{"id":5791,"date":"2015-11-06T13:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T19:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=5791"},"modified":"2015-11-02T22:39:16","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T04:39:16","slug":"what-its-like-to-be-a-new-songwriter-in-nashville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2015\/11\/06\/what-its-like-to-be-a-new-songwriter-in-nashville\/","title":{"rendered":"What it\u2019s Like to be a New Songwriter in Nashville"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day after my last final exam of the 2015 spring semester, I loaded up my car with my suitcases, guitars, random dormitory decorations, and made the sixteen-hour drive to Nashville, Tennessee. I have always wanted to live in Nashville and after I got a part-time internship for Toby Keith\u2019s manager<\/a>, I was able to convince my parents to let me move there for the summer. My na\u00efve intention was to leave Nashville in August with a handful of hit songs in my back pocket.<\/p>\n

\"11351395_10205190573347495_3932612438806027592_n\"<\/a>I don\u2019t think any Nashville newcomer has had a better first couple days than I did. On my second day, I met with John Marks<\/a>, the highly regarded radio programmer for the Sirius XM station, The Highway<\/a>. He agreed to put my single, \u201cDamn Good Time\u201d on the air! From that meeting, we walked into the building next door and met with John Huie<\/a>, the head of the largest booking agency in the country, Creative Artists Agency<\/a>. It was a great introduction and he agreed to keep an eye on my progress in Nashville and invited me to a big CAA event. I also had a meeting with Mike Dungan<\/a>, the head of Universal Music Group Nashville<\/a>, who also said he\u2019d keep an eye on my progress. The next day, I recorded the vocals for \u201cDamn Good Time\u201d with the famous Nashville producer, Chuck Ainlay<\/a>, who had just received a Grammy for his work on Miranda Lambert\u2019s Platinum<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

After my honeymoon week in Nashville, I quickly realized that success wasn\u2019t going to fall in my lap. Reality had sunk in. I was a nineteen-year-old in a big city full of talented songwriters who, like me, were chasing after the same dream. It wasn\u2019t until I joined the Nashville Songwriter\u2019s Association International<\/a> when I made my first big step. I brought my guitar into the back room of the building and played my songs for the new artist representative. She immediately fell in love with my music and began reaching out to other talented songwriters to connect me with. That night I went to NSAI\u2019s pitch to a publisher event\u00a0where I was able to meet many other Nashville newbies. I showed up to NSAI\u00a0on time, which was a huge mistake. The line was out the door and I was stuck in the back next to a few old-timers who were still trying to get their big break on music row. I asked one of them where he got his boots and he jokingly responded, \u201cHey son that\u2019s a good song idea.\u201d A few weeks later, I co-wrote one of my favorite songs I\u2019ve ever written, \u201cWhere\u2019d You Get Those Boots?\u201d<\/p>\n

As time passed, I started playing at better-known songwriting venues, such as The Listening Room<\/a>, and I started writing with better writers who had publishing deals like my friend, Morgan Dawson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"11703142_10205599032518719_2294507112432549188_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My first month in Nashville was very intimidating. The lows were very low and the highs were really high. My confidence quickly grew and I was able to find a unique sound. Songwriters assumed\u00a0I was a lot older and were astonished when I told them I was nineteen. When August rolled around, I had made so much progress that people close to me in the industry told me to stick around. Although I didn\u2019t want to leave, I was ready to come back to Austin with the songwriting tools I had acquired in Nashville. As I drove out of town, I had pocketful of new songs I\u2019m still crazy about and I knew that that wasn\u2019t the last Nashville would see of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day after my last final exam of the 2015 spring semester, I loaded up my car with my suitcases, guitars, random dormitory decorations, and made the sixteen-hour drive to Nashville, Tennessee. I have always wanted to live in Nashville … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":5896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-post-4","category-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5791"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5942,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5791\/revisions\/5942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}