Previous Years’ Artists
Click here for this year’s Songfest lineup
Greg Barnhill
Greg Barnhill’s music crosses all boundaries and genres. He is a Grammy-nominated songwriter, an A-list vocalist, a top-notch producer – in short, a brilliant musical mind. Originally from New Orleans, Barnhill has been writing and performing his whole life. His songs have been embraced by artists from Etta James to Martina McBride and Jessica Simpson to Chicago. “Walkaway Joe,” recorded by Trisha Yearwood and Don Henley, was a significant milestone to his career. Barnhill is in high demand as a writer and performer – he travels around the country to work with acclaimed songwriters and artists such as Kim Carnes, Michael McDonald, The Neville Brothers, … more: bio, audio, video, and links
Mark Bryan
Mark Bryan is a founding member and lead guitarist of Hootie & the Blowfish. Hootie’s 1994 debut album, “Cracked Rear View,” was the 16th-best-selling album of all time in the US, certified platinum 16 times. “Cracked Rear View” went on to earn the band Billboard’s Band of the Year Award in 1996 and the RIAA’s Diamond Award for sales of 10 million units. “Cracked Rear View” remains the 12th best selling album in music business history, and all albums combined, have moved over 25 million worldwide. Mark co-wrote the massive hit from the album, “Hold My Hand” as well as all of the rest of the album’s songs.
Since moving to Charleston, South Carolina in 1999, … more: bio, audio, video, and links
Rebecka Digervall
Rebecca Digerwall is from Pajala, Sweden, there she formed the electro-pop-punk duo The Magnettes with Sanna Kalla. The music was a way to rebel against the northern silence, blending new wave, disco and twin-vocal melancholy while singing about love, heartaches and the haze of youth.
Later on Rebecca was discovered by producers of the Swedish star Robyn. And a local government run company called BD-pop has developed her writing skills the last three years. She has been part of several international writing camps around the world. With writers from both Denmark and USA she wrote an hour long concert that was performed on instruments made with ice. … more: bio, audio, video, and links
Mark Stephen Jones
Born and raised in Myrtle Beach, SC, Mark Stephen Jones has been dubbed ‘The Carolina Poet’ Growing up in the Low Country gave Jones a wealth of real-life material from which to pull his words. Mark is a staff writer for Harlan Howard Songs, one of Nashville’s premier indie publishers.He has cuts with Toby Keith, Jake Owen, Brandy Clark, Ray Scott, Adam Brand: Australia’s #1 country artist along with Lynryd Skynyrd & Hank Williams Jr. “Mark is one of the best songwriters to ever grace the streets of Nashville.” Travis reflects. “He sings about life the way it really is; painful and beautiful. His no holds barred approach to every song that bleeds from an old guitar and with a smoky voice finds it’s way into your very soul and it changes you. more: bio, links, and video
Billy Livesay
Memorable pop-rock tunes, soulful vocals, wailing slide guitar and riveting live performances are Billy Livesay’s signature. A respected member of the music community, Billy toured as guitarist and lead vocalist for E Streeter Clarence Clemons’ band Temple of Soul, releasing 2 CD’s titled, “Live In Asbury Park, Volume 1″ and “Live in Asbury Park, Volume 2″ which features Bruce Springsteen.
Billy has performed with Mickey Thomas (Jefferson Starship), Gerry Beckley (America), Jimi Jamison (Survivor), Steve Augeri (Journey), Mike Reno (Loverboy), Wally Palmer, Coz Canler & David Petratos (The Romantics), David Jenkins (Pablo Cruise), Brian Howe (Bad Company), Johnny Depp, Alto Reed (Bob Seger), and more. more bio
Jim McCormick
Jim McCormick recently celebrated two #1 songs on the Billboard country charts: Jason Aldean’s “Take A Little Ride,” which spent 3 weeks in the top position, and Brantley Gilbert’s “You Don’t Know Her Like I Do.” McCormick’s songs also have been recorded by Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Jamey Johnson, Randy Travis, Ronnie Milsap, and many others. He is a staff songwriter at BMG Chrysalis in Nashville, a board member of NSAI and the Recording Academy, and his album “The Middle of the River” is available on iTunes. more: bio, audio, video, and links
Ralph Murphy
Ralph Murphy has done just about everything you can do in the music business: artist, writer, producer, publisher, industry expert, author and all-around sage. After years in Canada and London in the music business trenches, in 1971, Murphy had a number two country hit with Jeannie C. Riley titled “Good Enough to be Your Wife” which gave Murphy his first introduction to Nashville. In 1978, Murphy moved to Nashville and began a joint venture publishing/production company with Roger Cook called PICALIC. The company achieved its first number one hit within a year with a song by Crystal Gayle called “Talking in Your Sleep”, written by Bobby Wood and Roger Cook. In 1978, Murphy co-wrote “Half the Way” with Bobby Wood, … more: bio, audio, video, and links
Jon Nite
Jon Nite is a 15-year “overnight success” story Nashville style. He moved to Nashville from Amarillo, Tx when he was 18, with a wife, a baby, surviving on food stamps and traveling with a trailer to a dream—Belmont University’s music school which he attended and eventually graduated from. Part-time jobs and (hated) full-time jobs interspersed with writing deals finally got him some notice and some songs recorded. Finally, he hit it: #1 songs for Keith Urban & Miranda Lambert (“We Were Us”), David Nail (“Whatever She’s Got”), Jake Owen (“Beachin'”), and A Thousand Horses (“Smoke”). Not only a great writer, Jon possesses one of the most soulful voices you will ever hear. more: bio, audio, video, and links
Bob Regan
Bob Regan is a Grammy and Dove Award nominated songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. Bob has had over 200 songs recorded. His hits include; “Your Everything” by Keith Urban, “Thinking About You” by Trisha Yearwood, “Busy Man” by Billy Ray Cyrus, “Something About a Woman” by Jake Owen and many others garnering him 11 ASCAP most-performed awards. Bob has been a recording artist on Curb Records, a studio musician, a guitarist on the Grand Old Opry, as well as an adjunct professor of songwriting at Belmont University. Bob was also a three term President of the Board of the Nashville Songwriter’s Association Int. In 2012 bob founded Operation Song, a program which pairs songwriters with veterans to help them tell their stories through song.
more: bio, audio, video, and links
Alan Rhody
Award-winning songwriter and country-folk artist, Alan Rhody released his ninth solo album, “Led by Love” in 2012. In a career that now spans forty years, the Louisville, Kentucky native, known for his easy-going but engaging stage presence, has written hits that are compassionate, imaginative stories (“I’ll Be True To You” Oak Ridge Boys, “Somebody To Care” Tanya Tucker), as well as all-out charges into alt-country and blues-based tunes (“Wild-Eyed Dream” Ricky Van Shelton, “Trainwreck Of Emotion” Lorrie Morgan). A long and diverse list of artists have recorded Rhody’s songs that include, among many others: George Jones, The Oak Ridge Boys, Tanya Tucker, Del McCoury, Toby Keith, Ricky Van Shelton, Lorrie Morgan, Michael Cleveland, Lynn Anderson, T. G. Sheppard, Hoyt Axton, Suzy Boggus, Jimmy C. Newman, Lee Greenwood, … more bio and links