Kelleigh Bannen’s ‘This Nashville Life’ Podcast: The Jazz Episode

Every other week, Kelleigh Bannen will provide behind-the-scenes analysis, stories and insight into Music City’s No. 1 export, with help from some of Nashville’s top songwriters, artists, executives and producers. Taste of Country will debut each new episode of her This Nashville Life podcast, and Bannen herself will introduce it as a guest writer. Thoughts and opinions expressed by Bannen are hers alone and do not reflect the opinions of Taste of Country, unless she’s talking about #TomatoGate, in which case, yeah … she’s spot on. 

This week is a little departure for This Nashville Life. Since our co-producer Kevin is on his honeymoon (congratulations, Kev!) we decided to shake it up a bit. My close friend Nada Taha of the Bobby Bones Show actually turns the microphone on me! It’s a casual, candid and certainly unscripted conversation. We touch on topics from road life and band dynamics to humility and the temptation to compare oneself to other artists. One of the must vulnerable parts of the conversation happens when Nada asks me what it’s like to watch other artists have success more quickly than I have. We also spend a bit of time discussing the importance having of champions — those people that are willing to step out and take a risk early on in an artist's career.

So ... I hope you’ll check out this week’s episode, which we’re calling the “Jazz” episode because, well, it doesn’t exactly resolve. But that was kind of the point. So few things in life can be tied up with a bow that sometimes it’s good to let it be unresolved. As you may have noticed from our previous episodes, there is no “one way” to make it. No “one way” or full proof method of breaking an artist, or writing a hit song, or having a number one single. In that way all of the music business is a lot like jazz.

Come with us as we try to figure out what it means to live this Nashville life.

Listen to This Nashville Life Ep. 7: "Jazz"

About Kelleigh Bannen: Kelleigh Bannen’s This Nashville Life Podcast offers an authentic, vibrant look at the journey of someone trying to “make it” in country music. Bannen is admittedly still learning what that means. After a short career as an independent artist, the “Famous” singer signed a major label record deal and recorded two-and-a-half albums that were never released. She’s honest, but not bitter about the obstacles female artists face in country music, but her blog and podcast go much deeper.