Latest / Takin’ A Walk Nashville / Danica Hart's Journey: From Chapel Heart to Solo Artist in Nashville's Music Scene
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.
- 0:02Speaker 2: Hey guys at Sarah Harrelson, your host of the Taking
- 0:05Speaker 2: a Walk Nashville podcast, And it is CMA Fest week.
- 0:09Speaker 2: If you are in town in Nashville for CMA Fest,
- 0:14Speaker 2: it's the largest country music festival. Come hang out, come
- 0:19Speaker 2: see me at fanfair X. I will be there on Friday,
- 0:24Speaker 2: June fifth at Music City Center, Booth three three four
- 0:29Speaker 2: at Shannon Doah's Cumberland Road Trading Post. I'm doing a
- 0:33Speaker 2: meet and greet on that Friday, two thirty to three pm.
- 0:38Speaker 2: Come hang out. Say you've been listening to Taking a
- 0:41Speaker 2: Walk Nashville and I would love to give you a
- 0:44Speaker 2: Taking a Walk Nashville koozie and some merch and.
- 0:49Speaker 3: Just say hi to you.
- 0:50Speaker 4: I'm also going to be there on Sunday, June seventh
- 0:53Speaker 4: at the Memories of Honor Booth. That'll be a meet
- 0:56Speaker 4: and greet from three thirty to four thirty pm at
- 0:59Speaker 4: Booth five ten. Please come out. If you're there in
- 1:03Speaker 4: Nashville in Music City for CMA Fest.
- 1:07Speaker 3: I would love to say hi.
- 1:09Speaker 2: Today I am talking to country music singer Danica Hart.
- 1:15Speaker 2: I loved this conversation with her. You may know her
- 1:18Speaker 2: from Chapel Heart, and now she is fully embracing her
- 1:21Speaker 2: solo career, touring with the Open Heart Sessions this year,
- 1:26Speaker 2: and we're going to talk about her new single, Amazing Grace,
- 1:30Speaker 2: and everything that's to come with her. So please tune
- 1:33Speaker 2: in today while I sit down with Danica Hart.
- 1:43Speaker 1: Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts singer
- 1:46Speaker 1: songwriter Sarah Harrelson.
- 1:50Speaker 3: Hi, everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson.
- 1:52Speaker 5: I am your host of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast,
- 1:56Speaker 5: and today we are joined by a powerhouse vocalist spent
- 2:00Speaker 5: years commanding the biggest stages and country music from the
- 2:04Speaker 5: Grand Ole Opry to the national spotlight on America's got talent.
- 2:08Speaker 5: As a founding member of the trio Chapel Heart, she
- 2:11Speaker 5: has helped redefine modern country sound with grit, soul and
- 2:15Speaker 5: world class harmony. But today we're talking about a bold
- 2:18Speaker 5: new evolution. She is currently stepping into the center spotlight
- 2:22Speaker 5: for her solo chapter that is entimate and powerful. We're
- 2:27Speaker 5: diving into this transition, her upcoming solo album and the
- 2:32Speaker 5: heart behind.
- 2:32Speaker 4: Her inspiration for a joyful life movement. Thank you so much,
- 2:38Speaker 4: Sarah K.
- 2:39Speaker 1: First of all, can you just come with me everywhere,
- 2:41Speaker 1: and it just hit that intro introduction just like that.
- 2:43Speaker 3: Please, I would love so good. How are you doing?
- 2:47Speaker 3: I'm so good. I'm so glad you're here today.
- 2:49Speaker 5: Country Ray or Seminar listeners first know you when you
- 2:53Speaker 5: were on America's Got Talent as your former trio Chapel
- 2:57Speaker 5: Heart and your popular single you Can't Have You Can.
- 3:04Speaker 5: What has the transition been like from sharing the stage
- 3:08Speaker 5: to now embarking on this solo career where you.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Are front and center.
- 3:12Speaker 5: What have you learned about yourself during this journey?
- 3:15Speaker 2: Chow?
