“Nashville” the Song
So what is this Nashville song all about, you say...read on.
Okay, so as hard as this might be able to believe, I swear up and down that the first verse and chorus to my song, “Nashville,” were gifted to me from up above. Before that time, I had written one full-length song on a fluke, and it was more like a song/poem out of anger that I suppose was written like a traditional song—you sit down, think of some lyrics, and there you go.
With the lyrics of “Nashville,” I s*it you not, the verse and chorus were just plunked into my head randomly in one day in 2016. It was a little eerie when it happened because it literally came out of nowhere. Now I have a better understanding that it was a gift from God. The song starts out, “I’ve been talking to God lately and He’s telling me things I don’t understand...” and boy did I not understand this one. The song was gifted to me around the same time that my mama was diagnosed with lymphoma and it got pretty bad, so much so, that I thought we were going to lose her. Luckily, prayerfully, thankfully, she made a full recovery but that song kept playing in my head every few months, over and over. Until one day, I made the decision to explore the meaning of the song and come to Nashville to run a marathon on my mama’s behalf as she had inspired me so much with her fight against lymphoma. And you all know the rest of the story there :)
The unusual thing about the song is that when I tried to write more, it felt forced, like really forced. In fact, I do have another version of “Nashville” out there somewhere with some half-assed lyrics that don’t mean much because I had to come to Nashville to finish the song. So when I started working on my album and then finishing up the lyrics to the songs in August 2020, here was “Nashville,” lingering like a dangling participle. Still, I just heard the first verse and chorus as bright as day but nothing else was coming to me. Until I sat down outside and just wrote this hopeful song, and then it all came pouring out.
The first half of the song, as I had mentioned above, is about me being obedient to God’s command and call on my life and coming out to Nashville to start a new life as a new singer-songwriter. But what happens when one is in Nashville and starting that new life? What does that look like? And that is what the remainder of the song is about: me finding my way in Nashville as an artist and God’s call on my life. The song talks about being on Broadway where dreams are all made from a man-made perspective for emerging Nashville artists, and then what God has in store for me which is most likely vastly different and what I’m trying to discover.
The challenge in discovering God’s call on our lives is often the “noise” from the radio, which in this case are the outside influences we often listen to telling us what we should or shouldn’t be, or what we should or shouldn’t pursue. Frankly, I’ve had a lot of “radio spin” since coming here around pursuing this genre or write like this; or whether I should take a second job if the music thing doesn’t work out (please don’t ever say this to anyone pursuing their dreams ;).
After God and I talk throughout the song, and I observe how this is all unfolding, the song ends with the conclusion that has become my own life,“'Cause I'm on my way back home, To a home, I've never known, I think I'm gonna Nashville.”
And that is where I’m at and that is where I will stay :) I think I’m gonna Nashville 🎸
Michelle :)