Kelly Lang Shares Personal Stories of Resilience in Nashville's Evolving Music Scene on Takin’ A Walk Nashville

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk nash Still.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: Hey y'all, thanks for tuning in today. It's Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville. Today, I am sitting down with Nashville songwriter and singer Kelly Lange. You may have heard her song I'm Not Going Anywhere if you have seen the Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital national commercials. That is her song. Her new single, I Reached for Red is out. She also just dropped a single Hollywood and her album will be out later this summer. She is married to country artist TG Shephard. She recently did a Christmas album with him, and she's had songs recorded by Ricky Skaggs, Crystal Gaale Mickey, Kelly, George Jones, and the list goes on. Her song Under the Tennessee Moon. Did you know that it's a Tennis state song. There's a lot to dive in with her today, so join me as I sit down with Kelly Lange.

00:01:12
Speaker 3: Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with your hosts singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson. Hi everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking a Walk Nashville, and joining us today is a true Nashville powerhouse whose voice and storytelling who has touched millions. She is a multi award winning singer, songwriter and author who has shared the stage with legends and seeing her own songs recorded by icons like George Jones, Ricky.

00:01:39
Speaker 4: Skaggs, and Bristol Gaale.

00:01:42
Speaker 3: She is fresh off a beautiful duets project, Chemistry with her husband TG Shepherd, and is currently gearing up for a massive summer album release.

00:01:51
Speaker 2: Kelly, thank you so much for being on Taking a Walk, Nash, but.

00:01:54
Speaker 4: Thank you today.

00:01:55
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to my album coming out. But meanwhile, we've got our first single off the album coming out tomorrow, so I'm really excited to share it with everyone.

00:02:03
Speaker 4: You do. And that's I Reach for Red correct.

00:02:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, what does red represent in the context of the song.

00:02:10
Speaker 1: Well, it actually is for Red Wine, but there's so many things in the video that comes out tomorrow as well that you'll see that I've read screeched for.

00:02:18
Speaker 4: So it's not just the wine.

00:02:20
Speaker 1: But it's written about a friend of mine that just loved wine for everything, like every occasion.

00:02:26
Speaker 4: It was like happy, sad, celebrative, and she would like somebody sold their dogs, she would let go.

00:02:32
Speaker 1: She was like an excuse to drink wine, and so I would just tease with her, I'm like, girl, I need to crutch right, But it was just.

00:02:39
Speaker 4: I don't even drink red wine that much. But it was just a fun song that things sing.

00:02:43
Speaker 1: About, and I realized there's a lot of people out there that really do like their red wine.

00:02:47
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:02:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I can't wait to hear that.

00:02:49
Speaker 3: And following that release you have Holly Wood, is there a narrative that connects these two singles as we had towards your next album?

00:02:59
Speaker 1: Nothing really connect those particular songs, but the album as a whole, it's like a PG thirteen Okay, maybe fourteen actually, but everything is a little bit more adult contemporary and it's got an adult theme. So those two songs seem to fit the album properly, you know. And as the album progresses, you see just like a little bit more evolution in to why they're connected, not in particular of those two side by side.

00:03:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, And is there like a play on words with Hollywood? Is it regarding Hollywood or is it a specific character both?

00:03:33
Speaker 4: Okay, I'd have to glad to hear it. Yeah, I'm very excited to hear it.

00:03:37
Speaker 3: In all of the upcoming music and addition, in addition to your new music, you have a few shows coming up with your husband. Can fans expect of tour or additional performances this year?

00:03:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, we actually do shows throughout the year, but right now we're doing show this Sunday night in Franklin, Tennessee at the Franklin Theater her col So I'm very excited about that.

00:03:57
Speaker 4: But we also have, you know, shows that we do on our own.

00:04:00
Speaker 1: You can go to my website Kelly Lang dot net and check out the tour schedule.

00:04:03
Speaker 3: Great. Yeah, and you have been busy recording with your husband as well. You recently released a duets album title Chemistry.

00:04:11
Speaker 4: How did you pick the songs for that album.

00:04:14
Speaker 1: Well, we had done an album many years ago called Iconic Duets, and it was just a fun project to do, and we waited a long time in between to record again, and there was just some love songs that we had had in mind on the first project we never got to so it's just kind of like a two point zero and it was a fun time to get back in there with him, and I don't know, we just had enough time on our hands to be able to pull a project together, and it just was a blatch recording it.

00:04:38
Speaker 4: I had a really good time.

00:04:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, such beautiful songs. I love your take on Because You Love Me and some of the other songs. You also wrote the song I'm Not Going Anywhere before your own breast cancer diagnosis, and it later became a national anthem for caregivers through the Ascension Hospital commercials. How has your relationship with that song of all, now that it has its own legacy in.

00:05:02
Speaker 4: The healthcare world.

00:05:04
Speaker 1: Well, I didn't see it coming, honestly. It actually ended up also being the title of my book. I have an autobiography that the Olivia Newton John wrote thee forward for and it's all about my experience with breast cancer and the music industry. And that song I just I really just wrote as an instrumental and then I later added words to it, and it just kind of set there for like fifteen years, and all of a sudden, you know, there took a totally upswing on that, and the hospital took care of that, and I don't know, it made my career take up a notch and people took me more seriously as a writer, and my writing career has really taken off since that project, so I always added in all my shows, and for some reason, people seem to be sentimentally attached to that from a caregiver's perspective.

