Danica Hart's Journey: From Chapel Heart to Solo Artist in Nashville's Music Scene

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: Hey guys at Sarah Harrelson, your host of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast, And it is CMA Fest week. If you are in town in Nashville for CMA Fest, it's the largest country music festival. Come hang out, come see me at fanfair X. I will be there on Friday, June fifth at Music City Center, Booth three three four at Shannon Doah's Cumberland Road Trading Post. I'm doing a meet and greet on that Friday, two thirty to three pm. Come hang out. Say you've been listening to Taking a Walk Nashville and I would love to give you a Taking a Walk Nashville koozie and some merch and.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: Just say hi to you.

00:00:50
Speaker 4: I'm also going to be there on Sunday, June seventh at the Memories of Honor Booth. That'll be a meet and greet from three thirty to four thirty pm at Booth five ten. Please come out. If you're there in Nashville in Music City for CMA Fest.

00:01:07
Speaker 3: I would love to say hi.

00:01:09
Speaker 2: Today I am talking to country music singer Danica Hart. I loved this conversation with her. You may know her from Chapel Heart, and now she is fully embracing her solo career, touring with the Open Heart Sessions this year, and we're going to talk about her new single, Amazing Grace, and everything that's to come with her. So please tune in today while I sit down with Danica Hart.

00:01:43
Speaker 1: Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson.

00:01:50
Speaker 3: Hi, everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson.

00:01:52
Speaker 5: I am your host of the Taking a Walk Nashville podcast, and today we are joined by a powerhouse vocalist spent years commanding the biggest stages and country music from the Grand Ole Opry to the national spotlight on America's got talent. As a founding member of the trio Chapel Heart, she has helped redefine modern country sound with grit, soul and world class harmony. But today we're talking about a bold new evolution. She is currently stepping into the center spotlight for her solo chapter that is entimate and powerful. We're diving into this transition, her upcoming solo album and the heart behind.

00:02:32
Speaker 4: Her inspiration for a joyful life movement. Thank you so much, Sarah K.

00:02:39
Speaker 1: First of all, can you just come with me everywhere, and it just hit that intro introduction just like that.

00:02:43
Speaker 3: Please, I would love so good. How are you doing? I'm so good. I'm so glad you're here today.

00:02:49
Speaker 5: Country Ray or Seminar listeners first know you when you were on America's Got Talent as your former trio Chapel Heart and your popular single you Can't Have You Can. What has the transition been like from sharing the stage to now embarking on this solo career where you.

00:03:11
Speaker 3: Are front and center.

00:03:12
Speaker 5: What have you learned about yourself during this journey?

00:03:15
Speaker 2: Chow?

00:03:15
Speaker 3: How long do we have?

00:03:16
Speaker 1: What?

00:03:17
Speaker 5: Like?

00:03:17
Speaker 3: What is the time? And Well, first of all, let me just say that I am.

00:03:21
Speaker 1: I am learning a lot, okay, And I just I said, I've always always to me, I just always knew I was going to be in a group, and so like it was just all things group always and so but I've learned that you know, sometimes life just life, you know what I mean, and India and you're thrown into new and different circumstances. But I feel like I've been a bit of the poster channel for like do it anyway, like you know, I was, I was, I was, I went through one of the hardest seasons of my life, and and even in the in the place, there were times where I was like, I don't want to do music anymore, like this, I just don't know if I want to go back to it, and and and people were like, you can't give up, Like you know, I wake up and listen to your music every day. You cannot give up, Okay, And so it was it was such an inspiration. And so even when I didn't want to do it, I did it anyway, And even when I had a broken heart and I had to do it anyway, and even even in the days that I didn't want to get I did it anyway, And which brought me to my first single, Amazing Grace, And and it showed me there were there was like it has taken a life of its own, but it showed me how many people were really like counting on me to get back up. And they were like, cause, if she can survive that, then I know I can survive what I'm going through.

00:04:33
Speaker 3: So I've I've learned, I've learned to just you.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: Know that that that uh, this life that we live, even and especially as artists, it's.

