young girl,” Kree reflected. “I have people here in Nashville that are indeed my chosen family, people that I chose and they chose me. It’s something really, really special to me. This is kind of like my love letter back to them and this town.”
It’s been four years since Kree released an album, with her freshman This Old Thing, released in 2016. While some artists like to keep churning out music, the 30-year-old prefers to wait until she has an entire project.
“I don’t necessarily like to just put out a single at a time,” Kree shared. “I like to make a body of work because for me, I especially love listening to full records all the way. It’s one of my favorite things to do is sequence a song list to put it all together, so it takes you on a journey. With that said, it definitely takes time to get it right, and to figure out what I want to say at that time, and to arrange in the production, as far as strings and horns.”
Kree just released Chosen Family Tree, but chances are, it won’t be four more years until she releases more music. But for now, her biggest focus is figuring out how to let people hear the dozen tracks on her new set of tunes.
“I love to write and I feel like, especially with everything going on in the world, and being still in quarantine, it’s really made me do some soul searching,” admitted the singer. “I feel like I have a lot to say already, but I can’t wait to play these songs out. I’m still trying to figure out how to do that, as far as with streams to connect with people from a distance, because obviously this record is really important to me. It’s a song and dance that we’re all still trying to figure out.”
Purchase or stream Chosen Family Tree by visiting Kree’s website.
