Charlene Soraia

Charlene Soraia is a folk artist doing very well in the UK Charts right now. Yes we said UK! This song “Wherever You Will Go” is currently in the Top.20 National BBC Radio 1 Chart, which is a cover the 2001 hit by The Calling. Her debut album is entitled MOONCHILD. Born in Sydenham (an [...]

The LiNE

One fateful November evening in 2008… …Leland Grant, a contemporary singer/songwriter based in LA, on his first night of visiting Nashville, attended a music industry party where he introduced himself to Hailey Steele, a South Dakota native, whose passion for grass roots country music had led her to pursue her own dreams in Music City. [...]

Jana Kramer’s New Single

Jana Kramer the REAL DEAL! We were just saying the other day at the Honky Tonk TV offices that there needs to be some cool new artists on the country scene this year. And here she is! The new single is called “Why Ya Wanna” which is well worth downloading from our friends at iTunes [...]

Larkin Poe

We’re loving this…

First off they’re are sisters, music lovers and storytellers. Even before they were able to read, they hounded their parents for “more stories!” The soul singing, songwriting sisters Rebecca and Megan Lovell have been captivating audiences around the world with their insightful lyrics, magnetic presence, and dazzling instrumental virtuosity.

Honky Tonk TV Live Performance:

Honky Tonk TV Studio Interview:

For more info click HERE
and follow them on Twitter @LarkinPoe

Moonshine Bandits

Here’s a little country rap for you. This is called “Get Loose” performed by the Moonshine Bandits taken from their album ‘Whiskey and Women’ on Suburban Noize Records. The Moonshine Bandits party hard lifestyle extends beyond music as the group’s name originated from band member Tex’s ancestors bootlegging alcohol during the Prohibition years in Northern [...]

Kip Moore

Kip Moore performed LIVE on Honky Tonk TV (Sunday Dec 11th) To watch future weekly episodes of Honky Tonk TV – find out what channel HDNet is on in your area by clicking HERE

Kip is from the small town of Tifton, Georgia and feels that although he’s from a large family and enjoys musical collaborations and performing onstage, he’s an introvert who is often more comfortable being alone. “There’s a combativeness to the music too, a fight within,” he says.

Despite its edge, his music remains desperately optimistic. “I am hoping for what I have yet to become,” he says. “I feel like it’s hopeful for what I’ve yet reached, how I look forward to feeling, but I haven’t gotten there yet.

Kip was one of six children, the youngest boy who had three younger sisters. “You had to make your own fun, for sure,” he says of Tifton. “I had a lot of time for daydreaming. It was a great town, but I dreamed about getting out. I do enjoy going back now.”

His father was a golf pro and his mother was a painter who used anything handy for a canvas, whether it was cake plates or baby crates. She also taught piano and played the church organ. “I can remember sleeping in the pews,” he recalls. “She would bring us blankets and give us a coloring book and we’d sit there while she played.”

Weekends were often spent driving to the beach with his father for fishing expeditions. “He would play a lot of Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen,” he says. “As early as I can remember, I always gravitated toward lyrics. Even when I hadn’t lived enough to understand then, they still shaped me. “

During high school, he secretly began playing his brother’s guitar because he was intimidated by the talent of his mother and older brother. “I would play when nobody was around, just figuring out stuff, watching his hands and trying to do the same thing.”

He played point guard for Wallace State’s basketball team and also played on its golf team in Hanceville, Ala., for two years and then transferred to Valdolsta State University on a golf scholarship. He wrote songs daily and joined a band that performed throughout the South, providing him with all of his income. “I was one of those kinds who didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” he says. “I didn’t know music was an option. Maybe it was one of those things where I didn’t quite believe in myself enough.”

Although he devoted every free moment to music during college, his parents still didn’t know about his musical activities. “They were all shocked when they found out about it because they didn’t know I could sing or play,” he says.

After graduation and a short stint as a bartender on St. Simon’s Island, he moved to Hawaii on a whim with just a backpack, a surfboard and a friend. They slept on an airport bench the first night and then lucked into a hut that was $50 a month. They would walk or hitchhike the mile to the beach daily. After six months of this tropical paradise, Kip thought he had found his permanent home until his friend encouraged him to pursue songwriting as a living.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about the world of songwriting,” he says. “I just did it for my own enjoyment. We talked about Nashville and I ended up saying, ‘I’m going to give it a shot.’ I flew back home and told my folks. They thought I was crazy. Now they’ll say different, that they knew all along.”

He drove to Nashville on Jan. 1, 2004 in an old black Nissan truck that contained one bag and his guitar.  He immersed himself in the songwriting community, observing songwriters’ rounds for two years and honing his craft before gaining the confidence to join in. After four years of performing locally, he caught the attention of Creative Artist Agency’s Mark Dennis, who called Universal Music Group Nashville’s Joe Fisher. Not only did Joe’s encounter lead to his record deal with MCA Nashville, but it also brought about his introduction to songwriter Brett James, who produced Kip’s debut album.

“Brett gave me the freedom to find who I was as an artist, the freedom for writing a different kind of thing, a different kind of melody and lyric,” he says. “He gave me room to grow.”

He also found important relationships with songwriters Dan Couch, Scott Steppakoff, Westin Davis and Kiefer Thompson, two of whom didn’t have publishing deals when he began writing with them. “There was definitely a special thing when we got in the room together,” Kip says. “I got offers to write with a lot of the bigger guns in town, but I enjoyed what I was doing with them. They were open to my ideas of being different.”

ThomasRhett

The Valory Music Co. roster is expanding with the signing announcement of newcomer Thomas Rhett. The Georgia native is the son of singer/songwriter Rhett Akins, and may have inherited some of his father’s songwriting prowess. In 2010, while still enrolled at Nashville’s Lipscomb University, Rhett signed a publishing deal with EMI and promptly got a [...]

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