00:04:41
Speaker 3: So little about us.

00:04:42
Speaker 1: I think, and it's about what we bring to other people. And and it's there's so many people who live their life through us, you know, from online and behind the lens and behind the phone and the camera, and so it's important for us to people watch how we how we show up after after being ki down and after being you know, what a lot of people would feel like is defeated. They're watching to see if you get back up. And so I've learned a that I can get back up. And I learned that that you wake up, you put one foot in front of the other, and you may not have all the answers, but you keep going.

00:05:13
Speaker 5: You certainly have you found your reason. And you mentioned your new single, Amazing Grace, which is your own interpretation of the song, what it means to you, and what is it about the song that made it become your testimony so to speak.

00:05:27
Speaker 3: I believe that.

00:05:30
Speaker 1: This this version of Amazing Grace, I believe is just a reminder that God's amazing grace has always been there. And I always say, you can ask anybody from any religion if they have to believe in anything at all, but you can ask him have they ever heard of amazing Grace? And they'll probably tell you, yeah, like I've heard of it or made I don't know it well, but I've heard of it. And so but and I've watched how year after year, in generation after generation, amazing grace has carried us. And there are some of us say, I tell people, when I was little, I was a knucklehead, okay, and it was because my mama and my grandmother were praying women that I that I'm really alive in here today and so but it was it was amazing grace that just covered me from season to season and from from from.

00:06:11
Speaker 3: You know, just from from year to year.

00:06:13
Speaker 1: And and I think that I always say in that opening line when it says, it hasn't been the best of days, but I'm still singing Amazing Grace, Like that's the heart. And I think when people hear that, it sounds honest and it sounds real and it sounds genuine and it sounds true, and you go, oh, no, like this is my song because I've been having a hard day to day, like you know, kids.

00:06:30
Speaker 3: Are acting crazy, families going nuts.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: Like, but but amazing Grace, I think I just I'm so so so grateful that that gets to be my first baby, Like, that's my first project as a solo artist, and I'll forever be grateful for that because I think it's the thing that has connected.

00:06:48
Speaker 3: Me more to my fans and connected me to you.

00:06:52
Speaker 1: Know, not just connected me to my fans, but it has expanded my uh, the the amount of fans, and I just I'm grateful, Like, I'm just so grateful for that.

00:07:04
Speaker 5: It's so relatable and it's so wonderful to hear your take on the song, how you feel about it.

00:07:11
Speaker 3: I love the single. Can we look forward to more releases? Really? There? Absolutely?

00:07:18
Speaker 1: So I'm working on my next single, which is called Every Season is Good, and it really is. The gist of it is is that, you know a lot of people get uncomfortable during winter time because it's cold, it's hard, you know, like you know, and just and sometimes some seasons are just about surviving the season. But if you slow down, there's something that Winner can teach you. And then the second thing is is that Winner's got to come. But the one thing that's for sure is that Spring's coming right after every year Goodness is coming.

00:07:50
Speaker 3: You just got to hang in there. And so I got a new single.

00:07:53
Speaker 1: COVID called every season is good and I can't wait to share it with the world.

00:07:56
Speaker 3: I can't wait to hear it.

00:07:57
Speaker 5: And you know, even in good seasons like Bring, we can be going through something that's not good, so it come on right reminder.

00:08:05
Speaker 1: And even and even in the seasons that are supposed to be good and they don't turn out how you think they're gonna.

00:08:09
Speaker 3: Turn out, there's always something every season. There's goodness in everything. We just have to slow down to find it. Yeah, that's beautiful. I'm so excited to hear.

00:08:17
Speaker 2: That new single.

00:08:18
Speaker 5: You also have some upcoming shows in Mississippi and you were calling at the Open Heart Sessions. Uh huh, what do you hope that people will take from your shows?

00:08:27
Speaker 3: Let me tell you what I always say. You probably can't tell, but I've always been a people's person.

