Kelleigh Bannen

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.

Meet entertainment attorney Chip Petree. He explains what some of the more important record deal points are and the notorious, and now pretty much ubiquitous, “360 deal.”

Today This Nashville Life visits with second generation session musician and ACM Guitar Player of the Year Derek Wells.

The first live episode of 'This Nashville Life' features an interview with Meryl Johnson, Director of Digital Strategy for the CMA.

This week our guests share some super practical tips on how to better use social media to up your branding game ... in other words Marbaloo Marketing’s take on what it means to live “This Nashville Life.”

Publisher Rusty Gaston says, “great songwriters win by perspiration, not inspiration.” He’s practical. And I think you’ll find much of what he has to say applicable to many different careers, not just to publishing and songwriting.

In this episode, Jody Williams of BMI will do a little unpacking on how writers and publishers get paid their royalties. I ask the question, “What does a #1 country song make?” (money wise).

This is part two of our interview with songwriter Nicolle Galyon. While part one focused on “the process,” part two is really about the songs themselves: how they got written, where the ideas came from, and what they mean to Nicolle.

Her songs are clever. And they’re specific. And most importantly, they make you feel something. Grammy-nominated songwriter Nicolle Galyon is a sort of contradiction. A very tall, very blonde, very smart contradiction. She’s self-possessed and collected on the level you might expect from a press secretary. But she’s creative in the most deep-rooted, intuitive way.

Since our co-producer Kevin is on his honeymoon, we decided to shake it up a bit. My close friend Nada actually turns the microphone on me. We touch on topics from road life and band dynamics to humility and the temptation to compare oneself to other artists.