My Live Music Love Story

As a young girl, I was captivated by live performance and music. I remember watching Wizard of Oz or NKOTB and then recreating my own interpretations of it on our swing set slide with my freeze pop microphone. I made everyone watch my performances and all I did was sing and dance my whole childhood. I loved every opportunity I ever had to be in a performance; choirs, band, theatre camps, plays, talent shows etc. From as far back as I can remember, I knew I loved the feeling of the energy of the arts and live music. In elementary school, after lunch a few of us would go to Mr. Billings classroom and he’d play piano so we could sing. Core memory. Now looking back on it, it wasn’t the need to be seen or attention seeking but I can truly say it was the thing that made me feel most alive and just natural to what my soul knew. Live music and performance may have been in my bones for longer than even this lifetime.

Now by the time my teenage years rolled around, we were living in MTV world. I remember watching the early morning music videos while waiting for the bus with my cousin Jesse. Again, another core memory and I’m sure I’m not alone on that one!!! I was obsessed with all thing’s music videos and live performances. The early 2000s is when I was in high school and boy what a time to be alive. Around 14 years old, my mom allowed me to fly out to Chicago with Jesse to go visit Christina, my older cousin and Jesse’s sister. On our trip out there, she took us to a Tom Petty concert, my very first real concert!!! I remember sitting on our blanket up on the grass at an amphitheater and my world was forever changed. My obsession with music has taken on a new life. I remember the smell of marijuana wafting in the air while they played “Last Dance of Mary Jane”.  Lots of firsts on this trip, first concert, first smell of pot, and my first Mikes Hard Lemonade. From this point throughout my high school years, we would drive to Pittsburgh every summer to see Tom Petty. Going to concerts was my Jam!

By the time I was in college, my priorities were definitely focused on my college experience. My days of performing and singing were a thing of the past. I had a boyfriend, I was going to class and playing beer pong in our neighbor’s apartment up on 3rd Street. Let’s Go Mountaineers! College brought me my closest girlfriends, and we would dance like we were in those MTV music videos in our Forever 21 dresses, just to continue to dance our asses off at the 80s room down at Bent Willeys. I guess that’s what happens when your friends are all on the dance team. Full blown living room performances of Britney Spears and Carrie Underwoods whole Carnival Ride album was a nightly ritual. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!! My time at WVU flew by and before you know it, it was 2009 and Hoda Koptd was giving our commencement speech. Leaving WVU with my Journalism degree, I was an adult, and I really wanted to move to LA, but I took the first job I was offered in PA. After a year out of college, I was managing a Victoria’s Secret in Greensburg. I was over living in Pennsylvania. I could feel my soul just crawling out of my skin, I needed to go find more. I need to get out. I actually interviewed out in LA but didn’t love it. So, I was open to other options and little did I know that the universe would steer me back to live music. A management position at a Victoria Secret in Nashville opened up, I did a phone interview but ultimately didn’t get the job. That’s okay though, I was going anyways.

In April 2010, I moved to Nashville TN. I quit my job, found an apartment and my parents loaded me up in my U-Haul and I was out!! I’ve known deep down that I would leave Pennsylvania one day and for that moment to finally be here… well, I jumped…. not even feet first, but I did a cannonball into my new life. It wasn’t but a month that I made the decision to leave, that I was sleeping in my new Nashville apartment. I didn’t have a job yet, but I did have an interview lined up for a random health care sales job, as well as working at the VS in the Green Hills Mall. I had no idea what my future had in store but I was hell bent to figure it all out. The first two years I was working a 9-5 and going out in midtown and getting into some fun adventures with my new friend Lynea. We went to events like Tin Pan South and made friends with Erv and the whole crew at Losers. One night we were invited to a showcase at John Rich’s house to see Sinister perform. That’s the night I realized that Nashville wasn’t just country, there’s some layers under the surface. Still felt like the twilight zone though. What is this crazy world of Nashville?  We discovered a new fun live music event at Winner’s on Monday nights, called Whiskey Jam. We were hooked!! The early days were so fun and we felt like we knew something other people didn’t know. Welcome to the birth of the “Singer/Songwriter” nights in Nashville TN, but Whiskey Jam offered full band and a party!! Kudos to Ward! Lynea and I would be rolling into our jobs on Tuesday mornings in rough shape to say the least. I was in heaven and I couldn’t get enough live music. Some folks call this time period in Nashville, the Sweet Spot... I came in on the tail end of it. When one side of Broadway was smoking bars and Paradise Park tater tots are things dreams were made of. Things were changing though; more people started to move there and the developers took over. One thing hasn’t changed… Live music was everywhere in this town and everyone lives and breathes it. In 2012 I quit my full-time job and got into live music production. I became a runner on a Zac Brown Southern Ground Festival and the rest is history. Friends like Kate and Tom changed my trajectory and I finally found what I was trying to find in this new path. Tom and I started writing together and I found a safe space to express myself again. Feeling like that 4-year-old that just wanted someone to sit and listen to her sing, well I found that.

