She just won Artist of the Year for CMA of Texas as this episode was being released. A singer, songwriter, guitar player who has a brand new, full-length album in the works, she has already gotten a top ten song in Belgium. She's from Texas, lives in Nashville, and performed three times at the Lake Martin Songwriters Festival last month in Alabama, where this interview was recorded. Ten days after this interview she would be performing at Freedom Jam St. Louis 2021. Plus, this month she was performing internationally. She has even gotten aligned with a clothing sponsor, as noted on this episode. Three years ago she was the guest on Episode 247 of this show.
"It's a small community in Nashville and it's kind of like classes, like freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, and eventually you graduate to the big leagues."
"Coming back (to Nashville) every couple months and showing your face and networking with people and getting to know the people that are kind of up-and-coming and on the same trajectory as you is some of the best advice I feel like I can give for aspiring artists."
"I worked for two or three years to get a publishing deal, and I did, and that helped me get to Nashville, and through that met so many songwriters."
"If you're trying to get into co-writing, trying to get to Nashville and network with these songwriters, getting in the room with them -- even if you don't know 'em from Adam -- and having real down to earth conversations with a first impression as well, it does something really magical."
"When you leave a co-write, what I do is I kind of dissect, 'Okay, how did that go? How did that go for the other writer? Did we get a really good song? Does the other writer love it?' And if it was off, kind of think about, 'Was I having bad energy? Were they having a bad day?'"
"I love being a songwriter, it's really, anybody can do it. I really do feel like anybody can do it if they put their nose to the grindstone enough, ya' know, write by themselves starting out and always, like forever, don't stop writing by yourself. But, co-writing is a very special experience if you find the right people and it really lifts you up."
"December I'm supposed to go to London, and that'll just be incredible."
"I love studio work. I love recording. I've been recording in the studio since I was nine years old. It's one of my favorite things to do."
"There's different parts that you can pick when you do harmonies and if you're doing three parts, there's just certain frequencies that work better together in country music."
"My best advice if you want to learn how to harmonize, start harmonizing on all the songs in the car. Even if it sounds weird to you, just sing along with the harmony singers and that will give you kind of a road map on where to start."
“We've All Been There”
"Drinkin' Song"