NYCS Swag Spotlight: Jordyn Stoddard

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Jordyn Stoddard

If you are looking for an artist that is going to inspire you to be your authentic self, look no further than our Swag Spotlight this week, Jordyn Stoddard. Throughout our conversation, we covered everything from a coveted moment on stage with Kenny Chesney, how her music has evolved, and of course what to expect going into the future.

Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Stoddard fell into music at a young age. After discovering she wasn’t good at soccer, she stuck with piano and vocal lessons and even taught herself to play guitar a few years later. At just seven years old, the songstress went to her first concert, where she just so happen to be pulled up on stage by Kenny Chesney himself. Stoddard reflected on this moment with us, sharing “I really did kind of remember some of that moment just being on stage because it was like so life changing. But I remember looking out into the crowd and being like ‘Wow,” this is the coolest job anyone could have.”

This moment combined with her love for music started Stoddard on the trajectory to becoming a singer-songwriter. She connected to country music and songwriting at an early age, identifying artists like Chesney, Taylor Swift, and Miranda Lambert as some of her influences. She shared that she loves how Chesney, “Doesn’t have a lot of props on stage, and somehow captures the audience every single night,” and credited Swift for “changing songwriting for country music,” especially for young women.

Nowadays, Stoddard pulls inspiration from all different genres, including, pop, R&B, alternative, and of course, country, name-dropping The Band Camino, H.E.R., and Parker McKay as some of her current favorites. Her wide range of music taste, shines through in her own music. She shared with us that it is important for her to reflect on her musical tastes throughout her own music, stating, “I think that songs come when you’re uncomfortable or when you’re doing things that you aren’t familiar with.”

Her current single, “Bad Baby” perfectly blends pop with country and hints of R&B flavor, personifying her statement about the importance of stepping out of your comfort zone. Stoddard wrote the track with her good friend, Peyton Porter, “coming from the perspective of an R&B sound.” According to the singer, the song was inspired from “just the idea that you’re really like somebody and it’s almost like you’re kinda stuck in a daydream. You’re walking in from a distance, and you’re feeling all these things, but you kind of don’t know how to communicate that to that person,” adding later that the song rings true for her, “I kind of lean on music sometimes to communicate how I’m feeling. That’s really the idea behind that song.” The enticing melody, clever lyrics, and the creative title clearly show off her artistry and her assets in the best light.

To wrap up our conversation, we made sure to check in to see, when we can expect more music from the talented singer-songwriter. She revealed that she is getting ready to put out music soon, exclusively sharing that her next single will be “Shouldn’t Have To,” adding that it is more on the countryside of the spectrum. “It was important for me to challenge myself and to write things where it was coming from a real honest and vulnerable place,” adding that the next two upcoming tracks “talk about a previous relationship.” Even more exciting, the songstress has even more music in the works, continuing to experiment with different sounds and vibes that speak to her as an artist and a songwriter, her ultimate goal as a singer-songwriter.

To keep up with Jordyn Stoddard follow her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

“Bad Baby” is now available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released music here on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

 

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SHOP THE HERO COLLECTION

The Hero Collection by NYCountry Swag is inspired by the men and women of the Fire, Police and Military Departments across the country. A portion of sales from each purchase is donated to different foundations that support our heroes. We are dedicated to honoring their service and remembering their sacrifice.

—————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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NYCS Swag Spotlight Tori Martin

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Tori Martin

Nashville’s latest newcomer, singer-songwriter Tori Martin is this week’s Swag Spotlight artist. Before making a name for herself in Nashville, Martin grew up in a military family and has lived all over the country. Nevertheless, she considers Texas home and spent the majority of her life growing up in a small town, filled with lots of southern hospitality.

As a young girl, she knew what she wanted to be doing. She admits, “I didn’t grow up in a musical family, I was kind of an oddball who liked to sing, and wanted to play guitar and play piano and just loved everything to do with music.” One of the first things she did at a young age was an audition for the Texas Girls Choir, a traveling state choir that would sing all over the world. It was Martin making the group that opened up her family’s eyes to her skill as they recognized, “Oh, she kind of has a talent. It’s more than just a little girl being like, ‘I like to sing.'”