During this summer of transformation back into my musical side, I met a musician named Rob Snyder. We were connected through mutual friends from West Virginia and became fast friends. My Nashville life collided with my WVU life and it felt very meant to be. Just like my first night in Morgantown freshman year, Country Roads played at midnight…the song my grandfather played for me to sing as a child… That was the sign I was sent. Is my life this aligned, and have I always been heading here?!  It sure felt that way and now that I’ve lived it, I know it to be true. My new friendships blossomed and life was focused on music. All things music. I got a job at the Tin Roof on Demonbreun to work into between my production gigs. We were encouraged by management that if there were any ideas we had for events that we could give it a try. Let me introduce, Revival. I brought the idea of creating an event to Rob and our other friend Cody. We sat in the living room and decided on “The Tin Roof Revival”, every Tuesday night at Tin Roof and we wanted to do something different. We wanted to showcase the songs and bring a listener to church in a musical way. Writer’s sit on a church pew and give it their all regardless of if it’s a hit song on the radio or the song you wrote that day. Revival was truly the most meaningful experience of my life. Every Tuesday we created a space, a moment, a memory. We were a community of musicians and music lovers alike, figuring it out. An industry hang where we all networked and writes were arranged; friendships and songs were born out of these Tuesday nights. So many amazing moments happened on the church pew and I honestly get emotional when it comes to Revival. What a special place in time. The next 8 years of my time in Nashville can only be described as MAGICAL. Granted, life things happen and there are hardships but my goodness I’ve lived some really incredible moments and have met the best people. I was sitting in a rented suburban in the parking lot of Soundcheck when I read the news of Tom Petty’s passing. I cried for ol Tom, and in that moment, life felt full circle in some strange way. I could die tomorrow and I’d be okay with it honestly…but I probably won’t since live music increases your life span. I might live forever then if that’s the case :) Gratitude is all I feel these days.

In 2019 I reconnected with a friend that I’ve met in 2012 on my very first gig. Now my music love story collides with my new love story. Six months into our new found romance, I moved from Nashville to the coast of North Carolina. I even surprised myself with that one, but it felt right and meant to be. The Chris Stapleton song “Nashville, TN” felt like it was written about me, yet again that album is called “Starting Over”. What are the odds I fall in love with someone that’s been there all along and is also in production and a live music nut. I moved in Jan 1, 2020…. what are those odds?!!! Before the world changed. Now our life is full of music, instruments, productions and boat rides down the intercoastal. Sometimes I feel distant from my old Nashville life, but then things happen that let me know that it may look different, but the love always remains the same.

In June I went down to CCMF in Myrtle Beach. My boyfriend is the power guy of the event; Rob and some friends were playing their set in the Songwriters tent. My new life converges with my old life and my heart felt full to hear my friends sing their songs just like the old days at Revival. While watching my boyfriend bust his butt to make such an event happen, I realize that is what I love about live music the most. So many people coming together, busting their butts to bring an experience to the masses, to all be present in the moment. The shared experience is what makes live music so special. Thats why I loved working in production, working behind the curtain. My CCMF reunion with my friends ended on a fun note, we went up to hear the Beach Boys play their set from the side stage. Before I knew it, I was playing the dance game with John Stamos. Which way are you going? I was so embarrassed to say the least, John was so kind to take a photo with us and ask me about my Revival T-shirt before he went back on stage. In that moment I didn’t feel distance from my Nashville life. Somehow, I still am having these magical moments even here on the coast. In this instance, I had a Full House moment. My Millennial heart is swooning.

Again, it feels like I was always heading here. I truly believe I listened to my intuition and it led me to exactly where I’m supposed to be…even if I don’t know what is to come. As we know, I have no problem with doing cannonballs in my life! I also wonder, has the music in my life been the mile posts all along? Steering me in this direction.  As I approach my 40’s era… I wonder, what’s next? What limb do I climb out on and how do I continue to honor that 4-year-old girl that lives on inside myself. I’ve been playing piano again and it’s actually coming back to me quicker than I anticipated! I’m writing this story right now and maybe that is my limb. All I know is this, that in today’s world “Imposter Syndrome” is the thing of the past. Get out there and try that thing you’ve always wanted to do even if you doubt yourself.

If my “Live Music Love Story” has taught me anything, it is this….

 Jump.