Nashville has received a lot of buzz in recent years as one of the hot places to live in the South, drawing a record 15.8 million visitors in 2018, according to the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp, and surpassing the population of Memphis as Tennessee’s largest city.
Major draws are professional sports teams, high energy music and arts festivals, and events along the beautiful downtown waterfront. But it is hard to miss the blocks of neon lights downtown that attract locals and visitors alike into the bars and venues, where music leaks out onto the streets, turning the sidewalks into a long dance floor where everyone is singing along with the musicians inside.
While it was once known only for its country music, today’s Nashville has become a haven for songwriters, singers, producers and performers from all genres. With the historic Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, located prominently in downtown Nashville, the city has invested in its musical roots.
Over the last few decades, Nashville leaders have incorporated infrastructure, such as Bridgestone Arena, Ascend Amphitheater and the new Convention Center, to support the many small independent and large corporate recording and production companies that have located in “Music City.”
With infrastructure, recording studios, production companies, professional session musicians and agents all in one place, it is no wonder singers and songwriters from all over move to Nashville to get their start. There must be thousands of hopefuls waitressing, bartending, playing smaller gigs and dreaming of making it big in the city. But those who have gone before them and found their success in Nashville warn that it takes a lot more than good lyrics and a strong voice to make music your career in this city.
Three-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Casey Beathard, who has written top hits for artists like Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, Tim McGraw, George Straight and Garth Brooks, believes passion is the most important characteristic a musician should have. “My favorite advice to anyone chasing music, or any career, is to make sure it’s not only about the fame or the money,” he said. “If it’s a passion burning in your heart that won’t leave you alone and gives you joy doing, then it’s worth chasing at all costs.”
Beathard noted that listeners will know the difference if that passion is missing. “Chasing it for the money, or because you want to be ‘somebody else’ or just like ‘somebody else,’ won’t be fulfilling for you in the long run,” he said. “Authenticity is detected by the consumer, in my opinion. ‘Wannabes’ and acts, instead of true artists, won’t leave a mark on the industry that the true artists do.”
Beathard has most recently shared his industry knowledge and advice with his son, Tucker, 24, who gave up a college baseball scholarship to chase his dream of singing and songwriting. Father and son have worked together in the past, but Tucker has a collection of his own songs, a debut album and a new contract with record label Warner Music. He is currently doing a radio tour and promoting his new single, “Better than Me,” and will release the second half of his album later this year.