Named one of Nashville Lifestyle’s “Most Beautiful People” our Swag Spotlight this week is Raleigh Keegan. His very first musical memory is of his adopted father singing James Taylor, “Fire and Rain” and “Carolina In My Mind” to help him get to sleep as a child.  The newcomer is from a town north of Cincinnati and although he used to play trombone in high school, he didn’t pick up a guitar and start songwriting until he was finishing up college. “I was this jock who played trombone,” Keegan told us. “I always said ‘I have a football player body trapped in a musicians mind,’ I was first chair, all state jazz trombone, but when I was 18 years old, all you care about is how do I get the girls, I played football in college but I couldn’t wait to go home after practice to write and play my guitar.”

He recalled falling in love with John Mayer’s album Continuum and being inspired when he saw him perform in 2007 but ultimately caught the country music genre bug after seeing Zac Brown Band. “I quit my job the week after I saw them, there was something about the feeling he was giving, I wanted to move people the way I am being moved by his music.” After making the decision to go all in, Keegan and his wife sold their house and moved to Nashville so he could pursue his career. He taught himself about the industry, how to book gigs, how to make money as a musician and after about a year of learning all he could, he knew he had to hire a team to help promote his music. “I was quickly feeling like I need to get better as an artist so I need a team. You can only operate to a certain level, to cross that threshold you need other people, so a little over a year ago I brought on a team so I could spend more time focusing on my music, which is the whole point and reason I moved.”

His current single “Don’t Take Time” was written about the very first time Keegan saw his wife, Shelby. “I was dating a girl for four years and I was in a conversation with her at the time, then I saw Shelby across the room and I just felt something, I wasn’t sure what it was but there was something about her. I broke up with that girl and ten months later Shelby and I were engaged,” he romantically explains. He continues that the girl he was dating ended up marrying his roommate and they were married before they were. He had the line “some good things don’t take time” and knew he wanted to write about their love story.

He plans on releasing six more songs on an EP later this year and continuing to promote “Don’t Take Time”.

To keep up with Raleigh Keegan, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.