Her family was her support system, and Martin said, “Somebody who really encouraged me to pursue music was my grandfather, I called him Pawpaw, he has passed now, but he loved country music and he loved that I loved to sing. He would always get me to sing Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash – just the good classic’s.” Ironically, it was not until much later in life she found out that he was the one that actually paid for her to be in the Texas Girls Choir. Looking back, the songstress reflected, “He was my number one supporter, and even bought me my first guitar.”

She fell in love with Nashville when she visited the city at age 16. It was there where she started to pursue her career in music and recorded her first EP at Clive Studios. She had a goal in mind, and her eyes set on getting back there. Martin returned to Texas to promote her EP, play local shows, make a name for herself in Texas Country Radio and ultimately grow her fan base before making the official move to “Music City” in 2017.

With a voice that is beautiful yet powerful, her music is heavily influenced by big voices and soul singers. She said, “One of my favorite singers and idols is Stevie Nicks, and seeing her in concert was mindblowing, and I was in awe.” In addition to Nicks, Martin is a huge Dolly Parton, Whitney Houston, and Aretha Franklin fan. She tells us, “I am kind of like a blend – I love country music, I love rock, I love soul, I love pop, and I have influences in different genres.”

Her current single “Living the Dream” is an inspirational song about not giving up on what you have your heart and mind set on. Martin wrote “Living the Dream” with Lyndsay Highlander when she first moved to Nashville and it has become her anthem to remember why she is doing it – not because of fame or fortune, but because she loves what she does. She then goes on to reveal the meaning behind the song, “I’ve been in the music industry since 16, and of course, you’re on a musical journey and there’s a lot of opportunities and there’s a lot of no’s and a lot of yes’s. Sometimes it’s hard not to get jaded and to stay encouraged and to keep going.”

The music video to “Living the Dream” is a perfect depiction of that meaning. It features famous NASCAR driver Jennifer Jo Cobb and blends together her career and Martin’s aspiring singing career. Martin said, “We don’t have the same job, but we’re both in male-dominated scenes, and we’ve both been chasing our dreams since we were very young, so we wanted to merge both of the stories together and inspire all girls, all women, no matter what area of life they might be pursuing their dreams just to go for it.”

Martin has a lot in store for the remainder of the year and into 2020. She is currently in the studio working on an album that will be released soon. In addition, she is playing shows in and around Nashville and is the cohost to a singer-songwriter series called “Music Biz Besties” that showcases up and coming artists at different venus once a month in Nashville.

To keep up with Tori Martin, follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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SHOP THE HERO COLLECTION

The Hero Collection by NYCountry Swag is inspired by the men and women of the Fire, Police and Military Departments across the country. A portion of sales from each purchase is donated to different foundations that support our heroes. We are dedicated to honoring their service and remembering their sacrifice.

—————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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NYCS Swag Spotlight: Hannah Ellis

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Hannah Ellis

We’ve loved championing Hannah Ellis over the past few years, watching her career blossom and watching her release great song after great song. We realized that although we’ve featured her in a Swag Session (below) as well as had her as our guest musical artist at our very first Babes, Booze & Brunch event we haven’t really learned about her backstory so this week she is our Swag Spotlight.

Growing up in a small town, Campbellsville, Kentucky, Ellis grew up with two parents who were both wedding singers, always instilling a love for music from early on. She, of course, was influenced by 90s country, artists like Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Faith Hill, and Tim McGraw but she also listened to gospel music as well as 90s R&B.

She received a full scholarship to college but felt a pull towards making music while she was still in high school. Her parents told her that they would help fund her musical career as long as she attended school. She scheduled her classes at the University of Kentucky for the middle of the week and drove to Nashville on Fridays, making the most out of networking and making connections on the weekends. Officially making the move to Nashville after graduation in 2012 she tells us “It’s been so special, just because, doing it while you are driving back and forth from school is not ideal, but it really helped me to grow in my own way before I got here. I had the luxury of not growing up in front of my peers during those crucial discovery years.”

