Story Written by Greg Wilson

In life you may have the occasion to meet and know one truly phenomenal singer songwriter. Lots of them are out there. Sometimes you hear them on the radio, most times you don’t as the whole package famous singer-songwriter (the Carole Kings and Jame Taylor’s ) are hard to come by. Kim was the whole package. Read on for Greatest Singer Songwriter You Never Heard was my friend Kim KC Carrere.

My friend Kim KC Carrere

Greatest Singer Songwriter You Never Heard was my friend Kim KC Carrere

I’d like to take a few minutes of your time to introduce you to one of the greatest singer songwriters you likely never heard. His name is William Kim “KC” Carrere. My wife and I had the privilege of knowing Kim when we lived in Winder, Georgia. We met him the day he walked into our songwriters’ café, “Inside the Song,” and introduced himself to us. I got to know him very well because we spent a lot of road miles together playing and singing in the groups Freedom Reign, Ransom and a duo known as Ka’hootz. I will always consider him one of my best friends.

Make each day count

They say that time flies. It certainly does and none of us should take it for granted. I make this statement for a reason. My main co-writer is my wife. During those days, we would write our songs and Kim would write his. Yet, out of all the time we spent together, we only sat down once to write a song together. The reason for this is mostly because we were always busy gigging and Kim was more of a southern Rocker and I am more of a country singer.  We gelled together performing on stage with me being a little more country and him being a little more rock and roll. Our audience really dug it at our shows. Regrettably, now we know just how short time would be. We only managed to write one song together. We were planning on writing more but time ran out.

Miles Patrick Road

I remember that day. We sat in my living room on Miles Patrick Road, just the three of us and hacked out this song idea, melody and the lyrics over beers in Winder, Georgia. There were big changes happening in Kim’s life and writing always helped him work things out. The very next day we went back to gigging that took us everywhere. We started leaving out of Georgia to Mississippi, Florida, the Carolina’s, Alabama and back to Georgia again. We were a busy set of pickers.

Deep Water

The song that was born out of that session was “Deep Water.” In honor of the greatest singer songwriter you never heard, we present “DEEP WATER.” Just a few weeks before Kim passed; we had sent him a rough demo of his version of the song. He was thrilled a copy of it actually still existed.  He wanted to organize all his music for his family, “just in case.” We don’t think he got that chance. Ironically, I was getting ready to release a new album so I included my version of the song on my latest album. I am linking my version of the song so everyone that loved Kim gets a chance to hear it. We promised we would keep his music alive and we will keep that promise.  KIM’S DEMO of DEEP WATER has been made available.  He verified that it was his son Jonah talking in the background when he was just a little boy.

Cancer Sucks

Greatest Singer Songwriter You Never Heard was my friend Kim KC Carrere

As poignant as it is, we lost the opportunity to write anything more with him because the greatest singer you never heard, Kim “KC” Carrere passed away on November 22, 2022.  As soon as he was diagnosed, he called me because he knew I had been through the fire with my own battle against bladder cancer.  Kim called cancer “the dreaded big “C.”  He said he was going to fight it and that was all he knew. He believed in Jesus and Heaven and said he “would be a winner either way.”

This is not goodbye my friend

So the Freebird has flown and our dear friend is belting it out and throwing them down with the other rockers in rock and roll heaven.  Kim, save a spot for me and I’ll see you when I get there.  The rest of you reading this can stream “Deep Water,” either on Spotify above or stream it on YouTube below.