00:08:30
Speaker 1: All people have just always been my heart and so I'm excited to that is the Open Heart Sessions is it's a show that really is just like a it's it's.

00:08:41
Speaker 3: The glimpse into my heart for people and what I've like.

00:08:44
Speaker 1: And you know, when people somebody asked, like, you know, what is it that you want to do this season? Like what do you want to do as a solo and I said, I want to wake up, and I want to tell people you got this, Like I want to inspire people that yesterday may have been back, today may be bad and lot I said. I said, one time I got on social media outside and I said, look, I know I was supposed to get with y all yesterday, but I I took to the bed. I couldn't even get up, Like yesterday was a bad day. I said, but today's Today's better and tomorrow's.

00:09:05
Speaker 3: Gonna better than that.

00:09:06
Speaker 1: And I want to wake up and I want to encourage people that that you got it, Like you know what I'm saying, Like sometimes life is hard, and if you had a friend to just tell you, girl, you got this. I know it's I know it's hard, and I know you and you it's it's rough right now, but you coming out of this.

00:09:19
Speaker 3: And so that's what I want to do.

00:09:20
Speaker 1: And that's I believe what the Open Heart Sessions is, but also a glimpse into you know, maybe what the new what the new album is gonna be. So I'm getting a chance to share that music and you know, and and with people. But also I'm super excited because what started out is this thing I wanted to do in like, you know, little towns in Mississippi has grown into this national thing.

00:09:41
Speaker 4: You know.

00:09:41
Speaker 1: I've got some shows in Arkansas and Alabama and Tennessee and they're like, we need the Open Heart Sessions and I'm like, yes.

00:09:48
Speaker 3: So it's growing, it's growing.

00:09:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, once you had Tennessee, I'm gonna have to come to an Open Heart session.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: Okay, look, look, make sure you stay plugged in because I'm coming.

00:09:57
Speaker 3: I'm coming. That's so exciting.

00:09:59
Speaker 5: Well, and twenty twenty one, Chapel Heart was named CMT's next Woman of Country.

00:10:04
Speaker 3: Who are some female country artists that you look up to? Ooh ah? Man, let me tell you what I and I always say. I I just it's been. It's it's hard.

00:10:15
Speaker 1: I feel like sometimes it's hard when you're in the ground grind because I love music and.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: I love discovering new artists.

00:10:20
Speaker 1: So but like when you're in the ground and I've been in the grind for like ten years, it's hard to like discover what's new and what's uh, what's what's what's happening. But now I said, now that I've got a chance to slow down, I'm checking out like new artists and I got a chance to run into like Ashlan Kraft and twenty and Morgan Miles and Angie k and I'm just like discovering this new where Ella Langley Laney Wilson.

00:10:42
Speaker 3: Laney's a friend of mine and I saw I told her a.

00:10:44
Speaker 1: Little one of these days and we get when we get to go to your house and we get to sit at the ranch and.

00:10:48
Speaker 3: Have coffee and just chit chat about everything.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: But like I'm just but I'm always so excited to see women like doing well. And even in my show, I always try to take a minute and just highlight a woman who's doing well in country music. And I say, like, you know, I can't do any I don't know that I can do anything about radio play and that it plays mostly male country music. But what I can do is I can take a moment in my show and say, look, let me I want to highlight one of my colleague, one of my female colleagues who's kicking butt. And you know whoever it is in the moment, and so you know, and I said, maybe that's a very small pebble in the pond, but I just my my prayers that it that it that it does that it that it does make a difference, you know what I mean. And it's like, as women, we need it. We got to really be there for each other. But I think also in a in a genre that has said, okay, there can only be one at a time, like you know, okay, it's your turn now, maybe later, but you know, but but the minute that we go, you know what if it's her turn, come on, Because I had I heard a say in one time that said, you got to get excited when the male man's delivering your neighbor their male because that means he's in the neighborhood.

00:11:50
Speaker 3: So if we can get.

