Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - When I first heard Brittany Kingery perform, just after she arrived in Bucerias in 2013, I was very impressed with her vocals and her friendly, easy going delivery. Seeing Brittany and her band perform now is a reminder of the hard work and dedication that she's put into becoming a superb entertainer. And who doesn't like the "tropical rock" genre, aka Jimmy Buffet and Kenny Chesney? Brittany brings her "inner" country to The Red Room every Monday night at 7:30 pm throughout the winter.

Not long ago, she was a government worker in the United States' Pacific Northwest. Today, the beautiful and very talented Brittany Kingery is a rising star in Puerto Vallarta's music scene. A few months after the release of her tropically-themed 2013 debut CD, Edge of the Ocean, this McCleary, Washington-born singer-songwriter decided to practice what she preached in her music. She quit her secure government job, packed up her ukulele and followed her dream to Bucerías, a small fishing village on the Mexican Pacific near Puerto Vallarta.

When Brittany released Edge of the Ocean, she recalls that expectations for the project were modest. Her band mate and producer Rob Hill approached her with the proposal to record a CD to raise money for a Mexico-based charity. Most of the songs on the CD were about life in Bucerías, so the plan was to market it to tourists who they hoped would purchase it as a souvenir of their vacation. What neither could have known was that the music video for her song Treasures, also known locally as "The Bucerías Song," caught the attention of one 'Trop Rock' internet radio station after another. Before long, several songs from the album were in regular rotation and people were taking notice of the singer, whose stellar voice alternated between sweet and soaring.

Brittany sometimes uses the term "tropical rock," or "trop rock" for short, to refer to her blend of "beachy" Country, Rock, Reggae and Latin music. "We identify with artists like Kenny Chesney and Zac Brown and Colbie Caillat, but we didn't know there was this whole world of independent trop rock artists and fans out there until after the first CD came out," she recalls.

That world of "trop rock" quickly and warmly embraced her, most notably with a nomination as Best Female Vocalist in the Trop Rock Music Awards just months after the release of her first album. "That was a tremendous honor and a surprise," says Brittany Kingery, who by the time of the nomination had just made her move to Mexico. "Awards in themselves don't mean that much to me because I don't like to think of myself as being in competition with other artists," she adds. "But after having given up the steady paycheck and the benefits and security to chase this dream, being recognized with an award nomination was very validating."

She earned another Best Female Vocalist nomination last year as well as a nomination for the organization's Horizon Award, which recognizes up and coming artists. This year, even more trop rock music nominations and awards have followed.

After performing over a hundred times in her first season in Bucerías, Brittany returned to her home state of Washington to complete work on her second CD, Dream in Blue, produced by Kevin Johnston, Rob Morgan Hill and Rob Thorworth. With the release of this critically acclaimed sophomore album last summer, the aspiring musician has truly found her paradise and is living her dream.

Aside from the tropical and beach themes that run through the record, Brittany says there's a lot of variety on the album, from the rocking guitars and horns of Tequila Talking to the upbeat country pop of Little Miss Sunshine, to the chilled out ballad Dream in Blue, to the Reggae anthem Rhythm of My Love and her nautical ballad, One With The Ocean. There are even a couple of cover songs – a simple guitar-voice production of Stephen Bishop's On and On, and a rocking treatment of Leo Sayer's playful You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.

The Dream in Blue Tour concluded this past summer with a 42-day whirlwind trip that took Brittany all around the USA and parts of Canada.

With the development and release of numerous impressive music videos filmed here in Mexico, Brittany continues to catch the attention of more and more music lovers around Banderas Bay. It is her sincere hope that her music will lead others to find their beaches, both literally and figuratively speaking.

Kingery performs in The Red Room every Monday night at 7:30 pm. Let her inspire you!