- 3:15Speaker 3: How long do we have?
- 3:16Speaker 1: What?
- 3:17Speaker 5: Like?
- 3:17Speaker 3: What is the time? And Well, first of all, let
- 3:19Speaker 3: me just say that I am.
- 3:21Speaker 1: I am learning a lot, okay, And I just I said,
- 3:25Speaker 1: I've always always to me, I just always knew I
- 3:28Speaker 1: was going to be in a group, and so like
- 3:30Speaker 1: it was just all things group always and so but
- 3:33Speaker 1: I've learned that you know, sometimes life just life, you
- 3:37Speaker 1: know what I mean, and India and you're thrown into
- 3:40Speaker 1: new and different circumstances. But I feel like I've been
- 3:43Speaker 1: a bit of the poster channel for like do it anyway,
- 3:46Speaker 1: like you know, I was, I was, I was, I
- 3:49Speaker 1: went through one of the hardest seasons of my life,
- 3:52Speaker 1: and and even in the in the place, there were
- 3:54Speaker 1: times where I was like, I don't want to do
- 3:55Speaker 1: music anymore, like this, I just don't know if I
- 3:57Speaker 1: want to go back to it, and and and people
- 3:59Speaker 1: were like, you can't give up, Like you know, I
- 4:02Speaker 1: wake up and listen to your music every day. You
- 4:04Speaker 1: cannot give up, Okay, And so it was it was
- 4:06Speaker 1: such an inspiration. And so even when I didn't want
- 4:09Speaker 1: to do it, I did it anyway, And even when
- 4:11Speaker 1: I had a broken heart and I had to do
- 4:13Speaker 1: it anyway, and even even in the days that I
- 4:15Speaker 1: didn't want to get I did it anyway, And which
- 4:17Speaker 1: brought me to my first single, Amazing Grace, And and
- 4:20Speaker 1: it showed me there were there was like it has
- 4:23Speaker 1: taken a life of its own, but it showed me
- 4:25Speaker 1: how many people were really like counting on me to
- 4:28Speaker 1: get back up. And they were like, cause, if she
- 4:30Speaker 1: can survive that, then I know I can survive what
- 4:32Speaker 1: I'm going through.
- 4:33Speaker 3: So I've I've learned, I've learned to just you.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Know that that that uh, this life that we live,
- 4:39Speaker 1: even and especially as artists, it's.
- 4:41Speaker 3: So little about us.
- 4:42Speaker 1: I think, and it's about what we bring to other people.
- 4:46Speaker 1: And and it's there's so many people who live their
- 4:48Speaker 1: life through us, you know, from online and behind the
- 4:51Speaker 1: lens and behind the phone and the camera, and so
- 4:54Speaker 1: it's important for us to people watch how we how
- 4:57Speaker 1: we show up after after being ki down and after
- 5:00Speaker 1: being you know, what a lot of people would feel
- 5:02Speaker 1: like is defeated. They're watching to see if you get
- 5:05Speaker 1: back up. And so I've learned a that I can
- 5:07Speaker 1: get back up. And I learned that that you wake up,
- 5:10Speaker 1: you put one foot in front of the other, and
- 5:11Speaker 1: you may not have all the answers, but you keep going.
- 5:13Speaker 5: You certainly have you found your reason. And you mentioned
- 5:17Speaker 5: your new single, Amazing Grace, which is your own interpretation
- 5:20Speaker 5: of the song, what it means to you, and what
- 5:22Speaker 5: is it about the song that made it become your
- 5:25Speaker 5: testimony so to speak.
- 5:27Speaker 3: I believe that.
- 5:30Speaker 1: This this version of Amazing Grace, I believe is just
- 5:33Speaker 1: a reminder that God's amazing grace has always been there.
