A couple of weeks ago, I was in Nashville and had the opportunity to meet and hang out with Rachel Wammack. She just signed a record deal with Sony Music Nashville and the story of how she got signed is pretty incredible.

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When she was 17-years-old, Rachel was playing a set at a steakhouse in her hometown of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  A Sony rep happened to stop by the restaurant after a day at the golf course.  By pure chance, he was teeing it up in Muscle Shoals. At dinner, he heard Rachel singing and finally went over to buy one of the CD's she was selling.  On the way back to Nashville, he listened . . . and listened . . . and listened . . . and knew he had to call her.  The next day, he did.  When he found out Rachel was just seventeen, he asked to speak to her dad.  Sony was interested in Rachel, but wanted her to follow through with the plans she had already made for herself.  So, she finished high school, then attended the University of North Alabama.  During her college career she continued to write and perform and contacted Sony as soon as she got her college degree.  Six months later, she was in Nashville at Sony with a record deal in hand.

I was fortunate enough to get to see Rachel sit down at the piano and perform a few of the songs she's been working on with legendary producer Dan Huff.  It was Rachel, a legendary piano (Elvis played it) and some amazing, original songs.  This is my favorite she performed that day.

Rachel says she was in a writing session with two other female writers and she just wasn't feeling what they had come up with.  She mentioned to them that she had a song title saved on her phone.  That title was "My Boyfriend Doesn't Speak for Me Anymore."  They loved it and they wrote it.  For me, it's a country shade of Kelly Clarkson and Lady Gaga and I am completely obsessed with it.

She sang other songs for us too.  This one . . . "Closure" . . . is about her ex-boyfriend, whom she dated between the ages of 13 and 19.  While she may have been really young, the words of the song, which grew from a surprise visit from him long after they had broken up, are as mature as they get.

And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this song.  Rachel had a brief stint as a bartender at a Courtyard Marriott (random fun fact).  And the song "Damage" grew from the stories she heard from the bar stools.  This song will just break your heart.  It broke mine in Nashville as I heard her sit down, play and sing it inside RCA's famed Studio B.

Keep an eye on this young lady.  At 23-years-old, she is ready to storm the world of country music, though, honestly, her voice and songwriting can adapt to any style of music.  She's tremendous.  Kevin and I have been burning up her EP since I brought it home.  She blares through our Alexa daily.  And I have no doubts that someday, very soon, she may be blaring through Alexas and radios everywhere.

 

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