Kyshona tours into Baker City

Published 8:00 am Monday, August 4, 2025

Concert is a membership bash for KBZR

BAKER CITY — Kyshona was headed to college on a music scholarship, but she really wanted to study psychology.

Then she learned about music therapy.

“I fell in love with the field — taking music and an instrument into spaces where people are healing,” she said. “Seeing I can play a part in their recovery.”

Now in Nashville, she works with youth and women in recovery. She also takes a collaborative writing program called Your Song to communities

Many of those she works with, she said, “have been told their stories aren’t important.”

Telling their stories, which become lyrics, changes that belief.

“We go through the journey, show them how important their voice is, how important their story is,” she said. “You have the microphone — you have the power.”

She balances music therapy with her own songwriting, which started in the early 2000s.

“It was a self-care outlet, then I started going to open mics,” she said.

Now she tours her own music, as a trio or solo act, and often brings the Your Song program to communities near her shows.

Her music is influenced by several traditions.

“Some come out gospel, some bluesy, some country,” she said. “I’m just telling a story.”

Baker City show

Kyshona has toured in the West for the last three years, but this month she’ll have her first show in Eastern Oregon — Saturday, Aug. 9, at Churchill School, 3451 Broadway St.

Doors open at 6 p.m. and the music starts at 6:45 p.m.

This concert is also the Radioactive Ball membership bash and launch party for KBZR, a community radio station that started streaming online in March 2024 and hit the radio waves at 89.9 FM in early June.

Members receive a free ticket to Kyshona’s show — yearly memberships are $25 individual or $45 for a family. For details, visit kbzr.org/support-kbzr.

The evening, which is partially sponsored by KBZR, also featured merchandise, a silent auction and prize drawing.

Concert tickets are also available through eventbrite.com or at the door. For information, visit churchillbaker.com.