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About this Songwriter
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Karyn Rochelle
In my own words:
I grew up in the small coastal town of Hampstead, NC.
As long as I can remember music has been a part of my
life. My grandmother had an old Whitney piano that
I would always run to when I'd visit and she'd fuss at
me for banging on the keys. I eventually worked out
melodies by ear and taught myself to play chords. By
the time I was thirteen I was writing songs. Not very
good ones, really, but at the time I thought so...and
so did Grandma. As a teenager I remember putting the
cassette or cd jacket of my favorite artists up on the
console of that piano and I would play and sing every
last song. That piano was the beginning of all things
music for me. To this day Grandma still has it and I
play it every once in a while when I'm home.
After high school I moved to Myrtle Beach, SC where I sang in the band at
The Country Jamboree music and dinner theatre. By night it was a
country line dance club
and I once ran across a promotional cd of Matraca
Berg. I took the cd home and fell in love with it.
For the first time I really paid attention to the
lyrics of songs....and I began to really take
songwriting seriously for the first time in my life.
A family friend gave me my first guitar. A royal blue
Ibanez. I taught myself to play by ear using a poster
chart of guitar chords. Eventually, I began to write
songs on the guitar. I decided that in order to have
a career in music I had to move to Nashville.
I
was nineteen years old and still fearless. I packed up
and moved to Music City two weeks after making the
decision to go....and there I was in a strange city,
eleven hours away from everyone I knew and loved, and
didn't have a clue in this world where to begin.
I met a few friends who were on their way up. Blake
Shelton and Rachel Proctor were among these friends.
They were part of a group called the "Young Writers"
and they played writers' nights at various places in
town. I got up a few times to play a song when they
were playing but other than that I had nothing going
for me. I worked part time at T.J.Maxx and kept
writing my songs. I began to miss my family and feel
discouraged at the lack of resources I had. I packed
up and decided to take a break and go home for a
little while. While I was home, I received a phone
call that changed my life.
My lucky break literally happened in the Crab House restaurant in downtown
Nashville. A friend of mine waited tables there and he had waited on
the daughter of Jerry Crutchfield, a prominent industry producer who had
worked with such artists as Tanya Tucker and Lee Greenwood. After some
conversation, my friend convinced her to listen to a demo tape of some of my
songs. She called me a few days later, saying that her father was
requesting a meeting with me. I packed up my car headed back up I-40
to Nashville with the biggest smile you've ever seen on my face. After
meeting with Jerry, he offered to pay for me to record my songs in a
demo session. After the session was complete he offered me a
publishing deal and said he'd like to make me a "staff writer". I
didn't even know what a staff
writer was but it sounded good to me! So I began a
four year partnership with Crutchfield Music. My time
there was invaluable. Jerry taught me so much about
writing songs, critiquing and editing them as I wrote.
He put me on the ladder, so to speak. My very first
cut was on the legendary George Jones. I'll never
forget the day our songplugger came into my writing
room during a writing appointment one day and told me.
I almost fell out of my chair.
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In the years that followed I had other songs
recorded by Kenny G (a duet with R&B artist Chante' Moore) Trisha Yearwood
and Lee Ann Womack. It was a very fruitful experience working with
Jerry and I am forever grateful to him for all that I learned. During those
four years I was
introduced to other writers from whom I learned so
much. I began singing demos for some of them and that
opened an even bigger door for opportunity. I began
making contacts with unbelievable writers and
producers who would ask me to write. I believe the
key to being a good writer is to write with others who
will challenge you and teach you. After my four years
working with Jerry, I moved on to write for Famous
Music. This lasted about two years with no
productivity. Famous dropped me from their roster of
writers and I thought my world had ended. I had
worked so hard. My spirits were squashed.
Then, like some blessing from God, I met Carla Wallace and Kerry O'neal with
Big Yellow Dog Music (a co-venture with
Sony ATV). I was discouraged and disheartened. They
were so excited about my music and it was like a
breath of fresh air. After several meetings, I signed
a three year contract, praying it was the right fit.
Within the first month I turned in a song called
"Augusta Rain". Within a day of handing that song in
they ran with it to Trisha Yearwood. Within a few
months we received a call requesting that the song's
title be changed and with our permission the song
transformed into "Georgia Rain". My co-writer, Ed
Hill, and I were so excited. The first time I heard
Trisha perform it was in the studio with her producer,
Garth Fundis. He invited us over to hear the song and
I literally cried at the control board. Trisha was
one of those artists whose songs I would sing from
that old Whitney piano and here she was singing my song! She later
performed it live on the CMT awards show and everything that has happened
from that moment on has felt like a dream I'm still waiting to wake up from.
I've always loved to write songs. I have always loved
to play instruments and sing. I have a range of
influences from Matraca to Mary Chapin Carpenter to
Suzy Bogguss. I consider music to be the greatest
gift and I am so thankful for every day I get to wake
up and use it. I've had some ups and downs but I
wouldn't trade a moment of the last ten years. What
a lucky life..... and if I have anything to say about
it, I'd like to stick around for a while. :-)
Karyn
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