- 5:37Speaker 1: And I always say, you can ask anybody from any
- 5:40Speaker 1: religion if they have to believe in anything at all,
- 5:42Speaker 1: but you can ask him have they ever heard of
- 5:43Speaker 1: amazing Grace? And they'll probably tell you, yeah, like I've
- 5:45Speaker 1: heard of it or made I don't know it well,
- 5:46Speaker 1: but I've heard of it. And so but and I've
- 5:50Speaker 1: watched how year after year, in generation after generation, amazing
- 5:54Speaker 1: grace has carried us. And there are some of us say,
- 5:56Speaker 1: I tell people, when I was little, I was a knucklehead, okay,
- 5:59Speaker 1: and it was because my mama and my grandmother were
- 6:01Speaker 1: praying women that I that I'm really alive in here
- 6:04Speaker 1: today and so but it was it was amazing grace
- 6:07Speaker 1: that just covered me from season to season and from
- 6:09Speaker 1: from from.
- 6:11Speaker 3: You know, just from from year to year.
- 6:13Speaker 1: And and I think that I always say in that
- 6:16Speaker 1: opening line when it says, it hasn't been the best
- 6:18Speaker 1: of days, but I'm still singing Amazing Grace, Like that's
- 6:21Speaker 1: the heart. And I think when people hear that, it
- 6:22Speaker 1: sounds honest and it sounds real and it sounds genuine
- 6:25Speaker 1: and it sounds true, and you go, oh, no, like
- 6:28Speaker 1: this is my song because I've been having a hard
- 6:29Speaker 1: day to day, like you know, kids.
- 6:30Speaker 3: Are acting crazy, families going nuts.
- 6:32Speaker 1: Like, but but amazing Grace, I think I just I'm
- 6:37Speaker 1: so so so grateful that that gets to be my
- 6:41Speaker 1: first baby, Like, that's my first project as a solo artist,
- 6:44Speaker 1: and I'll forever be grateful for that because I think
- 6:47Speaker 1: it's the thing that has connected.
- 6:48Speaker 3: Me more to my fans and connected me to you.
- 6:52Speaker 1: Know, not just connected me to my fans, but it
- 6:55Speaker 1: has expanded my uh, the the amount of fans, and
- 7:01Speaker 1: I just I'm grateful, Like, I'm just so grateful for that.
- 7:04Speaker 5: It's so relatable and it's so wonderful to hear your
- 7:08Speaker 5: take on the song, how you feel about it.
- 7:11Speaker 3: I love the single. Can we look forward to more releases? Really? There? Absolutely?
- 7:18Speaker 1: So I'm working on my next single, which is called
- 7:21Speaker 1: Every Season is Good, and it really is. The gist
- 7:26Speaker 1: of it is is that, you know a lot of
- 7:28Speaker 1: people get uncomfortable during winter time because it's cold, it's hard,
- 7:32Speaker 1: you know, like you know, and just and sometimes some
- 7:35Speaker 1: seasons are just about surviving the season. But if you
- 7:37Speaker 1: slow down, there's something that Winner can teach you. And
- 7:40Speaker 1: then the second thing is is that Winner's got to come.
- 7:45Speaker 1: But the one thing that's for sure is that Spring's
- 7:46Speaker 1: coming right after every year Goodness is coming.
- 7:50Speaker 3: You just got to hang in there. And so I
- 7:52Speaker 3: got a new single.
- 7:53Speaker 1: COVID called every season is good and I can't wait
- 7:55Speaker 1: to share it with the world.
- 7:56Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear it.
- 7:57Speaker 5: And you know, even in good seasons like Bring, we
- 8:00Speaker 5: can be going through something that's not good, so it
- 8:03Speaker 5: come on right reminder.
- 8:05Speaker 1: And even and even in the seasons that are supposed
- 8:07Speaker 1: to be good and they don't turn out how you
- 8:09Speaker 1: think they're gonna.
- 8:09Speaker 3: Turn out, there's always something every season. There's goodness in everything.
- 8:13Speaker 3: We just have to slow down to find it. Yeah,
- 8:15Speaker 3: that's beautiful. I'm so excited to hear.
- 8:17Speaker 2: That new single.
