Music Industry

This is My Heartbeat Song

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POR-Heartbeat

By now, it’s well known that my heart beats for country music. It runs through my blood and nourishes my soul. I’ve been fearless in the pursuit of what sets my soul on fire, and following my heart has been the smartest move that I’ve made thus far. The amount of happiness that working in the country music industry brings me is immeasurable.

I am so thankful that a little over a year ago I was given the chance to work for my local country radio station, WPOR 101.9 on their street team! (You can read about my dreams coming true here!) Since then, being hired for the street team, I have also become the station photographer for shows and events, filling in at the front desk as a receptionist on a regular basis… and now…

photo of me taking pix for blog

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You Just Gotta Believe

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Shine Bright!

“How are you going to make enough money to survive? How are you going to make this happen? Where are you going to work? Do you even have a plan?”

In the words of Big Kenny (of Big & Rich):

“You just gotta believe. You come to this town and you start meeting all these people and you become inspired. Everywhere you go there’s someone who can play, someone who can write a song. You finally meet enough of them that you start to think to yourself, ‘Wow, maybe I am kind of normal after all.'”

Nashville. “It’s a crazy town full of neon dreams, everybody plays, everybody sings.”

Although I don’t have the typical musician dream, I do have a dream of working in the country music industry. I fully believe that once I am there, surrounded by the people that make this crazy passion of mine feel “normal,” that this dream is going to really take flight. Thriving most on inspiration, I am positive that, although I might feel slightly threatened by the competition at first, it’s what I truly need.

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What’s Up From Nashville

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News F Nash 2 merged

I would like to start by introducing myself, I am a female living in Nashville enjoying the city and engulfing myself within the music industry that this city has to offer. I have lived in Nashville for almost 3 years now. I go to live shows, writers rounds and other fun events that go on here. I also attend other shows and events that are destination venues from Nashville based company’s.

A little about what I’ve been doing… I have been working with artists of all genres for about 6 years. I use to work in the North East booking, and promoting small bands that people never heard of, trying to get their name out. I have had a passion for music since I was a kid, but since I am no good at playing and I can’t sing for crap, I go by the rule if you can’t do it, promote and manage it. 🙂

So what I am going to be doing on here? Well I’m going to be showing, giving, introducing the Nashville life to the readers of Country Heartbeat, I’m going to get interviews with artists, let you know what’s happening in this amazing city and let you know what artists you might want to start checking out and events that have happened and are going to happen.

Well that’s a little about me. If y’all have any questions or want me to look into something or if you have any requests please comment and I will do my best to get you answers.

~CK

Photo Credit: Sarah Bell
Photo Credit: Sarah Bell

 

 

 

Reflections & What I Want In 2016

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Lately I’ve been finding myself comparing my twitter/instagram/facebook page to others in this world of country fan sites/blogs. I’m noticing how many followers they have in comparison with me, and I know this is partially due to the fact that they are on top of the latest news stories that fans want to hear. I swore in the beginning that I would not be one of those sites/blogs, whose purpose is to relay the latest gossip in the country music industry or keep fans with the most up to date information. Nothing against them, because clearly they have hundreds of thousands more followers than I do… but I want my blog, my brand, Country Heartbeat to be a bit more personal. To tell a story. MY story. I want to introduce you to this life that I lead, that yeah, happens to be immersed in country music. It’s the thing I’m most passionate about, and much to my boyfriend’s dismay, comes first above everything. I want to inspire people to chase their dreams, to step out of their comfort zone, to grab hold of something that they love and take a leap of faith, to do things they never thought they could do.

I had a talk with a close friend recently that helped me realize that out of our group of friends, or even out of the people in this local area… heck, even in all of Maine… don’t love the industry in the same way that I do. One of my best friends since early childhood, God love her, once commented on my new profile picture with Lee Brice on his tour bus and asked, “Is that your new man?”. Oh, sweet Jesus. These people around here just don’t get it.

That’s why I’ve got to get to Nashville, and soon. That’s why I love every minute of “The Week Vegas Goes Country” aka ACM week, where I can surround myself with those friends who are as passionate about country music as I am. I’ve got friends from California, South Dakota, Minnesota, Florida, Ohio… all these people come together in Vegas and are as crazy about it as I am.

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Tour Bus Hang with Lee Brice

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THROWBACK THURSDAY!

Lee Brice letting us preview some unreleased songs!

May 16th, 2015

Today was the day that I realized that my dreams were starting to come true. Today marked a very important day in the history of my future career in the country music industry. I was able to obtain an official photo pass (aka special access to the stage for the first 3 full songs) to photograph Lee Brice at his show on the Maine State Pier in Portland. I’ve always photographed every concert that I’ve ever been to, but point and shoot camera photos do NOT compare to a SLR with a long zoom lens! Photography has always been a passion of mine, and combining that with country music basically makes me one of the happiest girls alive.

Official Photo Pass!
Official Photo Pass!

The radio station that I work for, WPOR 101.9, gave two lucky listeners the opportunity to “hang” with Lee Brice on his tour bus before the show. Obviously a photographer needed to be there to cover the event 😉 and that was ME! This amazing opportunity left me basically speechless. (No, really, I didn’t say more than two words on his bus… I think I said “Thank You” after taking a photo with him and that was about it!) You couldn’t wipe the smile from my face if you tried!

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Blogging 101 Assignment: For My Dream Reader

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Several years ago, not completely thrilled with the prospect of having to work full time for the rest of my life, I remember announcing to some of my closest friends; “I wish I could just get paid to go to concerts!!!” You see, country music is my passion and live music takes me to a magical place. This is where I come alive, I become the best version of myself, and I am who I know I’m meant to be. Of course, this idea was silly and unrealistic, so I thought. Until one of my friends encouraged me to find a way to do just that…

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Is “Remix Your Future” A Legit Event?

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There’s just so much in my head and going on in my life right now, I feel like I need to write some of it down and share it with y’all!

First of all, Rodney Atkins himself favorited this tweet that I posted about my previous blog entry:

So yeah, that was a pretty cool notification to wake up to this morning! Apparently he thought that it was pretty cool that he was my first country concert.

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Making IT Happen – Productive Day!

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makeithappen

Hi guys! I have spent most of today trying to #makeIThappen (and all the while D. Jenks [@donaldsjenkins] retweeted and favorited my tweet about that!) Anyway… Chase Rice’s manager (@John_Lessard) responded to me on Friday about what he majors in and what colleges in the Nashville area offer them. He is an Entertainment Industry Studies major and a Music Business minor, and he met Chase at an industry party and they hit it off. So yes, you DO need an education background in the music business, but it’s also all about connections and who you meet!

With that being said, I have spent the past couple days on my LinkedIn profile, trying to “make connections”. It’s difficult because people have to accept you, and although I know who all these people are (Like Jessica Northey, Jenny Driessen, Jamie Vess, Justin Mrusek, etc) THEY don’t know who I am. I’ve been writing up a little something every time I send a request, and luckily Rich Redmond (@RichRedmond/@crash4success) accepted me, most likely because this connection-who-you-know-thing is one of the things he passionately teaches about in his CRASH Course for Success. Which I was grateful for the opportunity to attend this summer. I’ve spent the day browsing record label CEO’s and printing out inspirational people’s resumes who have jobs I would enjoy in the industry to try and see what I need that would help me. Unfortunately, most of these people went to school for it and have a TON of experience, and I feel like I am starting out so late in life! I just turned 30 and now I finally figure out what I want to do with my life? Luckily I have an advantage in the “Tour Photographer” dream with my Associates Degree in Graphic Design and Photography.

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