Kalie Shorr Uses Girl Power and Clever Songwriting to Guide Her New EP, ‘Slingshot’

Kalie Shorr is ready to ‘Fight Like a Girl’ with all of her gumption and glory to make her name known following the release of her brand new EP, Slingshot.

As a newcomer to the country music scene, Shorr put her heart and soul into her songwriting to create a vulnerable, yet powerful, project that listeners from all around can relate to. Mixing together the authenticity of a country lyric with the flirty vibes of pop music, Shorr explores her best self throughout the five-song project and gets real throughout every track.

“I mean, definitely a lot of girl power is still in it. It’s a huge part of my sound and how I identify myself. But it’s also a little more organic than the previous stuff I’ve put out. I’m so influenced by pop. I love, love, love pop music and I grew up listening to it and everything I write has a little bit of that flair in it just naturally. But I also love country music and this is the genre I want to be in, and I’m so influenced by pure country artists, too. So I wanted to kind of give a nod to that, and still have that pop flair and fun-ness in there, but also kind of root it a little bit more in country music than I did previously,” she explained to Sounds Like Nashville during a phone interview.

The idea of naming the EP Slingshot, though, didn’t just come to her overnight. While the simplistic one-word title calls a bold statement into action, it was the deep metaphorical outlook that hooked Shorr onto the possibility of having Slingshot stick.

“So we went with Slingshot. It’s a line in ‘Fight Like a Girl’ that says, ‘What he doesn’t know is I’ve got a slingshot and a stone.’ So it’s like a reference to David and Goliath. Occasionally in the music industry, I feel a little bit more like David and the industry feels like Goliath. Kind of a shout-out to that, but also if you really dive into the metaphor—which I’m a songwriter, I love diving into metaphors—a slingshot is a vessel for getting something somewhere. So the music is what you put in the slingshot and the music is the slingshot and the message is what’s in it,” Shorr revealed.

The up-and-coming songstress co-wrote four of the five tracks featured on the EP, including “Fight Like a Girl,” which helped her become 2016’s second best-selling debut country female (behind Maren Morris). Slingshot, which is available for purchase now, was produced by Aaron Eshuis (Ryan Hurd, Rascal Flatts).