Kearney was born in 1985 and grew up in Iowa City, Iowa. 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 the double bass in the 4th Grade. In high school, she played in the school orchestras and jazz bands and had her own rock and roll band. Kearney's dual college majors were jazz and English. As a sophomore, she played with two bands she helped found: Joy Kills Sorrow and Lake Street Dive.
Collaborations
Kearney is a member of BMI. As a songwriter/composer she has registered over 85 songs. Of those, about 25 are held solely by her, and the rest with nine different songwriters/composers for the artists Lake Street Dive, Cuddle Magic, Joy Kills Sorrow, and Margaret Glaspy.
Lake Street Dive
Kearney is a member of Lake Street Dive, which started touring in 2007. She has appeared with Lake Street Dive on many national shows: The Colbert Report, The Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, National Public Radio, Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and in the first show hosted by Chris Thile. The band has uploaded numerous videos, including their annual, humorous Halloween covers, and T Bone Burnett asked them to perform on the Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of "Inside Llewyn Davis". The band has traveled and performed in almost every state and over a dozen foreign countries. Originally with Signature Sounds Recordings, in 2016 the band signed with Nonesuch Records.
Joy Kills Sorrow
Kearney was also a major songwriter and stand up bass player for Joy Kills Sorrow from 2005 to 2012. Joy Kills Sorrow was a Boston-based indie pop, American roots string band formed in 2005. This band released three albums before Kearney left the band to join Lake Street Dive full-time.
Cuddle Magic
A pop-rock-folk band that varies in membership, Kearney wrote songs and played with Cuddle Magic before joining Lake Street Dive full-time.
The Fundies
The Fundies was another part-time band collaboration featuring Margaret Glaspy, Rachael Price, Kearney and Brittany Haas. Their first performance was in 2010, and they released an EP in 2012. Glaspy and Haas played a Fundies reunion gig in 2015.
Personal life
Kearney likes to run, promote charities, and find adventures on the road. There are videos of her bungee jumping in New Zealand, playing her bass as Pinky Gorrilla and testing hot springs in Iceland. The promotional video for her new album has a speeded up video of Kearney running while singing and playing a guitar. She runs in marathons. While in college, Kearney was a regular vendor at Fenway Park. She holds the one game Red Sox record of selling 104 foam fingers. She claims Tom Brady bought one from her. On August 18, 2012, the Deadly Gentlemen challenged Joy Kills Sorrow to an on-stage "fold down' of their Chadwick basses. Kearney took about 53 seconds to beat Sam Grisman, smiling the whole time.