Back in 2017, Ellis was inducted into the CMT Next Women of Country class and most recently she joined her friends Cassadee Pope and Clare Dunn on the CMT Next Women of Country Tour which we caught when it made its stop in NYC this April. “I remember when I found out, my heart, my stomach turned over I remember going to my first ever CMT Next Woman event back in 2014 and that was the year Kelsea [Ballerini] played, it was the first time I saw her play, and ironically enough, I found this picture, Gavin DeGraw was at that event and I got a picture with him, the world is so weird,” she laughs, as she just recently wrapped up touring with the pop singer-songwriter.

Her current single, “Friends Like These” was written with Melissa Fuller and Jason Massey after Ellis had a night out with some of her friends around town. “We just started talking about how some of our favorite memories that we’ve ever made, with friends from high school or college, some of my favorites were the ones we didn’t know we were making or the ones we didn’t go out planning to make,” she says. “Even though I wrote it about my friends when I sing it for these people in the crowd, it’s my anthem to them and for them because they are who I am spending my nights with and who I am hanging out with until 3 am and I love it.”

She spent the summer promoting her new single and on the road with pop singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. DeGraw who is most famous for songs like “Not Over You” and the theme song to One Tree Hill, “I Don’t Wanna Be” continues to impress and gain fans with his relatable lyrics, something Ellis explains she thinks is at the heart of her genre, country music. She tells us how welcoming his entire team was, how grateful she is for his mentorship during their summer together. We caught the tour last month at The Paramount out on Long Island, and we were so impressed to see Ellis perform for fans who she wouldn’t usually get to tap into on a regular country tour. “People tell me, ‘I don’t typically listen to country music but I love your stuff, you are winning me over’ and as an artist that feels so good for me personally but also good for our genre. We want others to realize we are making competitive music here.”

Looking ahead, Ellis tells us she is so excited about what is coming up in the new year and looks forward to releasing more music and meeting and making new fans. We can’t wait to continue to champion Hannah, an artist we truly love and believe in.

To keep up with Hannah Ellis be sure to follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and for all of her upcoming tour dates head to hannahellismusic.com.

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SHOP THE HERO COLLECTION

The Hero Collection by NYCountry Swag is inspired by the men and women of the Fire, Police and Military Departments across the country. A portion of sales from each purchase is donated to different foundations that support our heroes. We are dedicated to honoring their service and remembering their sacrifice.

—————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

+ Follow our country music adventures on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook:

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Leah Turner

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Leah Turner

Leah Turner has been in the music industry for years and she is now an artist reestablishing herself and her music in the country genre. Turner was born and raised in California on a ranch with her rodeo winning father and strong Latina mother.  Growing up she was always around music and remembers always singing around her house and getting involved in all different kinds of artistic avenues. With her dad being a cowboy she recalled that “country music was really the soundtrack in my household growing up… with Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Willie Nelson, Brooks and Dunn, and George Strait on the radio, I heard people singing about the life I was living going from rodeo to rodeo.”

Partway through college at Santa Barbara, she dropped out and packed her bags after Kenny Loggins heard her sing/write in a songwriting class, reinstilling in her that this was the career she had always wanted. After moving to L.A. to hone in on her craft and perfect her voice, she felt there was still something missing. Wanting to sing the type of music she grew up on, she packed up again and made the move to Nashville, Tennesse. One of her early songs, “Take the Keys,” became a Top 40 hit as Turner toured with Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Jake Owen, and more.

This year Turner was named one of CMT’s Next Women of Country alongside Stephanie Quayle, Tenille Townes, Rachel Wammack and more. When talking about getting inducted, Turner says “it was a God thing because you are getting a new beginning with new management and releasing a new single”. During that time she also signed a deal with L3 Entertainment.

Turner’s latest release, a song titled “Blah Blah Blah” is showcased through the perspective of a woman who has heard enough empty words from her significant other. Believe it or not, she says the song is “literally taken from text messages from a guy I dated for about a year. It was a long-distance relationship that had a lot of good intentions that fell flat with a lot of over-promising and under-delivering.” She explains to keep a relationship going “if someone wants to do something, nothing will stand in their way.” After realizing her worth and value, she took their words, text messages, and her heart, she decided to air all frustration out for everyone to hear. With the amount of traction it is receiving, Turner told us “I am really grateful to have Nashville still wrap their arms around me as an artist and songwriter and being able to show that you never give up.” This song is something everybody has heard from a significant other or just anyone in life blowing smoke and all you hear is their “Blah Blah Blah” and Turner turned it into a powerful statement of a song.

