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Nashville songwriter Caitlyn Smith has written for Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton, Meghan Trainor & John Legend, Garth Brooks, and many more in her work as a staff songwriter in Music City. The dream has always been to be a performer, however, she was rejected by label after label. The labels would love her songs, so much so, that they would take her songs for their female acts. Raised in small town Cannon Falls, MN, Caitlyn’s parents supported their talented daughter from an early age and even offered her college fund money as a loan for her first album. After the young musician produced three albums and paid back the loan, she set her sights on Nashville and earned that job of songwriting for other musicians. about a decade after hearing NO so many times from labels, she went back to her DIY roots and recorded an EP of songs that she created just for herself in her own style. As soon as that was released, the opportunities started appearing. Caitlyn realized that in order to make the leap from being a songwriter to a performing songwriter, she needed to follow her own creative arrow and stop writing songs for other people. That being said, she does continue her work as a staff songwriter. It works a different muscle than her own writing, which she goes into detail about in the episode. We also talk about her complicated feelings on Nashville, the Country music industry, raising a family and lifting up other female performers while doing it. Also, after we finished this interview, I started up a super interesting conversation about dry shampoo and general hair care, which I’m sad we didn’t get on tape because Caitlyn had some great advice. *~*~*Dry shampoo and Caitlyn Smith forever *~*~*

Caitlyn performing “Supernova” live in studio

Caitlyn Smith’s new album Supernova