From small-town SD to Nashville

LESTERVILLE, S.D. (KELO) – Tennessee might be the birthplace of country music, but out on a South Dakota farmhouse’s front porch, you can feel the soul of the music.

“This is where country music is,” singer/songwriter Elizabeth Jo said. “We live the life of country music. I think it’s a lifestyle. I think it’s a way of life and family and friends and love stories, sad stories.”

Elizabeth Jo followed a path familiar to many South Dakotans. She grew up on a farm outside of Lesterville, graduated from Bon Homme High School and got her nursing degree at USD.

But then, she decided to take a road less traveled by.

“So, in 2021 after COVID cleared up a little bit, decided to make the jump to Nashville and really pursue music,” Elizabeth Jo said.

It was a jump that came as no surprise to her family.

“She loved to listen to music,” dad Daniel Kubal said. “When she was about a year and a half old, in her diaper, she would be listening to music or we would be listening to music and she’d be listening along. And she’d always shake her hips back and forth and it would just crack me up in that diaper. So I started calling her ‘Showbiz Liz’ because she was always entertaining.”

“She is definitely courageous and has always been the one to kind of put her neck out there and follow her dreams,” sister Dana Guthmiller said.

And as soon as her boots hit the Broadway pavement in Nashville, Elizabeth Jo got to work.

“Two months ago, I released my first single, ‘Ride Away Cowboy,'” Elizabeth Jo said.

‘Ride Away Cowboy’ already has over 50,000 streams and her two biggest fans couldn’t be prouder.

Lauren Soulek: Do you like her song that she put out?

“Oh I love it, yeah,” Kubal said.

“Every chance I can get I’m always talking about it, whether it’s coworkers or just random people. I’m always trying to get the buzz out there about Liz,” Guthmiller said.

“I feel like I’m really living out the dreams I’ve had my whole life,” Elizabeth Jo said.

As her dreams come true, she always remembers her South Dakota roots.

“I really do love taking in just the way I grew up, you know, watching my dad on the farm, watching my grandpa on the farm, my grandma cooking meals for us,” Elizabeth Jo said. “Just the family-centered lifestyle, bringing that into the writing room.”

Proving that even a small-town kid can make it in Nashville.

“You know, it’s going to be hard. It’s not always easy down there but if you have the mindset to do it, I think you can,” Elizabeth Jo said. “In South Dakota, we are taught very hard work ethic and so that is one thing I have taken with me down there.”

Elizabeth Jo is coming back home to South Dakota in August to perform at Riverboat Days in Yankton, where she’ll be one of the openers for Randy Houser. That show is the night of August 16th.

If you’d like to listen to her new single ‘Ride Away Cowboy,’ it’s available on all streaming platforms and YouTube .

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