One new venture the CMT’s Next Women of Country inductee has up her sleeve the rest of the year is something you would not see coming and that is releasing “Blah Blah Blah” in Spanglish. This decision is something that is important to her as she is half Mexican. Between paying tribute to her roots and tapping a market that has such a growing demographic in the country world, Turner sees the similarities between the two cultures. Growing up in the rodeo culture, she saw that family, faith, and hardworking ways are something they all have in common, as well as a love for country music of course. Also locking down new tour dates, there will be plenty of times to catch her live. For tour dates and more information head to https://www.leahturner.com/

To keep up with Leah Turner, follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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NYCS Swag Spotlight: Kaleb Lee

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Kaleb Lee

Our Swag Spotlight this week is former The Voice contestant and talented singer-songwriter, Kaleb Lee. In our phone conversation with the rising artist, we discussed everything from his experience on The Voice reigniting his drive to chase his music dream to how growing up, he wanted to be “Garth Brooks #2.”

Originally, Lee hails from rural, western Kentucky, where he resided throughout his childhood and even a few years into his marriage. He credits his hometown and his upbringing for making him fall in love with country music, sharing, “My first concert was a Garth Brooks concert. That started the trajectory for me of wanting to be Garth Brooks #2. I started playing guitar when I was eight. I think it was shortly after that, we went to that concert. Growing up in rural western Kentucky, what we listened to was country music. It’s Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Travis Tritt, Clint Black, George Strait, and all those guys.”

Lee grew up listening to country music legends; however, his home town also inspired his desire to play music for a living. “We went to high school jamming it in our lifted up little trucks that we got when we were sixteen,” he laughs, adding, “Country music is so much about the lifestyle of living, but it was how we lived and it was what we listened to.”

As he tried to make it in the industry, Lee often traveled back and forth from his hometown to Nashville, Tennessee, focusing on songwriting and playing gigs, but after years of hearing more “Nos” than “Yeses,” Lee and his wife made the decision to focus on their family. In 2009, the couple and their children subsequently moved to Florida, where Lee ventured into another career path and went back to school, putting music on the back-burner for five years.

As fate would have it, producers on The Voice reached out to the dad of 3, asking if he wanted to audition for the show. With encouragement from his wife, Lee admitted that he had to take the opportunity. Lee recounted the story in our conversation, sharing “When The Voice reached out, that was one of those things that I couldn’t say no to. It kinda happened so randomly and divinely. We made that decision and went and did the audition stuff,” adding, “When The Voice reached out it was kinda a rebirth if you will of being able to go back and pursue the hopes and dreams that you had ten years ago that you thought were gone.” Lee continued to reminisce about his experiences on the show, even stating that he would do it all over again if he had the opportunity.

Since his stint on the show, Lee continues to work with his coach, Kelly Clarkson. He shares that her support and genuine excitement for his success has been invaluable, as he navigates his career as an artist. Clarkson continues to champion his career, even after the show wrapped. She is an executive producer on his EP that is slated to come out later this year, as well as, sings with Lee on his next single to be released called, “I Dream In Southern.”

His newest single, “I Need A Drink,” premiered back in July; and, it is the perfect summer anthem that embodies how you want to feel. It follows his debut single, “Cooler Weather.” Lee tells us that the new track was written specifically with summer in mind, adding “the moral of the story is we just want people to have fun and let loose because I know that’s what people want to do. People have really gravitated to it [at live shows].”

To keep up with Kaleb Lee, follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

“I Need A Drink” is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released music here on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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NYCS Swag Spotlight: MAMADEAR

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MAMADEAR

This week our Swag Spotlight is the dynamic trio MAMADEAR featuring Kelly Bradway, Dan Wilson, and Parker Bradway. Three good friends who all happened to move to Nashville as aspiring musicians doing their own thing, got together on Kelly’s front porch to write songs. When the songwriting wasn’t clicking, the threesome decided to sing a country classic and one of their favorites, “Fishin’ In the Dark.” It was then they all realized the undeniable chemistry of their voices. Kelly said, “A magical crush feeling in a music sense” came over them as their voices came together, so they decided to keep doing it.

