Faren Rachels, native of Sparta, Georgia is gearing up to hit the road with Luke Combs and promote her debut EP, available today. There is growing up in a small town and then there is growing up in Sparta, where Rachels graduated high school with 12 people.  “There wasn’t a whole lot to do, but I think that was one of the reasons I got so interested in music so early.”  When your town is so small, every person living there feels like family and she grew up to write songs that have to do with real-life experiences.

She recalls for her 18th birthday her grandparents took her to Nashville to experience The Grand Ole Opry and The Ryman for the very first time.  Growing up just an hour from Trisha Yearwood’s hometown, she remembers going to her high school gym and seeing the praise for the country mega-star and thinking “If she can do this from this little town, I can do it too.”

Growing up with her dad loving Lynryd Skynd and Allman Brothers as well as some blues including Stevie Ray Vaughan but also loving Yearwood’s incredible country vocals she credits several genres of music as her influences.  “If  I like it, I want to do it, I don’t want everything to sound the same,” she says of the diversity of her debut EP which is available today.  As for current day influences, she states that Miranda Lambert has a huge impact on the music she wants to create.  “That is the one thing I loved about every record shes put out, you would have a song that almost sounds like bluegrass then you would go to the next song and it sounds like a metal rock song, so I love the diversity.”