O, what a night
Co-star of Bomshel and Sandpoint grad, Kristy O will open for Wynonna at festival
Kristy O, of the country duo Bomshel, is not the biggest star ever to appear at the Festival at Sandpoint. Yet no artist could possibly be more ecstatic about appearing under the festival’s big white tent. “Some people dream of playing the Opry when they’re little, but it was the festival for me,” she said. “That’s the first concert I went to when I was little; I saw Alison Krauss.”
She called the prospect of walking onto the Sandpoint stage “surreal.”
That’s because Kristy O is actually Kristy Osmunson, a Sandpoint High School graduate and former member of a local group called Fiddler’s Hatchery. She went on to a music career in Nashville and on stages all over the world.
She and fellow Bomshel member Kelley Shepard recently played Finland and South Korea, and they’ll be spending most of September touring Switzerland. Yet Sandpoint is what gets her heart pumping.
“I think it will be hysterical to have everybody pay to come and watch me play,” Osmunson said. “Usually, I just annoyed everybody at school.”
Bomshel opens for Wynonna (as in, Judd) on Saturday night. Wynonna is one of the artists Osmunson dreamed of emulating, back in Sandpoint and later at Idaho State University and the University of Idaho.
“She’s like Elvis,” said Osmunson. “She’s the reason I’m in a duo. Are you kidding me? I thought the Judds were the closest thing to heaven you could get.”
Bomshel is not exactly in Wynonna’s league yet – but they are already on a wild and exhilarating ride.
For Osmunson, it began in Sandpoint when she took up the fiddle and played with violin virtuoso Jason Moody. Her mom, Kathy Holm, is a health teacher at Sandpoint High School. Her dad, Bill Osmunson, is a Sandpoint dentist.
She studied opera at Idaho State for a couple of years and then transferred to the University of Idaho to study jazz at the Lionel Hampton School of Music.
“I grew up going to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival every year and absolutely loved it,” said Osmunson. “That was one of my favorite parts of living in the Northwest – it’s one of the greatest jazz festivals in the world.”
She left just short of graduation to head to Nashville, where Bomshel was soon signed to Curb Records. They chose the name because they see a real “bombshell” as a woman not afraid to be herself.
“We decided that real women live life out loud,” Osmunson said. “We’re not very subtle.”
Her professional name was suggested by her manager shortly after she arrived in Nashville.
“He said nobody in the South can say Osmunson – just cut it off ,” she said. “So now it’s ‘Kristy O from Idaho.’ ”
Bomshel already has had a number of successes: Their single “The Power of One” was on the “Evan Almighty” soundtrack and was nominated for a Dove Award; “The Bomshel Stomp” made it into the Top Five for Dance Club records.
They are now putting the finishing touches on their first album.
But opening under the stars at The Festival at Sandpoint?
“Oh my gosh,” said Osmunson. “I think it’s going to be a blast.”