The talented group stems from all over the map. Dan Wilson, a songwriter from South Carolina moved to Nashville to pursue his dream of making music. Parker Bradway is from Atlanta, Georiga, and Kelly Bradway is from the Washington D.C. area. Wilson said, “We weren’t put together, a lot of times bands are put together by people and it was not on our radar to start this band at all, it just kind of happened.” Although the three of them had one essential connection, they all met through well-known songwriter Tom Douglas, who has written hits such as Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me.” Seven years later, MAMADEAR has perfected harmonies and created music fans want more and more of.

MAMADEAR’s major influences in music stem from the albums of various harmony bands. They love listening and learning from artists such as The Eagles, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Alabama, and the Dixie Chicks. Not to mention, current country groups Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum inspire their music and harmonies as well.  “We spend a lot of time with the three of us practicing our harmonies and trying to get them super tight, even down to where we breathe making sure we are in sync with each other,” she explains.  “We love the harmonies, and that seems to be what really connects with people, so we try to build on that as much as we can.”

Interestingly enough, MAMADEAR just returned from playing a summer residency in the French Riveria opening up for artists such as John Legend and Sting. A country band from Nashville had the privilege to play at a summer-long festival that took place in a beautiful open-air venue on the Mediterranean. They definitely learned a lot opening up for seasoned artists, and Parker referenced John Legend’s performance saying, “It was pretty surreal sitting side stage watching someone with that much talent – it was so cool because it was just him and a piano and it inspired us to just really focus on our craft and being really good at it, and someone will notice.” Kelly added, “The thing that I loved about him as he came off stage he was still just humming to himself, that is a true musician right there.”

MAMADEAR’s newest single “Lost Cause” was released earlier this month. Kelly described the track as “a really fun, in love” type of song.” Parker who is married to Kelly explained how “Lost Cause” came about, as it was inspired by a drive from Nashville to Atlanta. “Kelly and I are married, and when we were dating, we would take tons of road trips back home to Atlanta.” “We were young and in love and being silly, and that road trip would always take us six or seven hours, and my parents would know what time we’d left, and when we would get to Atlanta and they’re like why are you three and a half hours late?” he laughed. “Kelly and I were just in la-la land, we would just pull over to every country store and every overlook, we were lost and wild.” He continued, “This song is about that – having your parents or the world just roll your eyes at you when you are young and in love, but you don’t really care because that’s all that matters to you in that moment.” Check out the newest single below.

MAMADEAR is now back in the United States and ready to keep things rolling. In addition to the release of “Lost Cause,” fans should be on the lookout for their first music video to their song “Steal Away.” Kelly said they had a ton of fun making the video and it turned out exactly how they had hoped, and the trio is extremely excited to put it out very soon. The rest of the year is going to be busy for MAMADEAR, as their schedule is filled with live shows and new music. They will be opening up for Josh Turner, as well as their own headlining shows in the Southeast. MAMADEAR’s plan is to keep releasing new content, and in the words of the band, they are “excited about what the fall holds.”

To keep up with MAMADEAR follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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Who Is Lori McKenna? The Story Behind Her Journey to Country Music

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Who is Lori McKenna? The songwriter joined us to chat about her journey to country music. Get to know the superstar here…

Lori McKenna

Photo Credit: Becky Fluke

The Beginning:

Our Swag Spotlight this week is not a rising artist but an established, veteran songwriter responsible for some of the most prolific and important songs in our generation of country music. Lori McKenna was born and raised in Massachusets and still resides there today with her husband whom she married when she was 19 years old. Growing up the youngest of six children, McKenna’s family were all musical whether they sang, played in a band or wrote songs, she was immersed in the musical culture from a very young age. She jokes as she tells us that in her house it was “Jesus and James Taylor”. Other musical influences included Neil Young, Jackson Browne, Carly Simon, and Carole King to name a few, always leaning heavily into the singer-songwriter genre.

