Moore, OK · folk

Ken Pomeroy

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Cherokee songwriter with an old soul — quiet Oklahoma folk that cuts deep, lines that sound handed down rather than written.

Ken Pomeroy is a songwriter from Moore, Oklahoma, and a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She became interested in music at six after hearing John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane," began writing songs at eleven, and started playing gigs at thirteen. At sixteen she opened for Wanda Jackson at the Oklahoma Rodeo Centennial Opry.

She writes in a spare acoustic folk style, mostly guitar and voice, with imagery drawn from the natural world, family and Cherokee stories. Her singing is unforced and conversational, and her songs tend to be short, plainly worded and delivered without embellishment.

After a string of EPs, Pomeroy released her debut album, Christmas Lights in April, in December 2021. In 2023, two unreleased songs, "Pareidolia" and "Cicadas," appeared on the FX series Reservation Dogs; demand from listeners trying to track down "Cicadas" led her to release both as singles within the week.

In 2024 she signed to the roots label Rounder Records. That year she also sang a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's "Wall of Death," recorded with Wilderado and James McAlister, for the soundtrack of the film Twisters, in which she makes a brief on-screen appearance.

Her second album, Cruel Joke, released in May 2025, mixes American folk, Cherokee heritage and Oklahoma red dirt, and features Tulsa songwriter John Moreland on the track "Coyotes." Pomeroy also took her first acting role that year, appearing in Sterlin Harjo's series The Lowdown, and now lives in Tulsa.

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folk