Cori Kennedy to open for Randy Houser at SCFF

Cori Kennedy returns to the Steele County fairgrounds Aug. 21, opening for Randy Houser at the grandstand.
Kennedy, a West Concord native, has been rising in the country music world since she was a contestant on NBC’s The Voice (Season 28) where she joined Team Reba McEntire and advanced through battles and knockouts.
She appeared in Owatonna earlier this year at the Spring into Summer event at the fairgrounds.
Kennedy said in an interview last week that she has had a busy time since her appearance on the Voice.
She moved to Nashville, hired an agent and put together a band. She also quietly married her fiancé, Eric.
The process of putting together a band was also a unique experience, she said, as she was looking for band members and she started getting applications. She even did the initial interviews online.
Her band members, she said, come from California, Colorado, Arizona and Seattle.
Most of her summer appearances have been in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, she said, but as fall approaches she is planning to expand her performances nationally and perhaps internationally.
None of her band members are from Minnesota, she said, and she has been enjoying showing them around her home state.
One of the biggest challenges about her new life, she said, is all the planning and business aspects of being a performer. She sometimes feels like an event coordinator. “I’m really fortunate in having a really awesome management team,” said Kennedy.
A career as a musician was not among her goals when she was growing up in West Concord and attending the Kasson-Mantorville Schools. She was active in 4-H in Dodge County and showed sheep, but by the time she reached Middle School sports became her major activity even as she played percussion in the K-M band. Kennedy graduated in 2015 and played softball at Minnesota State University Mankato where she was an NCAA softball national champion.
After college she worked in broadcasting, worked for a year at 911 in Steele County then settled into a retail job selling furniture in Rochester. She loved her job selling furniture, she said, and while thinking about trying out for the Voice she actually wondered if she should do it because she would miss not being at work.
“If I hadn’t been on the Voice, I would probably still be selling furniture,” she said.
Kennedy said she is really excited about her upcoming fair performance and especially being on the same program with Randy Houser. She has never met him, she said, but said she has been a fan since high school when she would listen to his music.
Her performance at the fair will also be something special, she said, since this will be the first live performance husband Eric has attended in person.
Despite growing up close to Steele County, she has never been to the local fair.
“Randy Houser with special guest Cori Kennedy” begins at 7 p.m. in the grandstand. Tickets are available through the fair website.