- 8:18Speaker 5: You also have some upcoming shows in Mississippi and you
- 8:21Speaker 5: were calling at the Open Heart Sessions. Uh huh, what
- 8:24Speaker 5: do you hope that people will take from your shows?
- 8:27Speaker 3: Let me tell you what I always say. You probably
- 8:28Speaker 3: can't tell, but I've always been a people's person.
- 8:30Speaker 1: All people have just always been my heart and so
- 8:33Speaker 1: I'm excited to that is the Open Heart Sessions is
- 8:37Speaker 1: it's a show that really is just like a it's it's.
- 8:41Speaker 3: The glimpse into my heart for people and what I've like.
- 8:44Speaker 1: And you know, when people somebody asked, like, you know,
- 8:45Speaker 1: what is it that you want to do this season?
- 8:47Speaker 1: Like what do you want to do as a solo
- 8:48Speaker 1: and I said, I want to wake up, and I
- 8:50Speaker 1: want to tell people you got this, Like I want
- 8:52Speaker 1: to inspire people that yesterday may have been back, today
- 8:54Speaker 1: may be bad and lot I said. I said, one
- 8:56Speaker 1: time I got on social media outside and I said, look,
- 8:58Speaker 1: I know I was supposed to get with y all yesterday,
- 8:59Speaker 1: but I I took to the bed. I couldn't even
- 9:01Speaker 1: get up, Like yesterday was a bad day. I said,
- 9:03Speaker 1: but today's Today's better and tomorrow's.
- 9:05Speaker 3: Gonna better than that.
- 9:06Speaker 1: And I want to wake up and I want to
- 9:07Speaker 1: encourage people that that you got it, Like you know
- 9:09Speaker 1: what I'm saying, Like sometimes life is hard, and if
- 9:12Speaker 1: you had a friend to just tell you, girl, you
- 9:14Speaker 1: got this. I know it's I know it's hard, and
- 9:16Speaker 1: I know you and you it's it's rough right now,
- 9:18Speaker 1: but you coming out of this.
- 9:19Speaker 3: And so that's what I want to do.
- 9:20Speaker 1: And that's I believe what the Open Heart Sessions is,
- 9:22Speaker 1: but also a glimpse into you know, maybe what the
- 9:24Speaker 1: new what the new album is gonna be. So I'm
- 9:27Speaker 1: getting a chance to share that music and you know,
- 9:30Speaker 1: and and with people. But also I'm super excited because
- 9:33Speaker 1: what started out is this thing I wanted to do
- 9:35Speaker 1: in like, you know, little towns in Mississippi has grown
- 9:39Speaker 1: into this national thing.
- 9:41Speaker 4: You know.
- 9:41Speaker 1: I've got some shows in Arkansas and Alabama and Tennessee
- 9:44Speaker 1: and they're like, we need the Open Heart Sessions and
- 9:46Speaker 1: I'm like, yes.
- 9:48Speaker 3: So it's growing, it's growing.
- 9:50Speaker 5: Yeah, once you had Tennessee, I'm gonna have to come
- 9:52Speaker 5: to an Open Heart session.
- 9:53Speaker 1: Okay, look, look, make sure you stay plugged in because
- 9:56Speaker 1: I'm coming.
- 9:57Speaker 3: I'm coming. That's so exciting.
- 9:59Speaker 5: Well, and twenty twenty one, Chapel Heart was named CMT's
- 10:03Speaker 5: next Woman of Country.
- 10:04Speaker 3: Who are some female country artists that you look up to?
- 10:08Speaker 3: Ooh ah? Man, let me tell you what I and
- 10:12Speaker 3: I always say. I I just it's been. It's it's hard.
- 10:15Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes it's hard when you're in the
- 10:17Speaker 1: ground grind because I love music and.
- 10:18Speaker 3: I love discovering new artists.