“I have the strangest voice in my family, all of my siblings can sing really pretty, what happened to me?” she laughs. “I learned over the years that even though it’s different, least I have a distinctive voice.” When she was 13 her older brother who loved to write songs taught her that once she learned three chords, she could write music and so she did. “I always wrote songs as a means of therapy, some people have a journal, instead I would write a song.”

She married Gene, whom she met in the third grade and they had three children very quickly, her eldest is now 20. She explains that it wasn’t until her third child was born that she ever even thought about letting the world hear her music. She went to open mic nights and made a record, Bittertown, which is celebrating it’s 15th anniversary this year. “I just kept following it, I always followed my music, it was always luckily a step ahead of me,” she tells us. “I battled with confidence issues, I didn’t know I was worthy of doing it outside of my house, for the most part, I’ve been so lucky that it sort of pulled me. I tell my kids to stick their neck out, even if it sounds stupid, they should try it anyway.”

The Turning Point:

The turning point in her career was Bittertown when songs from that album were pitched around Nashville, and Faith Hill decided to cut four of them. Although she didn’t grow up listening to country music, she completely understood why her lyrics identified with that audience and landed her a publishing deal in Nashville. She credits Music City with giving her some of her very best friends, the people that she co-writes all of her music with.

Today:

Now a mother of five children, McKenna made the poignant decision to keep her family together and not uproot everyone to move to Nashville. “I realized a few years back, the benefit for me and not living in Nashville is, I’m not an everyday writer, I have tons of friends that write every day, my brain just doesn’t work that way,” she laughs. “The benefit for me is, I’ve never for one second had any sort of bitterness towards the town of Nashville or the music that is created there. Every time I show up, I get off the plane and I am so excited to be there and to get in a writing room and it’s really like I get to have the best of both worlds”.

In the fifteen years since her life changed forever, McKenna has won two Grammy awards and has made history. In 2016, she became the first woman ever to win the Country Music Association’s Song of the Year two years in a row. Those two songs were “Girl Crush” which was written with Hillary Lindsey and Liz Rose and recorded by Little Big Town and “Humble and Kind” which McKenna wrote alone in her pajamas in her home in Massachusets which was later recorded by Tim McGraw. The former was written one morning in Nashville, watch the songwriters tell the story below in Opry’s series “The Write Stuff”.

McKenna says later that day they had a co-write with Kimberly and Karen from Little Big Town and when they told them about their “weird” new song, they absolutely loved it. “The five of us were just sitting there and I looked around at the room and I was teasing and I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m the only one here without a Grammy’ and Karen said, ‘Lori McKenna, we’re going to get you a Grammy’. Sure enough, at the 2016 Grammy awards, the song won for Best Country Duo/Group Performance as well as Song of the Year, winning McKenna her first Grammy award. “To have that experience with them [Hilary and Lindsey] was such a Godsend, they had done it before, they knew the process and I was experiencing this really surreal thing with my two best friends,” she explains.

The latter, “Humble and Kind” had quite a different start. McKenna tells us how she dropped her kids off at school one morning, came back to an empty house and sat around in her pajamas, essentially making a list of all of the things she and her husband would want their kids to know and what they tell them over and over again as well as those smaller things that you don’t verbalize. She sang it into her iPhone and emailed it to Tim McGraw, who immediately knew he wanted to record it. “When he was telling me about all of these ideas he had for it, once he had recorded it like the music video, I couldn’t believe it,” she admits. “I was like what is he doing with this song, it’s not some big moment, it’s just a tiny little prayer for five little kids, then when I saw what he created from it, in a million ways that song would not be what it is if it wasn’t for Tim, for what he did, the vision he had for it was so much bigger than I ever would have imagined. “

The song also went on to win a Grammy for Best Country Song as well as McKenna’s second year in a row winning Song of the Year at the CMA Awards. For country fans who love McGraw’s version, be sure to listen to McKenna’s version below, which really emulates the simple little prayer and poem she initially thought of when writing it.

In celebration of Bittertown’s 15th anniversary, McKenna just wrapped up her Return to Bittertown Tour and released two of the standouts from the project, “Stealing Kisses” and “Bible Songs”. We caught her stop at Subculture late last month and we were mesmerized by the songstress and her legendary delivery of her music.

