From Louisiana to Nashville... and Back Again

From April 20—22, local, regional, and national songwriters will assemble  in downtown Baton Rouge to extol original music and storytelling with a series of panels, songwriter rounds, and a hit-writer showcase at the Manship Theatre. Sitting down with three featured Louisiana artists, Country Roads got the chance to learn about their unique journeys to success as products of our state’s rich musical heritage. 

Sitting in the audience of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry as a teenager, CJ Solar remembers watching, mesmerized, as modern country music legends Dierks Bentley, Blake Shelton, and Brad Paisley spilled their experiences, their lives, and their work into the crowd. “I knew right then, in that moment,” he said. “This is what I want to do.” 

The Baton Rouge native had been developing his guitar skills for years, since finding his dad’s old instrument lying in a closet. A descendant of classic rock fans, Solar said he always gravitated toward the southern strain of rock music, a subgenre combining elements of rock and roll, electric guitar and vocals, and blues. Brought to life by artists such as the Marshall Tucker Band, ZZ Top, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, the sound is characterized by, as Solar puts it, “Country lyrics over rock music.” 

“After [my experience in the Grand Ole Opry], I started trying to write really terrible songs,” he laughed. “Now I’m finally getting into kind of okay songs.” 

Upon his graduation from Catholic High School in Baton Rouge, Solar packed his bags and turned his feet back to where it all started—Music City. Before he’d even graduated from Nashville’s Belmont University in songwriting, he signed a publishing deal with Sea Gayle Music, owned by country artists Brad Paisley, Frank Rogers, and Chris Dubois. 

“I want to be able to tell stories and life experiences that other people can relate to, while making it sound cool, making it sound different.”

Since then, Solar has written or co-written songs for several country artists including Justin Moore (“Between You and Me,” with Smith Ahnquist and Pavel Dovgaluk) and Jerrod Niemann (“Blue Bandana” among others). At press time, the Morgan Wallen and Florida Georgia Line single “Up Down,” co-written by Solar, is number sixteen on the Billboard Country Music Chart.

While he loves the creative outlet of writing music, Solar said he’s enjoyed the past few years of being on the road and performing his own tunes. He released his debut album, Hard One to Turn Down, in 2016, garnering him critical acclaim and a growing national fan base. 

Solar’s music is characterized by a powerful blend of what he calls his “three pillars”: grunge, country music, and southern rock. With a familiar raspy drawl over insistent percussion and a combination of wandering melody and sheer power on the guitar, he sets himself neatly in the realm of contemporary country while maintaining a distinct rock sensibility in both his ballads and his jams. 

“I want to be able to tell stories and life experiences that other people can relate to, while making it sound cool, making it sound different,” he said. 

Solar credits the support of fans and radio stations in Baton Rouge for helping popularize his music; he’s looking forward to the trip home this month for the Third Street Songwriters Festival. In addition to his performances in the festival’s Songwriter Showcase, Solar will also be headlining at the Texas Club on Friday, April 13, for a CD release party of his sophomore album Get Away With It.

“There is nothing like playing songs that I’ve written for a crowd and watching how they know the words,” he said. “But there’s something especially rewarding about bringing that to my hometown.” 

A single word comes to mind when trying to characterize the incredibly diverse body of work of songwriter Greg Barnhill: soulful. Whether it be country, EDM [electronic dance music], rock, or a funky blend of it all—an undercurrent of New Orleans’ rhythm and blues runs through all Barnhill’s creations.  

“You can’t help it when you’re from New Orleans,” he said. “You have this thing that will always be a part of you.” 

The son of an aspiring songwriter, Barnhill claims that he just had a bug for writing from a very early age. In his late teens though, he got his first taste of the power of song. When Governor Edwin Edwards sought to knock down an old historic bridge over the Bayou Liberty, he and his mother joined forces to stop it. “We wrote this song together called ‘Save the Bridge,’ and it wasn’t even a great song, but we took our stand against the government, saying ‘You can’t touch our bridge,’” he remembered. “It was the first time I really experienced the way music can move people into action. It comes from this place of empowerment. I loved it.” 

Though he was molded by the New Orleans music scene, it was Nashville that taught Barnhill the ins and outs of the business. In his first few years there as a writer, he remembers being paid $200 a week. And that’s where all the years of listening to his dad’s country music came in handy, he said. Barnhill made extra money by doing demos for artists in a wide range of genres. “They loved me because I could sound like anybody,” he said, before demonstrating his ability to switch from the passionate peals of blues vocals to the deep twang of a country love song in a minute. 

