Who is George Birge? The Story Behind His Journey to Country Music
Who is George Birge? The singer-songwriter joined us to chat about his journey to country music. Get to know the rising star here…
Quick Facts:
Full Name – George Birge
Birthdate – November 28th
Hometown – Austin, Texas
Current City – Nashville, Tennessee
Musical Influences – Gary Allan, George Strait, Jason Aldean, Eli Young Band
Label – RECORDS Nashville
Current Single – “Mind On You” // as of date of article: 01/02/2024
The Beginning:
In our first spotlight of the 2024, we are highlighting the incredible career of singer-songwriter, George Birge. Birge has been a Nashville-transplant for about nine years, and his career is one of determination, grit, and integrity.
“I was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and country music is kind of in your blood down there,” shared the singer. “I fell in love with it literally listening to the radio in my dad’s truck. It was the genre to me that told stories and made you feel something, and was like real life.” At a young age, Birge recalls appreciating country music and its knack for storytelling.
“I grew up idolizing George Strait and Willie Nelson and Stevie Ray Vaughan, and all the classic guys,” he shared. Adding, “For more modern, Eli Young Band were a huge influence on me. They were the first guys I saw make it out of Texas on a National scene.”
Birge took his love of country music to heart, even learning to pen lyrics at an early age and playing live gigs just a few years later. “I started writing songs in middle school, started playing guitar by high school, and then started a band at 14,” he shared.
“I started playing live music on 6th street at 14 or 15 years old. We would play downtown Austin with x’s on our hands. We always played original music, which I felt like was different than any other city. […] They were terrible songs, but it was a really cool way to learn how to write music, learn how to connect with other people, and learn what resonated with people. I was instantly hooked to the collaborative culture.”
The Turning Point:
After graduating high school, Birge played music through college. “I played music through college. I went to University of Texas, played golf there briefly. Then I ended up chasing the music thing. By the time I graduated, I had a job, but I was playing every night and weekend in little bars around Austin.”
Because of his hard work and dedication to his craft, the singer grew a following in the Texas music scene. “I never toured before, but we started to get a pretty big following to where we were selling out every Friday and Saturday night, little 300-400 people club. We started to make some noise, which was something I always dreamed about but never thought I could do it professionally.”
This led to Birge catching the ear of some people in Nashville, who came out to see him play, and ultimately offered him his first record deal in 2015. The singer and his new wife moved to Music City upon landing his first deal. Birge started a duo called Waterloo Revival, who achieved a moderate amount of success including touring and radio songs.
Despite the early success, the singer started to feel burnt out on the path he was heading down. “In 2020, when the world shut down, I had kind of run out of steam, and honestly had given up on the artist thing. I asked out of my record deal. I had decided for about an 8-month window there that I was just going to be a songwriter.”
With a plan to just be a songwriter moving forward, Birge began writing songs and getting cuts by bigger artists in town, which would eventually lead him to a new record deal with RECORDS Nashville. “I had written some songs for some bigger artists in town and had some folks start believing in me, supporting my songs, and started putting them on the radio, and then just through the motivation of some family and friends, I got talked into sneaking some of my solo stuff into social media that ended up blowing up and getting me my own record deal.”
Today:
Flash forward to today, Birge is finally making music the way he always dreamed of. “This iteration as a solo artist, I promised myself that if I was going to do this again, I was going to do it this my way and I was going to write and record songs that I believed in, and I was going to pick producers, players, and direction, and I was lucky enough to find a label that believed in that with me. It’s taken off faster than anything I’ve done in my career and I think that’s probably because I was able to really believe in myself, be authentic, and write music that’s honest and comes from a real place for me. It’s the most exciting time in my life right now, and it has definitely been a long journey to get here.”
His current radio single, “Mind On You” has been a huge success both according to fans and radio. It is hard to believe that the song almost went to another artist. “I wrote it at the end of 2020, when I was kind of between the artist thing. At the time, I was under the influence that I was just going to be a songwriter. […] I knew it was special, but I had no intentions of putting it out because I wasn’t doing the artist thing, so we originally pitched it to Jason Aldean and 24 hours later, I get an email back from Aldean’s team, saying don’t play this for anybody, Jason loved it and he wants it for his new record and that was the biggest thing to ever happen to me.”
Eventually after a call from his label head, who said “That song that you’re going to give away to Aldean, I think it was a mistake, you need to call and ask for it back because it’s going to be your first single, and it’s going to change your life,” and some prayer and guts, Birge decided to ask for it back.
“Mind On You” is the first of many incredible songs to come from Birge. He is already working on his album and more new music is slated to come out early this year. “Making and writing music is my favorite thing in the world to do, so we are going to put out as much music as we can next year, and I’m really excited about that.”
Connect:
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George Birge’s music is available everywhere you buy or stream music. Take a listen below and check out more new recently released tunes on our ‘New Country Music’ playlist. Be sure to give the playlist a follow for your weekly new country music fix.
