Kai Welch

Kai Welch is a Nashville-based songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer.

He has shape-shifted between these multiple roles his whole musical life, from early years as a semi-serious classical musician, to formative times busking as a young man to help shoestring his sailing adventures in the South Pacific, through to a current career as a studio-owner/record producer/session musician in Nashville.

As a songwriter, Kai once lost a grammy to John Prine, which he says feels like a big win. He has produced records for artists as diverse as bluegrass superstar Molly Tuttle, indie favorite Rayland Baxter, and psychedelic voyager Ric Robertson (The Sam Grisman Project).  As an instrumentalist Kai has contributed to records by artists like Rodney Crowell, Sarah Jarosz, Rhiannon Giddens, Morgan Wade, and countless more. And as a sideman, he has crisscrossed the world for 15 years, notably with: Kacey Musgraves during her meteoric multiple-grammy-winning “Golden Hour” era, Rickie Lee Jones, Abigail Washburn, and the return in the 2020s of early-2000s rock band The Fray.