00:11:50
Speaker 1: Excited about one girl who's doing it, then guess what, then that means he's in the neighbor He's in the neighborhood, so maybe maybe some goodness is coming our way.

00:11:57
Speaker 3: So I love that.

00:11:57
Speaker 5: And that's where I love about the camaraderie with females and country music because you don't really get that and a lot of other genres. So the community with women and country music supporting each other and livding is each other up is so wonderful and important love that.

00:12:11
Speaker 3: I love that.

00:12:13
Speaker 5: So how have you been using your new platform to foster the inspiration for a joyful life movement that you have been building and advertising.

00:12:23
Speaker 3: Let me tell you what I just.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: I'm I'm just I'm just honored that I get to be at this place. And I can say probably six months ago, I did not see this. But I'm excited that I get to be a part of this joyful move like the movement of joy and and like I said, like kind I said earlier, like I'm honored that I get to be able to be on social media to tell people, come on, good morning, come on.

00:12:47
Speaker 3: I know yesterday was real full. We got this today, We're gonna do this together.

00:12:51
Speaker 1: And so I I I and I pray that it is exactly that I pray it's a movement because there's so.

00:12:57
Speaker 3: Much harshness and and hard stuff and bad stuff going on in the world right now.

00:13:02
Speaker 1: I feel like there's a there's a lot of goodness that needs to be thrown back into the world. And I hope that that that, uh, you know, when when the when the dust settles that and it's all maybe all said and done, that it says like she she really did make a difference.

00:13:16
Speaker 3: She really did brighten my day.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: And so you know, I just I hope that you know, maybe that's something that I'm on the forefront of and that that that that more than that, I'm remembered by.

00:13:26
Speaker 3: Oh, I think you absolutely are.

00:13:28
Speaker 5: And I love your positivity and the energy you're bringing with your music and I can't wait to hear upcoming music from you. Danica.

00:13:36
Speaker 3: My last question for you, since we're.

00:13:38
Speaker 5: On taking a walk Nashville, if you could take a walk with anyone in Nashville, who would it be and where in school?

00:13:45
Speaker 1: Let me tell you what I am.

00:13:48
Speaker 3: I literally, I'm gonna have to say.

00:13:51
Speaker 1: It's my It's it's my uh my uncle brother Vince gil and I put in a.

00:13:57
Speaker 3: Call to events the other day. I was just checking on him, and can.

00:14:00
Speaker 1: You believe I went to the restroom for like ten minutes and then like I was, I was checking my phone the other I.

00:14:04
Speaker 3: Was like, did Vince call me back? And I missed it, So I've got to call him back.

00:14:07
Speaker 1: But there's just something about like, you know, like a phone call from Vince and you get so maybe it's a five minute phone call, but if you listen and and and there's no question that's too big, no question that's too small, and he always makes the tom but there's so much wisdom and and and he he has a way.

00:14:27
Speaker 3: Of just like encouraging you like no other.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna have to go ahead and take Vince on this walk to Nashville.

00:14:32
Speaker 5: Absolutely, that's a wonderful person. And we just saw him at the Raymond playing the UMG lunch and and even when he's just playing one song, it sways a beautiful story.

00:14:42
Speaker 3: And Ryan, it just stops you in your tracks, like you just like you almost kind of stopped breathing for a minute. It's like, oh, you just kind of take it all in.

00:14:50
Speaker 1: And so I definitely have to say I definitely have to say, Vince.

00:14:54
Speaker 3: I think that's a cool question.

00:14:56
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a great answer, Dana Gar. Thank you so much for being to I can walk Nashville today.

00:15:01
Speaker 4: I can't see.

00:15:02
Speaker 5: I can't wait to see everything that's coming up for you.

00:15:05
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Thank you thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with Sarah Harrelson. Please check out our other shows produced by Buzznight Media Productions, Comedy Save Me and Music Save Me hosted by Lynn Hoffman, and Taking a Walk hosted by yours truly Buzznight.

00:15:26
Speaker 5: All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and

00:15:30
Speaker 1: Are part of the iHeart podcast network.