ABOUT
Kiley Barwick
Kiley Barwick, born and raised in the heart of flyover country, encompassed the true love for music with roots based in agriculture. While growing up on a farm and ranch in south central Nebraska, her father taught her the benefits of hard work while working cattle, mending fence and irrigating crops. Her family taught her a love for the outdoors, animals and the peacefulness of farm life but they also introduced her mind to something else that sparked an passion, and borderline obsession in her soul; the pursuit of music.
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At a young age, Kiley's parents could tell that she had musical talent. She was constantly tapping her fingers and stomping her feet to the radio. She was always singing around the house to songs she had heard, or making up her own, and could often be found sitting and playing with her mother's guitar. Kiley also spent a lot of time with her great-grandparents during her childhood. Her great-grandmother also noticed her musical talent and started teaching her a couple of gospel songs, that she learned by ear by matching pitches on the piano. It was then she started performing publicly at the age of 3 in her family's church as well as local nursing homes. In 5th grade, Kiley started playing percussion in band class and learned quickly how much she loved playing the drums. With the help of her band teacher she started learning to play the drum set by ear to which her parents encouraged by buying her very own set for Christmas during her 7th grade year. Not long after this, she was asked to join a Rock'nRoll band with 3 of her friends from school who played professionally for private parties, Boy Scouting events, one of their biggest performances being for a Tri-City Storm Hockey game. Kiley also continued her music in school, playing the drum set for pep and jazz band in high school as well as singing in their high school choir and jazz choir.
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Kiley enjoyed playing any type of music but wanted to pursue more of her favorite style, which was country music. In her spare time, Kiley started attending and playing for as many country jam sessions as she could and it was there that she formally met, Blaine Garrelts, who attended several jam session with his steel guitar. They soon formed a friendship and it wasn't long before Blaine invited her to play drums with him in two separate country bands for the next 4 years. He started encouraging her to start singing while playing the drums, to which she excepted the challenge, and she worked her way up to becoming one of the main singers of the band. She performed professionally with this band, while attending college at Doane Univerity where she played in concert, marching and jazz bands, a local worship group as well has taking private lessons and music theory classes to boost her musical capability. After leaving college in 2016, Blaine started teaching Kiley how to play the guitar, which boosted her singing and song-writing capability. They eventually established their duo named "Kiley & Company" in 2018, covering classic country music along with several of Kiley's original songs . They have built a following loyal listeners throughout Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota, Colorado and in South Texas, where they have toured every years since 2019.
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Kiley began searching for a way to boost her original writings so in 2022, she reached out to family friend, Luke Mills with questions on how to accomplish this goal. Luke, who is no stranger to the music industry, was ironically getting ready to start his own music production company, took her under his wing, introducing her to his long time friend and music producer, CR Pedelton. Kiley eventually signed with her first record label, 3rd Rail Records and then transitioned into Suntone Records where she stands today. To date, she has recorded and released 6 original songs, which include her mentor, Blaine Garrelt's musical accompaniment, with another 5 song contracted and in the works within the next two years.
Blaine Garrelts
Blaine Garrelts was born and raised on a farm north of Brady, Nebraska. His mother and father were both musical; his mother sang and his dad played accordion in several local country western bands. Blaine started playing music at the age of 3 years old. Blaine had wanted to learn how to play the guitar but because he was so young and small at the time, his started out with playing the ukulele in his dad's band, standing beside him and chording along to each song they played.
One fun fact about Blaine is that even to this day, he cannot read sheet music, but that doesn't make him any less of a talented musician. Blaine has alway been a self taught musician, playing every song by ear. Once he found something that sounded like a chord, he would run to his dad and ask him what note he was playing. His dad would then grab his accordion, match his pitch and tell him what chord he had found. Blaine chalked that chord up in his mind and that was how he learned how to play every.
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By the age of 4, Blaine moved up to the tenor guitar and quickly taught himself how to play that instrument as well. Blaine even won a competition with his tenor guitar where he got to perform the song"Let Me Go, Lover" live on KRVN radio at the age of 5!
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Blaine moved on to playing a full size guitar by the time he was 13 years old and in school, Blaine started his very own band a year later playing Rock'n'Roll music and they played for street dances and high school dances in the area. He often says that "Rock'n'Roll was okay, but Country Music has always been where my heart is."
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Blaine soon found himself playing in several country bands in the area, and after he graduated high school and moved to Salt Lake City, UT he enrolled in barber college and played music to support himself and his family. After moving to Fort Collins, CO and starting his own hay hauling business, the music still never stopped. He and his best friend Tommy played nearly 6 nights a week for several years together with their band throughout the entire front range of Colorado.
After Blaine bought the family farm and moved back to Nebraska, he was burnt out to say the least. He took several long breaks from playing music, but as any true musician would know, you can never give up playing music entirely. He eventually taught himself how to play the steel guitar and has continued his music playing in several bands throughout Nebraska over the past 40 years. Blaine has worked with Kiley for the last 12 years, accompanying, mentoring and promoting her musical talent.
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In 2024, Kiley set out on a mission and with the help of her producer, Luke Mills, they were able to get Blaine inducted into the Nebraska County Music Hall of Fame as a thank you for how much she appreciated his mentorship and friendship over the years. Blaine was awarded this honor on November 9, 2024 followed by a memorable performance as their duo 'Kiley Barwick & Company".
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