Listen to Lori McKenna’s full catalog below and keep up with her by following on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

NYCS Swag Spotlight: Jon Wood

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We spoke to our next Swag Spotlight, Jon Wood just after he released his debut EP which was produced and co-written with Justin Weaver, a major songwriter in Nashville with songs like Brantley Gilbert’s “Bottoms Up”, Jason Aldean’s “Even If I Wanted To” and the Meghan Trainor/John Legend smash pop hit, “Like I’m Gonna Lose You”. Wood who was born in a small town just 20 minutes north of Nashville experienced his father working in the music industry as a songwriter and an artist. Eventually, they moved to North Carolina where Wood tells us his father gave up one dream to follow another. “He had four boys and anything that would take him to the next level would end up taking him away from his family so he realized he wanted to be a dad more than anything so he put that on to the side and raised us and taught us how to write songs and sing,” he explains.

Growing up he recalls his family formed a band with a bluegrass sound and they recorded all of the music in the studio their father built in their house. Wood was only 12 years old and loved playing festivals and pursuing a music career with his family by his side. He knew from an early age that with the support of his parents, he was going to continue to be determined to make it in the music world.  Instilling the love for classic country like George Jones, Merle Haggard, and George Strait, Wood eventually made his way to Nashville wearing a cowboy hat and hoping to carve his own path. “I’ve been here since May of last year, I moved when I was 21 after a 15-minute conversation with my parents and honestly, the rest of my story is still being written.

Oddly enough, Wood now lives a mere five minutes from where his parents lived back in the 1990s and he passes their old apartment building all of the time. “It’s so crazy, I’m sort of living what they wanted to live,” he says. “My dad was the first one who told me to move to Nashville to truly chase that dream.” After Weaver found Wood by seeing one of the videos he posted on Instagram, they struck up a great friendship and started working together. “I get to write with him and sit in the studio and hang out for hours and just write and make music and it’s hard to find people that you can just truly sit down with and create with,” he says of their effortless relationship. Weaver is a co-writer and producer on all four of the songs on his From Where I’m From EP. Each track has a traditional vibe and Wood explains that it is so refreshing to see artists like Midland, Jon Pardi, and Luke Combs experiencing such success.

“When I got to town I looked at Dustin Lynch who’s music isn’t the most traditional but he did have that cowboy hat so I figured I could do something in that lane but with Midland and Jon Pardi, it shows that people are getting sort of tired of hearing the same thing on the radio, not that it’s bad music but sometimes you aren’t sure if you clicked country radio or pop radio,” he explains. “We want to find the sound that Kenny Chesney tapped into in the early 2000s, it was traditional but he could sell out a stadium with it and keep the energy going.”

His next EP is slated for release in the fall and he looks forward to working hands on the project and hopefully getting out to play some shows around the south.

To keep up with Jon Wood follow him on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

From Where I’m From is now available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more recently released music here on our “New Country Music” playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

 

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NYCS Swag Spotlight: Sam Williams

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Sam Williams

Sam Williams, son of Hank Williams Jr. and grandson of Hank Williams is this week’s Swag Spotlight and we talked all about his legacy and the career path and music he is now creating to carve out his own piece of this music genre. At just 22 years old, Williams has just released a new single, titled “Gemini” which perfectly describes the zodiac sign and all that call it theirs.

Obviously growing up in a famous family, country music was in his blood. His grandfather’s career, though short, is nothing less than legendary and many of the artists that we interview today state that Hank Williams’ music shaped their love for the genre and influenced them. His grandson, however, explains that there wasn’t a jukebox in their home playing his music or his father’s music, that he grew up listening to rap music as well and clearly remembers buying Chris Browns’ debut album. After attending Belmont University to learn more about the industry that he was almost destined to end up in, Williams explains that he appreciates all genres and loves finding new, old music to love. “I have a likening to country music but probably not as much of the modern popular country music,” he tells us. “I love to discover a classic or legendary artist who everyone else knows but since it wasn’t my era, I wasn’t too aware of it. For example, Gillian Welsh, “Look At Miss Ohio” it’s a classic but I don’t really know that song because it wasn’t my time period.” He even explained that just a few months ago he heard his grandpa’s song “Why Shouldn’t We Try Anymore” for the first time and it’s now one of his favorites.

