Who is Harper Grace? The Story Behind Her Journey to Country Music

Today we shine our spotlight on a singer-songwriter that we have been loving lately, Harper Grace. Grace is a singer-songwriter who creates music that comes from the heart, all while drawing on her multitude of inspirations growing up. Continue reading to learn more about her story.

A Dallas, Texas native, Grace grew up with an incredibly supportive family. “My mom always tells this story that she would pray even before we were born that we would know what we wanted to do at a very young age, so that we’d have the time to work on that craft,” she shared.

At first, Grace and her family thought that gymnastics was going to be her thing. “I was actually in gymnastics first, when I was six years old, I was training for the olympics hopeful group, and my mom was an elite gymnast. I was bound to follow in her footsteps, but shortly after being in gymnastics for so long, I finally told her I wanted to quit and do music.”

Although nobody in her family was musically-inclined, her parents supported her desire to play music. “We got a piano donated to my family after a year of praying for one,” she began. “After that, I just fell head first into music, and I was homeschooled, so I wrote songs about shampoo, conditioner, and home schooling. And my grandma got me my first guitar at the age of seven. That’s when I really started listening to Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash and really trying to implement country more into the songs that I was writing as a kid.”

When she started hearing artists like Parton on her grandmother’s radio, something in her just clicked. “As a kid I could close my eyes and feel what she was feeling when she would sing and I could picture it all in my head. The whole realm of music to me painted pictures in my head and that’s fascinated me a lot, so knowing they were capable of putting that to music and putting stories in just a few lines in a 3 minute song was something that was really, really exciting to me.”

The Turning Point:

While singing gospel music at her church and studying incredible singers across genres, like Joss Stone, Norah Jones, and Taylor Swift, Grace quickly took interest in the storytelling side in songwriting. “I fell really in love with the songwriting process and what it did for me, listening to [singers] on the radio,” she shared.

She also shared that things really started to click for her when she heard Rascal Flatts for the first time on the radio. “They incorporated soul and country together and that was my hope in knowing that I could also do that one day.”

Despite being young, when she discovered her calling, Grace worked extremely hard to make her dream a reality. “I had a lot of drive and ambition as a kid, I saw what I wanted, and I chased it as fast as I could,” she shared. Adding, “I always knew that what I wanted to do was music, so I looked up wikipedia pages at the age of 13 and 14 of my favorite songs and who the writer’s were, and from that I just researched contacts and instagrams and emails and all the ways that I could contact some of my favorite people. […] I started doing that with my dream-list of writers, who I really hoped to collaborate with one day.”

Her incredible work-ethic and networking ability led her to eventually connect with the ‘right’ people, ultimately leading her to her deal with Curb Records at just 21 years old. “I had a dream so big and continued to update what the dream was. […] I put all the drive and passion into making it happen,” she shared. “If I’m going to dream it, I am going to do whatever is possible to make that dream come true.”

Today:

Most recently, Grace has released two new songs, including “Sparkle” and “Oh Say Can You See.” While the former is a song that speaks to Grace’s gritty, yet sparkly roots, “Oh Say Can You See” is a letter to her younger self to remember her worth no matter what. The songstress recalls going through bullying at a young age, and this song is a song that reflects what she would have told herself back then.

When asked about the writing process for the track, Grace shared, “The song was obviously a title on my song ideas for many years, probably ten years. […] It’s such a big story. […] I use my writing sessions as therapy.” She added later, “That was the fastest song that I have ever written out of the 490 songs I have written over the years and it was a really beautiful to process the story and getting to tell it.”

For Grace, this is only just the beginning of her career as a country music artist. She has true staying power, as her talent in songwriting and singing can match up to any artist in the industry right now. Fans should keep their eyes and ears open for more music coming from Grace sooner rather than later!

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