{"id":6967,"date":"2016-02-06T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-06T13:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/?p=6967"},"modified":"2016-02-03T12:57:55","modified_gmt":"2016-02-03T18:57:55","slug":"watch-out-chart-toppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.dwrl.utexas.edu\/countrymusic\/2016\/02\/06\/watch-out-chart-toppers\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Out, Chart-Toppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"steve<\/a>In December of 2015, Huffington Post published an article<\/a> by Brittany Hodak titled \u201cTop 20 Country Artists to Watch in 2016.\u201d I\u2019ll admit, although I am a lover of all things music, I don\u2019t typically look into up-and-coming country artists. But, much to my surprise, I came across an artist I have been familiar with for a few years: Steve Moakler. I didn\u2019t think that Steve qualified as Country, but since listening to his new stuff have come to realize that Country is definitely the mold into which he is casting himself. How did he get to #3 on Hodak\u2019s list? Let me unpack it for ya.<\/p>\n

Steve Moakler was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Interesting, huh? Yankee-boy turned Country. In 2006, he picked up and moved to the Promised Land\u2014Nashville, Tennessee\u2014to pursue opportunity. And, just like thousands of others of his kind, he didn\u2019t strike gold right away. Sweet Steve worked odd jobs while writing music in order to make his dream a reality. His expectations, like most Nashville-bound artists, were high and left him disappointed countless times.<\/p>\n

When he had time, he played show after show to get his name out to a building fan-base and awaiting record-labels. \u201cThousands of songs later,\u201d (according to his website<\/a>) Steve released his first album by way of a Kickstarter<\/em> funding campaign, under Free the Birds Records.<\/em><\/p>\n