Songwriting Magazine | Autumn 2024 | Issue 36

NASHVILLE SPECIAL! Revealing the stories, songs and secrets of Music City, featuring Claude Kelly & Chuck Harmony, Sam Palladio, Jessie Jo Dillon, Chase Rice, Sunny Sweeney, Hannah Wicklund, and more...

Back in July, braving the humidity and heat, we took a trip to Music City itself, Nashville, Tennessee. In this special edition of Songwriting Magazine, we invite you to explore both the magic and relentless business machine that makes Nashville the songwriting capital of the world. From its storied past to its new voices, we'll uncover the history, people, and places that have shaped the city of today.

With collaboration and co-writing at the heart of what brings so many people to Nashville, we have the privilege of joining two different writers’ rooms. As we observe artists/songwriters like Makena Hartlin, Tiffany Goss, and Maura Streppa do their thing, it’s a chance to understand why these sessions so often conjure up something unique, that the participants couldn’t create on their own.

We also get to spend an evening with The Song Suffragettes, a weekly all-women acoustic showcase that is doing its bit to address the gender disparity still prevalent in country music. Speaking with Georgia Owen, Ash Ruder, and Mia Morris, we learn about the amazing opportunities that have grown out of this community.

Elsewhere, we chat with Claude Kelly and Chuck Harmony, two of this century’s most prolific and successful pop songwriters/producers now based in Tennessee, to find out what it is about the Nashville scene that’s so appealing. We also ask Cornish actor/musician Sam Palladio, a solo artist and star of the TV show Nashville, about the city’s unique charm.

Of course, it would be wrong of us to travel all the way to Nashville without tapping up some of its top industry experts. We’ve done just that, and have their advice on how to make it in one of the world’s most competitive songwriting destinations. There’s also an introduction to the Nashville Numbers System from Emmy award-winning guitarist-songwriter Mike Meiers and top tips from writer/producer Lenny Pey. Feeling inspired? We provide the prompts and ideas you need to write your first/next country song.

Then there are the songs themselves and the stories behind them. James T. Slater tells us all about Martina McBride’s In My Daughter’s Eyes, a song that helped pave his way in the city, and Steve Bogard discusses the creation of George Strait’s Carrying Your Love With Me. Jessie Jo Dillon, a songwriter on a serious hot streak, walks us through a pair of 2024’s best tracks: Morgan Wallen’s Lies, Lies, Lies, and Jelly Roll’s Halfway To Hell.

Don’t worry, we’ve not forgotten your other favourite regular features. Crys Matthews shares her Songwriting Survival Kit, Chase Rice deconstructs his song You In ‘85, Sunny Sweeney reveals the lessons she’s learned over the last decade, and Hannah Wicklund has penned her very own Diary Of A Songwriter. Rising stars Rosemary Joaquin, Ryan and Rory, and Winona Fighter get the Introducing treatment.

So join us as we peel back the curtain and reveal Nashville’s stories, songs, and secrets…