My first trip to Nashville was in the Fall of 2006. My son was graduating high school in Florida in 2007 and would be attending Lipscomb University after graduation. My friend Rhonda and I, and all of our kids, took a road trip to Nashville to tour the college and attend incoming parent prep classes. Rhonda’s son would be rooming with my son at college. We stayed at Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Lebanon, TN, in a large cabin, 25 miles east of downtown Nashville and had a great time.
In December of 2008, I took my kids on a family vacation to Nashville where I met several people who I had been corresponding with online who became fast friends.
Then the Florida housing crash hit, I was laid off of my job and could not find work in Florida to save my life. 2009 started my daughter’s senior year of high school and she would be heading off to college at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas in the Fall. Since I had connections in Nashville, and the housing crash had not hit as bad there, I began traveling back and forth from Florida to Nashville in early 2009. I was working at a music studio while I looked for work in healthcare.
I landed a job but not in healthcare. I interviewed in Nashville to be a ghost writer for a client out of Louisiana who was writing his life story. I got the job! That took up the majority of my daughter’s senior year and I could work from home in Florida with check-ins in Nashville every 6 weeks or so. I would stay in Nashville 2-3 weeks at a time and continue writing and working in the music studio while there.
By 2011, my daughter was at college and I landed a full-time job in healthcare in Nashville but also continued to work full time in the music studio. Looking back at this time, I think subconsciously I was trying to stay so busy that I didn’t have time to think about the fact that both of my kids were grown and out of the house – I wasn’t ready for it. I had identified as their Mom for 22 years. Who was I without them? It would take me about 6 years to adjust but that’s another post for another time. I have never stopped missing them to this day.
Heavily steeped in the Nashville music scene, I was blessed to attend CMA VIP Pre parties and the CMA Awards in 2011 and 2012. At a pre party for Warner Music in 2011, the people I was with were getting pictures with Hunter Hayes; he had a big hit on the radio at the time. While I was enjoying all that the music scene in Nashville had to offer during those years, I grew up around famous people and I was never really fazed by them – as far as I was concerned, they were just people. I was always more interested in the people behind the curtain. Who played that cool guitar lick on the song? Who was singing background vocals? Who wrote that song? Who was responsible for the artwork on the album cover? I was the geeky 8-year-old kid reading all of the liner notes,
While everyone was gathering around Hunter, I noticed a tall blonde off in a dark corner by herself, obviously very shy of such a large event. It appeared as if she was trying to fade into the wall and not be noticed. I recognized her. It was Nicolle Gaylon. I had come to know who she was because I studied country songwriters at the time and Nicolle was married to Rodney Clawson who had written many hit songs. Nicolle had written a great song I admired called, “Gone Like That” by Josh Kelly, who is the brother of Charles Kelly of Lady A fame. Even though the song was one of the best songs on the radio, and one of the best country songs I’d ever heard, Nicolle was basically still unknown at that time.
I went over to her and introduced myself and told her how much I enjoyed her songwriting and that I was glad to meet her. She seemed shocked that I knew who she was. She and I were literally the only ones standing together talking; nobody was around us. The closest person to us was a room away. To me, that was one of the coolest experiences of my 6 years in Nashville. She was very gracious and talked to me for a while. She is very tall, and naturally beautiful.
These days, Nicolle has her own label, and the whole world knows who she is. She has written many hit songs since 2011. Think Dan & Shay “Tequila,” Miranda Lambert “Automatic,” Keith Urban, “We Were Us,” and Lee Brice “Boy,” and Morgan Wallen “Thought You Should Know,” just to name a few. She was awarded the 2023 CMA Triple Play Award for writing three No. 1 songs within a 12-month period which was her second Triple Play Award in four years.
Nicolle recently released a CD of her own and one of the songs is called “Texas Hold Em.” I haven’t listened to secular music much since my time in Nashville but “Texas Hold Em,” has been on repeat all day today.
Nicolle is a Kansas girl but her husband is from Texas. Enjoy!
Nicolle Galyon - texas hold 'em. (Official Audio) (youtube.com)