- 10:20Speaker 1: So but like when you're in the ground and I've
- 10:22Speaker 1: been in the grind for like ten years, it's hard
- 10:23Speaker 1: to like discover what's new and what's uh, what's what's
- 10:26Speaker 1: what's happening. But now I said, now that I've got
- 10:28Speaker 1: a chance to slow down, I'm checking out like new
- 10:31Speaker 1: artists and I got a chance to run into like
- 10:33Speaker 1: Ashlan Kraft and twenty and Morgan Miles and Angie k
- 10:38Speaker 1: and I'm just like discovering this new where Ella Langley
- 10:42Speaker 1: Laney Wilson.
- 10:42Speaker 3: Laney's a friend of mine and I saw I told
- 10:44Speaker 3: her a.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Little one of these days and we get when we
- 10:46Speaker 1: get to go to your house and we get to
- 10:47Speaker 1: sit at the ranch and.
- 10:48Speaker 3: Have coffee and just chit chat about everything.
- 10:51Speaker 1: But like I'm just but I'm always so excited to
- 10:53Speaker 1: see women like doing well. And even in my show,
- 10:57Speaker 1: I always try to take a minute and just highlight
- 10:59Speaker 1: a woman who's doing well in country music. And I say, like,
- 11:02Speaker 1: you know, I can't do any I don't know that
- 11:04Speaker 1: I can do anything about radio play and that it
- 11:06Speaker 1: plays mostly male country music. But what I can do
- 11:08Speaker 1: is I can take a moment in my show and say, look,
- 11:11Speaker 1: let me I want to highlight one of my colleague,
- 11:13Speaker 1: one of my female colleagues who's kicking butt. And you
- 11:15Speaker 1: know whoever it is in the moment, and so you know,
- 11:18Speaker 1: and I said, maybe that's a very small pebble in
- 11:21Speaker 1: the pond, but I just my my prayers that it
- 11:23Speaker 1: that it that it does that it that it does
- 11:25Speaker 1: make a difference, you know what I mean. And it's like,
- 11:27Speaker 1: as women, we need it. We got to really be
- 11:30Speaker 1: there for each other. But I think also in a
- 11:32Speaker 1: in a genre that has said, okay, there can only
- 11:35Speaker 1: be one at a time, like you know, okay, it's
- 11:37Speaker 1: your turn now, maybe later, but you know, but but
- 11:40Speaker 1: the minute that we go, you know what if it's
- 11:41Speaker 1: her turn, come on, Because I had I heard a
- 11:43Speaker 1: say in one time that said, you got to get
- 11:45Speaker 1: excited when the male man's delivering your neighbor their male
- 11:48Speaker 1: because that means he's in the neighborhood.
- 11:50Speaker 3: So if we can get.
- 11:50Speaker 1: Excited about one girl who's doing it, then guess what,
- 11:53Speaker 1: then that means he's in the neighbor He's in the neighborhood,
- 11:55Speaker 1: so maybe maybe some goodness is coming our way.
- 11:57Speaker 3: So I love that.
- 11:57Speaker 5: And that's where I love about the camaraderie with females
- 12:00Speaker 5: and country music because you don't really get that and
- 12:02Speaker 5: a lot of other genres. So the community with women
- 12:06Speaker 5: and country music supporting each other and livding is each
- 12:09Speaker 5: other up is so wonderful and important love that.
- 12:11Speaker 3: I love that.
- 12:13Speaker 5: So how have you been using your new platform to
- 12:16Speaker 5: foster the inspiration for a joyful life movement that you
- 12:21Speaker 5: have been building and advertising.
- 12:23Speaker 3: Let me tell you what I just.
- 12:25Speaker 1: I'm I'm just I'm just honored that I get to
- 12:28Speaker 1: be at this place. And I can say probably six
- 12:31Speaker 1: months ago, I did not see this. But I'm excited
- 12:34Speaker 1: that I get to be a part of this joyful
- 12:37Speaker 1: move like the movement of joy and and like I said,
- 12:41Speaker 1: like kind I said earlier, like I'm honored that I
- 12:43Speaker 1: get to be able to be on social media to
- 12:45Speaker 1: tell people, come on, good morning, come on.
- 12:47Speaker 3: I know yesterday was real full. We got this today,
- 12:50Speaker 3: We're gonna do this together.
