The Time Feels Right for Chloe Kimes and ‘Daredevil’

When you listen to Chloe Kimes’ viral hit “Coors Light,” there are a few lines where you can hear her smile through the music. Her infectious joy in singing and writing is part of what has made her an Americana internet darling. 

With her second album Daredevil out Oct. 16, audiences will hear a more nuanced Kimes. “Coors Light” is a fast-paced, cheeky ditty that went rocketing around the web after Kimes shared a video of her band playing radio station WDVX's Blue Plate Special in Knoxville in 2024.

“‘Coors Light’ was sort of the outlier in my work and people would find it and be like, ‘Man, I found you through ‘Coors Light,’ but I had no idea about all this other music that you had,’” Kimes says. “That was one of my favorite things that happened when ‘Coors Light’ was going viral.”

Raised in Michigan, Kimes moved to Middle Tennessee in 2016, earned a songwriting degree at Middle Tennessee State University and a DJ gig on radio station WMOT, and started working as a Nashville singer, songwriter and bandleader. Kimes intentionally uses the “bandleader” word, one often reserved for the likes of Lawrence Welk. “It feels like a natural word describing a couple of years of keeping a band on the road,” she says. “It takes a lot of work. But it is so much fun being in a band.”

Kimes has been writing music since age 10. She shared her feelings and observations with her family first, then on the Michigan music circuit, before moving to Nashville. She describes herself as a “really lyrically dense writer.”

“I’ve used songwriting as a really safe space where I feel like I can kind of write my whole truth, but can say it in a song and present it onstage as a story,” she says. “And no one has to know how much of it is truly my heart, or how much of this is me being a songwriter and a storyteller. Sometimes I feel like a storyteller, and sometimes I feel like a truth teller, and I like to kind of remain in the middle.”

Daredevil is the most polished version of Kimes she’s ever made public, but it’s not overproduced. Recorded live in the studio, it includes a version of “Coors Light” tracked at RCA Studio A after the song surged in popularity. “It’s the oldest song on the record, but it’s also kind of like the anchor for everything that came after it,” she says. 

Many themes from her earlier work — road trips, road life, reflection, relationships and beer — appear on Daredevil. They’re presented in more mature, nuanced ways, but with that same sense of joy and audible smiles. “He Still Listens to the Radio” is a love song to a person as well as to a different time. “Triton V8” is an ode to road life, infused with loneliness, potential and the vastness of the U.S.

“I feel like you can really feel the energy of me and my buddies just being like, ‘Oh, we’re really nailing this,’” she says. “A couple of the songs we got in like one take, like on ‘Barstool Lemonade,’ which is one that I’m really excited about.” Kimes wrote it for her dad, and it wasn’t a single, so only folks who've seen her perform live have heard it. 

Her online persona offers a glimpse into bandleader life: dealing with a broken-down van in a rural area on an aggressive tour schedule, hanging with her dog Banjo, or hyping herself up before she steps into the spotlight. 

“I like being onstage because that’s when it’s sharing,” she says. “I also like jamming with my friends, which is something I don’t have a ton of time for these days. So for me, getting that sharing experience is onstage, and it’s my favorite space to be in.”

The Daredevil release show on Oct. 15 is her first performance at Skinny Dennis in East Nashville, although she loves to hang out there, drink beer there and dance there. She hopes those who come to the show will appreciate Daredevil’s balanced mix of “up-tempo, high-energy boot stompers with the more intimate pieces.” 

Kimes calls her fans “friends.” “‘Fans’ feels weird,” she says. “You came to my show, and you bought a ticket, and you’re wearing my T-shirt, and essentially, you know some of my deepest, darkest secrets — whether they’re true or not. So, we’re friends.”

Those “friends” also send Kimes snail mail to her P.O. box, so for the Skinny Dennis show she created a custom Daredevil postcard to give folks who buy advance tickets. The album, too, can be preordered online in advance of the show. Tickets to the show, with the five-piece band, are $15 and Nashville’s Allison Young will open. Daredevil will also be part of the lineup for WMOT’s weekly free Finally Friday acoustic show at 3rd and Lindsley at noon on Oct. 16.