Katie Jo Oberthaler

Kansas-born country artist Katie Jo brings a Midwestern sensibility to melodies that dance in defeat of life’s plainest realities. Her debut album, Pawn Shop Queen, cut rights to the dark heart of country music: infidelity, religion, depression. The 9-song collection offers up succinct yet racous, sweet yet road-weary tales of a woman who’s had her heart broken more than once but still stands strong. A torchbearer for stars like Patty Loveless, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette, Katie Jo shakes up expectations of what a female country artist can and should sing about.

A feisty live performer, Katie Jo has shared the stage with legends like Willie Nelson and Billy Joe Shaver and contemporary stars like Charley Crockett, Sunny Sweeney, Flatland Calvary, Jaime Wyatt, and others.

“Dreamy, nostalgic and infectiously genuine” — American Songwriter

“PAWN SHOP QUEEN is a genuine country album, soul searching and written from the heart..a launching pad for an artist with vast potential.” - Lonesome Highway

“Katie Jo has something to say that sticks in your mind, while the melodies and interesting song structures she brings to certain songs haunt you keenly after hearing them, especially the title track.” - Saving Country Music

“Katie Jo has an approach sharp & delightful on her debut. Sings of topics few country singers dare…she’s an edgy original.” - Americana Highways

Pawn Shop Queen tackles themes at the dark heart of country music: infidelity, religion, depression. The catalyst for her new record came four years ago while she was going through a trying period in her personal life when she found herself ending a life-threatening pregnancy, unable to have children, and discovered that her partner had been unfaithful to her.

“It was a very traumatic, life-altering thing to go through alone," she says. "For several years, I just kept it to myself and fell into deep depression. It really destroyed my emotional fortitude.”

Out of this isolation arose Pawn Shop Queen, a 9-song collection that brings Katie Jo’s Midwestern sensibility to memorable melodies that dance in defeat of life’s plainest realities: circumstances might be bad, and probably getting worse, so better to take it in stride and get on with it, then. This isn’t soft-spoken folk nor hard-scrabble outlaw snarls: it’s lyric vulnerability mixed with vivacious energy. It’s having a chip on your shoulder while still looking for one to cry on.

Produced by Chris Schlarb at Big Ego Studios, Pawn Shop Queen was created in the tradition of country records past, with a live backing band in one room, in just three days.

Now backed by a powered-up 5 piece backing band, Katie has made a name for herself as a high-energy live act as well as a studio songwriter. Touring across the West Coast, Midwest, and Europe, she has shared the stage with artists such as Billy Joe Shaver, Sunny Sweeney, Lucero, Jaime Wyatt, Sam Outlaw, and more.

With Pawn Shop Queen, Katie Jo shakes up traditional expectations of what a female country artist can and should sing abou. Not only does her music challenge stigmas, it’s the sound of a promising young songwriter coming into her own, taking some of life’s most daunting and painful struggles and turning them into something powerful.