- 12:51Speaker 1: And so I I I and I pray that it
- 12:55Speaker 1: is exactly that I pray it's a movement because there's so.
- 12:57Speaker 3: Much harshness and and hard stuff and bad stuff going
- 13:01Speaker 3: on in the world right now.
- 13:02Speaker 1: I feel like there's a there's a lot of goodness
- 13:05Speaker 1: that needs to be thrown back into the world. And
- 13:06Speaker 1: I hope that that that, uh, you know, when when
- 13:10Speaker 1: the when the dust settles that and it's all maybe
- 13:13Speaker 1: all said and done, that it says like she she
- 13:15Speaker 1: really did make a difference.
- 13:16Speaker 3: She really did brighten my day.
- 13:17Speaker 1: And so you know, I just I hope that you know,
- 13:20Speaker 1: maybe that's something that I'm on the forefront of and
- 13:23Speaker 1: that that that that more than that, I'm remembered by.
- 13:26Speaker 3: Oh, I think you absolutely are.
- 13:28Speaker 5: And I love your positivity and the energy you're bringing
- 13:31Speaker 5: with your music and I can't wait to hear upcoming
- 13:34Speaker 5: music from you. Danica.
- 13:36Speaker 3: My last question for you, since we're.
- 13:38Speaker 5: On taking a walk Nashville, if you could take a
- 13:40Speaker 5: walk with anyone in Nashville, who would it be and
- 13:44Speaker 5: where in school?
- 13:45Speaker 1: Let me tell you what I am.
- 13:48Speaker 3: I literally, I'm gonna have to say.
- 13:51Speaker 1: It's my It's it's my uh my uncle brother Vince
- 13:55Speaker 1: gil and I put in a.
- 13:57Speaker 3: Call to events the other day. I was just checking
- 13:59Speaker 3: on him, and can.
- 14:00Speaker 1: You believe I went to the restroom for like ten
- 14:02Speaker 1: minutes and then like I was, I was checking my
- 14:03Speaker 1: phone the other I.
- 14:04Speaker 3: Was like, did Vince call me back? And I missed it,
- 14:06Speaker 3: So I've got to call him back.
- 14:07Speaker 1: But there's just something about like, you know, like a
- 14:10Speaker 1: phone call from Vince and you get so maybe it's
- 14:14Speaker 1: a five minute phone call, but if you listen and
- 14:17Speaker 1: and and there's no question that's too big, no question
- 14:20Speaker 1: that's too small, and he always makes the tom but
- 14:23Speaker 1: there's so much wisdom and and and he he has
- 14:26Speaker 1: a way.
- 14:27Speaker 3: Of just like encouraging you like no other.
- 14:29Speaker 1: So I'm gonna have to go ahead and take Vince
- 14:30Speaker 1: on this walk to Nashville.
- 14:32Speaker 5: Absolutely, that's a wonderful person. And we just saw him
- 14:35Speaker 5: at the Raymond playing the UMG lunch and and even
- 14:38Speaker 5: when he's just playing one song, it sways a beautiful story.
- 14:42Speaker 3: And Ryan, it just stops you in your tracks, like
- 14:45Speaker 3: you just like you almost kind of stopped breathing for
- 14:47Speaker 3: a minute. It's like, oh, you just kind of take
- 14:49Speaker 3: it all in.
- 14:50Speaker 1: And so I definitely have to say I definitely have
- 14:54Speaker 1: to say, Vince.
- 14:54Speaker 3: I think that's a cool question.
- 14:56Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great answer, Dana Gar. Thank you so
- 14:59Speaker 5: much for being to I can walk Nashville today.
- 15:01Speaker 4: I can't see.
- 15:02Speaker 5: I can't wait to see everything that's coming up for you.
- 15:05Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Thank you thanks for listening to
- 15:10Speaker 3: Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out
- 15:13Speaker 3: our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save
- 15:18Speaker 3: Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and
- 15:22Speaker 3: Taking a Walk hosted by yours truly Buzznight.
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