Today, Johnsrud is known by her critics as being, “a fresh and appealing jazz singer with a quietly expressive voice and a deep understanding of lyric interpretation.”

She is a 1995 graduate of BCLUW High School in Conrad, and a 1999 graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in pre-med and health education. But she was finding her love for music was taking more time than she could handle in addition to her health care job – then a trip to a lounge in Chicago one evening with her brother solved the problem.

“A conversation with pianist Gary Flip at a piano bar in Chicago’s Zebra Lounge changed my life completely,” Johnsrud said. “He recognized that I was singer as I was singing along to his songs and encouraged me to join him the next time he came in to perform. He then gave me an introduction to other aspects of the Chicago jazz world, and I was hooked. I quit my job and my musical career began in 2001.”

Johnsrud is now a member of the jazz community with more than 15 years of headlining appearances at some of the nation’s top venues, including Chicago’s historic Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, Jazz Showcase, Andy’s Jazz Club, The Kitano and Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City, and Churchill Grounds and Velvet Note in Atlanta.

She is also a talented lyricist and composer. Her highly regarded 2015 recording, “This Side of Morning,” consists entirely of her original tunes and was featured in the independent film “Thank You a Lot.”

Johnsrud is also an experienced music educator in both vocal and piano private instruction, and is a faculty member at the Shell Lake Arts Center in Shell Lake, Wisc. She also regularly tours the U.S. with her own group as well as lending her voice to several Chicago ensembles.

But her latest project may surprise a lot of people. It already has – including Johnsrud herself.

“Most everyone has heard of Fred Rogers from the children’s television program ‘Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,'” Johnsrud said. “But I did not know that he was a talented composer, with more than 200 songs and 13 operas to his credit. He wrote all of the songs he sang on the program that was on television for 35 years, as well as those on two other children’s programs he produced.”

Rogers died in 2003 at the age of 74.

In 2016, Johnsrud began collaboration with Grammy nominated pianist/arranger Kevin Bales to research Fred Roger’s music with the purpose of bringing his talented skills to light. A conversation with Bales about television shows they watched as a child had brought out a mutual admiration for Fred Rogers.

Recording began in 2017 (with Bales on Piano, Marlon Patton on drums and Billy Thornton on bass and vocals). Then in 2018 the CD, “Beyond the Neighborhood: The Music of Fred Rogers,” was released by the pair. This album has been selected as a Top 10 Jazz Album of 2018 by Cadence Magazine, All about Jazz, WDCB 90.9, and included in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll.

“I was very excited to dive into the music of Fred Rogers to see what beautiful music he actually wrote,” Johnsrud said. “I would compare him to the likes of Cole Porter or George Gershwin. This new recording was a way of showcasing the many aspects of Rogers as a composer”

Johnsrud and Bales rearranged the music that had been heard by numerous generations on the beloved children’s television program, which up until now were specifically tailored for a child’s ear. On the new album the songs are now presented as reinvented gems.

In the liner notes for the album, Jazz critic Neil Tesser wrote, “These songs are by turn wise and wistful, simple but not simplistic, and even, in some cases, a bit sultry.”

The album notes also state, “Fred McFeely Rogers – the cardigan-wearing, sneaker-shod, quintessentially gentle Presbyterian minister known as Mr. Rogers, on the award-winning children’s TV show that aired for nearly 35 years – also wrote the songs he sang on his program. He wrote a lot of songs, and he wrote them well: his life lessons for little ones came wrapped in beautifully constructed packages that could have sprung from any Tin Pan Alley atelier or Brill Building cubbyhole.”

As a kid one may not have noticed the craftsmanship of these songs. But as an adult, critics say you can’t miss it. In this collection, Rogers’ songs not only relate to adults; they seem to have been written for adults in the first place.

Some of the 11 songs on the new album (which may be purchased on her website KeriJohnsrud.com) include: “Just for once,” “I like to take my time,” “Find a star,” “Troll talk” and “The weekend song.”

Johnsrud said that the Fred Rogers Center in Latrobe, Pa., bought more than 100 CDs to give to their donors as a fundraising gift. She also said that several members of the cast of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood have reached out to her and Bales to congratulate them for their effort, including the person who played Mr. McFeeley on the show.

“We really put our heart and soul into this project. The material and messages have been so important in so many people’s lives that we wanted to honor Rogers’ legacy,” Johnsrud said. “Many of the songs had the capability to be translated and updated across generations so that they might not only appeal to those who had first heard the songs as a kid, and to their kids. We re-imagined them for a multi-generational audience,” she said.

Johnsrud and the Kevin Bales Quartet have a local engagement booked at the Iowa River Brewing Company in Marshalltown on July 13 with the time to be announced.