He explains how growing up he had different dreams that didn’t involve music. “When I was 12-13 years old I really wanted to have a sneaker company or something like that. I was also, always very into politics, I think my Dad always thought I was going to do something like that but at the end of the day, I had a voice that was given to me.” Although his grandfather is regarded as one of the most influential artists in country music in his short time on this earth, his legacy, and how he died was something Williams has to come to terms with before making the decision to step into the same industry.

Currently, he listens to everything from Dolly Parton to Billie Eilish, Beyonce, and Drake, and discusses with us that those different genres are crucial to how he is now developing his own sound. His newest single, “Gemini” started out as a poem and has been a song he wrote with fellow songwriter, Jaida Dreyer. “We were getting to know each other and talking in a write one day and she was talking about an idea of straddling a line, something parallel, left and right, right and wrong and I was talking about zodiacs and Gemini’s and how they have 2 personalities.” The twangy guitar along with his rustic voice, “Gemini” is a balance between modern and traditional music.

Williams concludes with his upcoming plans for the rest of the year, gearing up to release a collaboration with an artist he says “we all know and love”. He’s hoping to release an EP by the end of the year.

To keep up with Sam Williams, follow him on Facebook and Instagram.

“Gemini” is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released music here on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

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Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

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NYCS Swag Spotlight: Taylor Acorn

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If you are looking for a perfect brand new summer anthem to blast at your BBQs and tailgates look no further than this week’s Swag Spotlight, Taylor Acorn and her new jam “Red White”. In our recent phone conversation, Acorn explained that growing up she remembers all different genres being played around the house but especially country, rock and roll, and pop. Her very first introduction into country music was Garth Brooks and her first concert was Lonestar. “I don’t think I ever really thought, initially music was what I wanted to do but I would always go around the house singing my little heart out,” Acorn laughs. “I could always connect with music whether or not I was feeling happy or sad. I remember sitting in my room with a boom box and I would just play all different kinds of music and sing along.”

After her father passed away and her family moved to Pennslyvania, she tells us how she felt close to him when writing. “He was always into writing and he would always make up funny jingles to make us laugh and I remember pulling out some of his old stories that he had written, he was into short stories and I think that’s where we are so similar, I love writing, whether it’s writing in a journal or writing stories, it’s where my love for writing songs came about.” She tells us that after his death, she had a box that she would write stories or messages to her dad on little slips of paper and put them in the special box, her mom said that her dad could read them that way. It was like she was writing down her thoughts and feelings into songs before she even realized she was a songwriter.

After realizing she wasn’t meant to be in college, (she would rather sit in her room and play music, learn guitar and make YouTube videos then go to class), she made the move to Music City and started songwriting and her artist journey. Her debut EP Put It In A Song has garnered over 19 million streams across platforms and she’s found success writing her personal stories and turning them into music. “In reality, those songs are just my diary, it was just situations I had gone through in that point in time, stories, put it in a song is about falling in love for the first time, they all pertain to a certain point in my life and so I never thought of it as oh trying got to write songs that would relate to someone or someone will listen, but here is my story and I put a melody to it.”

Her next single, “Red White” was released last Friday (July 12th) and is a song she wrote with Reid Isbell and was one of the first times she had a cowrite in Nashville. “He’s one of the coolest people I’ve met here, and he came into my life at a point I was pretty sad and he came into the writers room and just wanted to write an uptempo song, something fun, I knew I wanted to write a fun song too and he had a great idea so we just went with it.” When a lot of her music is revolved around love or heartbreak, Acorn explains she was so happy to step out of her element and create a song perfect for the warmer months.

For the rest of 2019, Acorn is writing as much as she can and continuing to promote the single for the remainder of the summer, gearing up to release new music soon!

To keep up with Taylor Acorn follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

“Red White” is now available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released music here on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.

————————-

Thank You for supporting Country Music in NYC & Beyond!

Subscribe to our Weekly Round-Up here 
for ticket giveaways, meet & greet contests, upcoming events,
and all things country music in the New York metro area and beyond!

+ Follow our country music adventures on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook: