I’ll confess. Sometimes I get so many emails I can’t read them all. The downside to that is I am sure I have missed several great artists. But thankfully, I did open Taran’s Smith email when she pitched Nicolette & the Nobodies to me.
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One thing I have learned about TV singing shows is that the finalists are nearly always as good (if not better) as the actual winner. So, I try to interview as many country singers from these shows as possible.
Presley Tennant is a powerhouse singer from Norco, California, a horse town that is 35 miles east of Los Angeles. She was a finalist on Season 16 of NBC’s The Voice in 2019 when she was just 16. She has often been compared to Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood.
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Lindy Boone, daughter of Pat Boone and sister to Debby Boone, Cherry Boone, and Laurey Boone, has been singing all her life.
They attended a church that didn’t use musical instruments, so everyone learned to sing instead. Their mama, singer Shirley Lee Foley, taught her daughters to sing harmony.
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In September of 2023, my brother sent me a video of a country song called “If Daddy Didn’t Have a Truck” by Cody Webb. At the time, TikTok wouldn’t play it because of “sensitive religious content.” That naturally made me want to listen and find out what about the song was so offensive.
For inexplicable reasons, the lyrics I’da never known Jesus loves me/ Fell in love with kicking up dirt/ I’da never known how forgiveness or a carburetor works/ Only the good Lord knows how a good ol’ boy like me mighta wound up/ If Mama didn’t have a Bible/ And Daddy didn’t have a truck were not permissible to the general public.
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In a historic event at Belmont’s Fisher Center, the female collective known as the Song Suffragettes celebrated its tenth anniversary to a packed-out crowd last week
Each year, they celebrate their March anniversary, and they honor a significant female singer and/or songwriter. This year’s Yellow Rose of Inspiration award fittingly went to Wynonna Judd, an acclaimed singer/songwriter and long-time promoter of women in country music. Past Yellow Rose of Inspiration award winners include Laura Veltz, Ashley McBryde, Natalie Hemby, and Kelsea Ballerini.
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Cicely Mason is an American singer/songwriter from Milan, Tennessee. She comes from a singing family and is the youngest of six children. One of her earliest memories is singing for a talent show.
“It wasn’t for the competition. I just wanted to sing,” she recalled.
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As a product of the 80s music scene, I discovered country music later in life. When country rocker Kelsey Hickman came across my desk, I knew she was right up my alley.
Hickman is from Central Illinois. No one in her family is particularly musical, but she can remember singing all her life. She started as a tot singing Disney songs, then joined school choirs and got her first exposure singing in musicals.
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When Amy Sheppard who is part of the wildly popular Australian band, Sheppard, decided to put out country music, I was intrigued. I wanted to find out more about this family and their musical roots.
Amy Sheppard is an Australian singer-songwriter. Along with her siblings George Sheppard and Emma Sheppard, she is a founding and current member of the indie pop band Sheppard. The group is 34X platinum, and their massive hit “Geronimo” has had more than 750 million streams.
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More than 30 years in the making, the movie The Neon Highway debuted on the silver screen this last week in Nashville. Originally written by Phillip Bellury and directed by William Wages for the likes of Johnny Cash, the deal never worked out. They say everything happens for a reason: Beau Bridges was meant to play Claude Allen, and Rob Mayes was meant to play Wayne Collins.
Here is a synopsis of the plot: 20 years ago, Collins, played by Mayes, an aspiring singer/songwriter, was a heartbeat away from making it in Nashville when a car accident derailed his ambitions. Now working a 9-5 job and struggling to support his family, Collins has a fateful encounter with waning country music great Allen, played by Bridges, who reignites Allen’s musical dreams. Together, they go to Nashville with one of Collins’ songs, believing they can make it big with Allen’s fame and contacts. The problem is the industry has changed and no one is interested in the song – or Allen. Devastated and out of options, Collins creates a way to get the song out to the public; not for himself, but for Allen.
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An artist I have been wanting to interview for years is RaeLynn. Born Racheal Lynn Woodward, the artist has a singular spunk and sass that is a huge asset in the sea of female country singers/songwriters. But her gift for storytelling through her honest lyrics endears her so fiercely to her fans.
RaeLynn grew up in a musical family and began singing in church at a young age.
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