It has been a full year since singer-songwriter Sam Hale decided to fully uproot his life in search of a fulfilling music career. Going from the easy-going coast of Los Angeles, California to the hustle of Music Town USA in Nashville, Tennessee has been an adventure, to say the least.
We convinced Sam to try and put into words his adventure of this undertaking. Enjoy his guest post here:
I moved to Nashville from Los Angeles in October of 2017. I decided to pack my bags and embark on a journey of self-discovery in an area where I didn’t really know many people. I visited Nashville a couple months prior to my move, so I had an idea of what I was getting myself into.
Once it became a reality that I was moving, I started to slowly say my goodbyes to my friends, family, and the city that will always have my heart… the City of Angels.
After finalizing my lease in Nashville, I sold a ton of my stuff and drove here with my dog in just a few days. It took me a while to adjust to the city.
I was working on my EP with my producer, Sam Kassirer, during the winter time. I had to isolate myself in order to really develop my sound before we went into the studio. That was a positive situation for creating music, but it’s easy to go stir crazy. In that time, I started to question if Nashville was right for me, and I almost moved back to LA in March of 2017. My lease had just ended and I figured I could do music from anywhere, but I decided to push myself to meet people. I joined an industry meet up group called Balanced Breakfast, and I met a lot of cool people through there who are still my good friends.
For all of you musicians who are thinking about moving to Nashville and aren’t sure which city is best for your career, I would say do some soul searching. Ask yourself, “What do I really want from music?”. If you want to be a songwriter and co-write with a bunch of different artists, then move to Nashville… it’s great for that! If you’re looking to be a performer and tour, then you can pretty much do it from anywhere. The one benefit to Los Angeles is that they have the movie and music industry there. You can make a lot of great music licensing connections. Austin is a great city for performers and a great vibe.
To this day, I am still not certain where I will end up. A lot of people ask me when I’ll move back to LA. I don’t really know how to answer that question because I live for the moment. Who knows, you may even see me end up in an unexpected city!
Sam Hale has an album release show coming up on October 20 at Nashville’s The Bowery Vault and is currently preparing for the Reflections of Love & War Tour 2018, with fellow Nashville import Jon Pattie. Here are the tour dates through Texas:
10/26 Opening Bell Coffee-Dallas, TX
10/27 Fort Worth Live-Ft. Worth, TX
10/30 The Austin Winery-Austin, TX
11/1 Rebecca Creek Distillery-San Antonio, TX
11/2 Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville-San Antonio, TX
11/7 House of Blues-Houston, TX
11/9 Cafeza-Houston, TX
Keep up with more insight from Sam Hale HERE