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Today Barnhill’s songwriting can be heard in hits like Trisha Yearwood’s “Walkaway Joe,” which received a Grammy nomination, Amy Grant and Vince Gill’s “House of Love,” Gary Allan’s “It Ain’t the Whiskey,” and countless TV themes and commercial jingles, including the Emmy-nominated “The Today Show” theme “It’s a New Day.” He often sings background for Tim McGraw and has also written music for Etta James, Martina McBride, Leona Lewis, Lee Ann Womack, and Jessica Simpson. 

 Barnhill said he couldn’t be more excited to celebrate Louisiana this month at the festival. Working to bring more events like this to our state, he is also starting the Ozone Songwriter Festival in Covington this fall, October 20 & 21. The proceeds of the event will go towards funding a cause close to Barnhill’s heart: the practical development of new Louisiana musicians through music education in St. Tammany schools, bringing in experts on all aspects of the industry including engineering and management. “We want to bring people in, get them instruments and teach them real world skills,” he said. “How to fish, per se. Every aspect of the business.” Barnhill teaches such courses on songwriting and the music business all over the country, hoping to use his experiences to raise up a new generation of artists. 

Lainey Wilson laughed as she remembered a time when, after moving hundreds of miles away from Baskin, La. (pop. 246) to chase her dream, she became known around Nashville as the “camper trailer girl.” Diligently absorbing all the knowledge that the “Athens of the South” had to offer an aspiring songwriter, she lived for three years in her camper outside of a recording studio. 

Now, six years after the move, she’s earned a new name for herself with over six hundred songs under her belt including cuts with rising artists like Luke Combs and Kasey Tyndall. She’s also opened for singers like Tracey Lawrence, Shooter Jennings, Deana Carter, Joe Nichols, Andy Griggs, and Jamie Lynn Spears. 

Wilson said that one of the most influential experiences in her journey was the opportunity to go on the road with Frank Foster. “We had eighty tour dates,” she says. “He and his wife really took me under their wing and showed me the ways of the road.” In 2015, Wilson signed with her first record label, Foster’s Lone Chief Records, and produced her first studio album, Tougher, in 2016. 

“I feed off of what other people are going through, just sitting and listening to what those around me have to say.”  

Wilson’s strong North Louisiana twang marks her music with that distinct southern charm of beloved country ballads, fused with her particular blend of wisdom, wit, and sheer, resonating girl power. It’s an old sound with a new spirit enriched by insightful lyrics that meet listeners right inside their own experiences.  

“I would say my music is kind of Leann Womack meets Janis Joplin,” said Wilson. “Both women are such big influences of mine. Stylistically I’ve always been a bit more Janis Joplin, bell bottoms and unbrushed hair. But I grew up listening to Leann. She’s my hero.” 

But ultimately, Wilson describes the content of her music as “honest.” “So much of my inspiration just comes from other people and their storytelling,” she said. “I feed off of what other people are going through, just sitting and listening to what those around me have to say.”  

Wilson said that, though she’s been writing and singing songs since before she could remember, there have been special moments along the journey that have solidified her decision to live by music. One such moment came on the last day of her high school job, impersonating Hannah Montana (Miley Cyrus’ starmaking Disney Channel role) for events around town.

 “I was singing ‘The Climb’ and this little girl was in a wheelchair in the front,” she said. “She had had brain surgery four days before.” Wilson remembers watching the little girl’s dad roll her right up to the very front of the stage. She asked “Hannah” if she could sing. “I handed her the mic and she sang every word to ‘The Climb.’ There was not a dry eye in the room. And I thought to myself, ‘There is no doubt in my mind that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’” 

Wilson recently signed a publishing deal with Sony/ATV and a management deal with Deep South Entertainment. Her new EP is set to be released April 16, just before the Third Street Songwriters Festival.

She looks forward to coming home to Louisiana this month. “I’ve been in Nashville for six years now, but Louisiana will always be home.” 

Read more about theThird Street Songwriters Festival (April 20—22) here or at thirdstreetsongwritersfestival.com.

This article originally appeared in our April 2018 issue. Subscribe to our print magazine today.