3 Year Nashville Anniversary

So this month it’s been three years of calling Nashville home. Wow. It’s gone by fast, and there’s been a lot that’s happened. 

When I moved I was keeping a diary of each month here, and then things got a big crazy and I stopped having time to write up everything. So here’s what’s been going on: 

Move to town, inner turmoil

 

The first year I spent kicking around trying to figure out how to get into Nashville. Sarah and I were staying in a little apartment, and I’d go out to endless coffees with people. I worked on a few things, but not a lot. I spent some time traveling with a southern gospel group and played a show with a jazz singer, but that was about it when it came to gigs. I’m not going to lie- it was a hard first year. I honestly didn’t know how to get where I wanted to go, but I felt like I learned a lot in the first year. 

One of my first higher profile gigs with recording artist and Dove Award winner Lindsay McCaul. 

First gigs, finding community (Balanced Breakfast) 

 

At the end of the first year the phone started ringing a little more. I got a bunch of one off gigs with various artists, and really enjoyed it. At about the same time I helped to form a small group of musicians that meet every week called Balanced Breakfast. that led to a lot of great community ties, and it felt like Nashville started to open up quite a bit. 

We meet weekly at a local coffeeshop, and we've had about 200 people cycle through since we first launched it.  

Bought a house, had a kid, built a studio

 

Sarah and I bought our first house after our lease at the apartment was up on a huge lot in East Nashville and started fixing it up. We added a fence for our two siberian huskies, and began clearing the massive backyard. 

My Siberian husky Coda enjoying the first snowfall in his new backyard. 

After being in the house about 3 months, we found out Sarah was pregnant. Over the next year I continued to gig out and play sessions while we prepped for Jackson’s arrival. 

One of the things I’d always dreamed about was building my own pro recording studio, and I started work on it in the winter. We started converting our downstairs 1,000 sq. ft finished basement into a studio that would eventually include a main control room, a drum room/guest room, vocal tracking room, a hangout area, and an amp isolation room. I recorded my first full length album in the space this spring, and looking forward to working on more projects in the future there. 

My wonderful wife Sarah helping me lay the floating floor in the studio. 

Continuing to build a career, future stuff

 

So where am I today? I’m still in the build stage, for sure. Things are gradually picking up with session work, I’m producing/co-writing at least one or two tracks a month in the studio, and I’m playing out with a couple different bands, usually about 4-6 mostly out of town shows per month. It’s exciting to see things continue to get busier, and I’m working really hard to set things up for the trend to continue. 

Gearing up to record at the Tracking Room off music row in Nashville. 

As always, I’m always looking to track keys for artists (you can write me if you’d like to talk about your music), and I’m continuing to pursue touring opportunities. I’m thankful for where I am now, which is working with amazingly talented musicians and artists to create great music.