Kelly Garner grew up singing gospel music from a young age, attending “Good Ole Gospel Sings” at her grandparents’ church in Alabama. With this God-given love for singing and songwriting, Kelly began her career as a gospel recording artist at Diadem Records after graduating from Belmont University in 1992. While finishing her degree, she worked as a background vocalist and hand music copyist. Her debut album was released and distributed by Brentwood-Benson in 1995 while she was touring extensively across North America. She became an exclusive staff writer for Niles Borop at Centergy Music Group from 1998-2003. While staff writing at Centergy, she wrote many songs such as “I Stand Redeemed” by Legacy Five, “My God Will Always Be Enough” by Karen Peck, “Stand and Testify” by Vestal Goodman and the Martins, as well as countless others. Kelly was asked to teach Commercial Voice for Belmont University in 2001 and concurrently worked on a Master of Arts in Jazz Studies from Middle Tennessee State University, graduating in 2004.  In 2006, she left Belmont and went back into industry work, building Yellow Tree Music Publishing and Big Dog Studios from 2006-2011. 

     In 2011, she moved to Miami to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts (D.M.A.) degree from Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Jazz Performance with a cognate in Music Technology. While at Miami, she taught adjunct for the University, was a graduate teaching assistant (GTA) in Jazz Voice, taught adjunct in the Creative American Music department and also taught Jazz Voice as an adjunct instructor across town at Miami-Dade University. After completing her D.M.A. in 2014, she moved back to Nashville and took the position of Assistant Professor of Commercial Voice in the School of Music at Belmont University.  In 2019, she was recruited to build a program for Union University in Jackson, TN and successfully built a fully-accredited commercial music program, a Master of Music in Music Technology and a 1,300 square-foot recording studio before her departure in 2022. 

     Dr. Garner is now back to pursuing her first love, the very reason she moved to Nashville 33 years ago, to be a recording artist-songwriter and use her gift of music to encourage others. Her newest album, It's Not Over, was released in April 2023. It is a culmination of meaningful songs she has written recently, some written throughout her career, and a few favorite worship songs written by others! She wants her audience to remember that there is a hope, his name is Jesus and God has a purpose and plan for you, no matter what stage of life you are in! So, indeed, “It’s Not Over!”