Photo by Mike Lamb Kayla Daniels entertains the crowd at the Eats and Beats event on Third Street in Marshall.

MARSHALL — Kayla Daniels just finished singing “Beautiful Things” by Megan Moroney at the Eats and Beats event on Third Street in Marshall evening when she announced all good things eventually have to end.

“Alright guys, I got one more song, thank you all so much for hanging out with me today. Make sure you all come back July 9 — is the next Eats and Beats,” she calls out.

With her guitar resting in her hands, her fingers pressing and plucking the strings, she starts singing her final song of the night — “Me and Bobby McGee.”

Afterward, Daniels welcomes her fans to come up to her small stage set up in the middle of the street.

“I have merchandise over here, if you want any of that. Or if you want to come talk to me. I would love to meet all of you,” she announces.

Several Eats and Beats attendees take her up on the invitation. A couple of them show photos of Daniels they took while she sang. Others just wanted to talk to her.

One fan wanted to take a selfie with her. As she positions herself for the photo, her son, 4-year-old Ripley, wants to be in the photo as well.

Daniels wrapped up another singing gig — something she does every week Wednesday through Sunday. The busy schedule is a normal routine since the former Nashville singer quit her full-time job last August to concentrate on her singing career.

“I just do this now. It’s kind of a leap of faith, but it’s been working out,” she told the Independent in between talking to her fans.

If you follow Daniels on social media you know her singing journey takes her from one community to the next in southern Minnesota. She is dedicated in promoting herself.

“I think just in the past, well gosh, just in the past year on Facebook I grew my followers by like 4,000 people. So I mean it helps to keep with it day by day and actually try to engage with people,” she said. “Social media is almost a full-time job. But I have to do that to do this (singing engagements).”

Her followers learned about her recently opening up for Priscilla Block at the Prairie Edge Casino. She posted a photo of her self sitting on the floor and her head up against the wall waiting to take the stage.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking because you get on stages like that, that have full production and you can’t really see how many people are actually there. I only see the first few rows because the lights are really bright. So I was like, I don’t know exactly how many people are there, it could be a room full of people in the front row. It was kind of cool,” she said.

Daniels reveals the casino performance was her first such singing act with a well-known singer since she her days in high school in Tracy.

“I opened up for Julie Roberts back in high school,” she said. “It was just a small-town thing. She came and did a benefit there. But yeah, that was like the first like big act that I’ve opened up for.”

When asked if she would like to get invited to do more of those kinds of opportunities, she answered with excitement in her voice.

“I would love to do that. I kind of want to get into more shows like that so I can start playing my own music and get my …. because I’m a songwriter too,” she said. “I try to get my, you know, my own songs out there as much as I can, but the bigger shows like that, where they focus on your music, those are the kinds of shows to get more of.”

Daniels said she realizes she needs to work on getting her own songs out to more audiences.

“Otherwise you kind of hit almost a plateau musically if you just sing covers. You got to try and write something different to get your name out there,” she said

In the meantime, she keeps a long list of cover songs on her phone for her singing gigs.

“I probably have at least 600 songs memorized. I have them on my phone because I can’t just like think of them on the go. I have a list on my phone that I pull up. I try to cater to the crowd as much as I can because it’s always different. You don’t want to just play the same thing. That’s why I ask for requests just to gauge where they’re at,” she said.

In 2017, after singing at a festival event in Vesta, she shared her motivation to follow her dreams.

“It would be really cool to hear my song on the radio,” she said. “Whether it’s me singing it, or somebody else. That would be a dream for me.”

Meanwhile, Daniels says she will continue to ride that “leap of faith” in her singing journey.