Bridget Kearney (kə́ːnɪj, car'-nee) is an American musician and songwriter. She is a founding member of the band Lake Street Dive and winner of the 2005 John Lennon Songwriting Contest in the Jazz category. Kearney's solo recording work began with her debut solo album, Won't Let You Down, released by Signature Sounds Recordings in 2017 followed by a number of singles released on YouTube, social media sites such as Instagram. Biography Early life, influences and education Kearney was born and grew up in Iowa City, Iowa. Her mother played flute. She started her journey with music in the Lutheran Church's Cherub choir. Kearney took piano lessons at the age of 5 and began playing bass in the 4th grade. She listened to her parent's rock and roll records from the 1960's and gained an appreciation of the Beatles' music. In high school, she played in the school orchestras and jazz bands and had her own rock and roll band. At 13, Kearney and her band, MetroPilot, won a songwriting contest for a song called "Live" about the dangers of tobacco, where the prize was to perform the song in front of a live audience including keynote speaker and former United States Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Bridget fronted the band playing electric bass and singing lead vocals. In interviews she recalls how her jazz band director in high school, Rich Medd, always made class fun saying, "I was always excited to go to jazz band rehearsal and that is one of the reasons I’m still playing music." Already an accomplished and devoted bass player at a young age, Kearney played electric bass through junior high school, after which she moved to jazz music and switched to an upright or double bass until age 35 when Kearney acquired a number of electric bass guitars and other gear which expanded her sound. Kearney's knowledge, skills and innate capacity for creativity took her to a much higher musical level while studying with Mark Urness, a versatile bassist, composer, and educator in Iowa City at the time who later moved to teaching at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Her early bass influences were Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus and Charlie Haden. In college Kearney double majored, studying jazz bass at the New England Conservatory of Music and English at Tufts University. As a sophomore, she played with two bands she helped found: Joy Kills Sorrow and