00:05:50
Speaker 4: So yeah, it's really cool. Yeah, it's so beautiful.

00:05:53
Speaker 3: I definitely hear it all the time when I see the Assumpsion commercials. Another song that you have under the Tennessee Moon, and that was recently named an official Tennessee State song, which is.

00:06:03
Speaker 2: A massive honor.

00:06:05
Speaker 4: When you were writing that song.

00:06:06
Speaker 3: Did you think there would become a Tennessee state song?

00:06:10
Speaker 1: Again, I have a weird thing that happens I write something and fifteen years later that's what happened with this one too.

00:06:16
Speaker 4: I wrote it for my mom.

00:06:18
Speaker 3: You know.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: She was just saying, Kelly, I love Tennessee so much. Can you just look at it through my eyes and how beautiful the hills are and the heritage and the music.

00:06:25
Speaker 4: And she said, please write a song about Tennessee for me, And I'm like, how do you do that? You know? So I did. I wrote.

00:06:32
Speaker 1: I went home that evening and started writing it and just as a gift to her, And I did not see this coming at all.

00:06:39
Speaker 4: That when the Governor of Tennessee.

00:06:41
Speaker 1: Governor Lee gave me a proclamation in his office. My mom was here to see that. She got to hear me sing it on the opry, and she passed four months later, So it was a real full circle moment for me to have her see that.

00:06:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm so glad she got to hear the song and see your performer.

00:06:56
Speaker 4: That's so special.

00:06:57
Speaker 3: And you've also had songs recorded by George Jones, Ricky Skagg's Crystal Gale. When you're writing, how do you know if a song is for you or how do you know if it's for another artist?

00:07:11
Speaker 4: During that process? That's a great question.

00:07:14
Speaker 1: Well, if somebody hires me or you know, asks that if I could do something for this particular project, I tend to not think about my own feelings.

00:07:22
Speaker 4: I try to body myself with what they would say.

00:07:26
Speaker 1: For instance, there's a song on my album right now that's coming out called I Know Me, and I actually wrote it for Johnny Lee of the Urban Cowboy fame and he recorded it and it was from a men's perspective, is how I wrote the song. But I had several people go, why didn't you record that? And I'm like, hm, I never thought about it being from a girl's spot. So I have re you know, structured the song and made it my own. And it's weird though I'm not as connected to it lyrically because it wasn't for me, you know, so there's a mental separation with it. It's still an interesting song and I added it on the project because it fits, but there is a difference. There's really like when I wrote for Laurie's album, Laurie Morgan's album, we said and we talked about her life, what happened in your day, who were you involved with, you know, and so all of the songs that we wrote for her, if I were to go back and record them, it wouldn't sound the same, right, Yeah, It'll be totally a different vibe.

00:08:25
Speaker 3: And that's so important that you brought up earlier that you know, sometimes a song, you write it and nothing happens with the ten years later.

00:08:32
Speaker 4: And that's the great thing about music is that it.

00:08:35
Speaker 3: Can be so timeless. And then you know, a lot of evergreen, newer artists are thinking they need to get a song out right now or get it cut right now, but.

00:08:43
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's un the same.

00:08:45
Speaker 4: Everything breathe of time.

00:08:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, the one thing I've really learned that older I have gotten, which is, you know, wisdom comes with as thank God, you know. But it's just patience, you know, and that nothing is created in vain. And I don't take anything personally, don't get distraught if something doesn't get cut or something. I just patiently go. If that's meant to be, it will happen. And if not, you know, maybe it's just not the right time, you know. So I just patiently just I don't even I don't even promote my music. I don't even tell really anybody about it. This kind of organically tidy. It takes care of itself, which is it.

00:09:18
Speaker 4: It's helpful to me because I don't feel stressed about it. Absolutely. Yeah, that's such beautiful advice, Kelly.

00:09:26
Speaker 2: I have one more question for you.

00:09:27
Speaker 3: We're on taking a walk Nashville, and Nashville has changed so much.

00:09:31
Speaker 4: So you think if we were walking.

00:09:34
Speaker 3: Down Broadway or Music Row ten years ago versus today, what's the biggest landmark in your memory that's no longer there.

00:09:43
Speaker 4: Well, I'm gonna take you back thirty years.

00:09:46
Speaker 1: So when I was hanging out on Music Row, when it was really Music Row, there were little houses that you pop into, you know, and you would go from house to house to house, and they were publishing houses, and you would a either write with somebody, or grab somebody from that house to go lunch with the guy from the next house.

00:10:03
Speaker 4: Or there was a lot of hopping around.

00:10:05
Speaker 1: And there was a little place called Maud's Vineyard that we all would hang out at and it was.

00:10:09
Speaker 4: Just a quaint little luncheon spot.

00:10:12
Speaker 1: Every body, every artist, every publisher, every producer, everybody hung out there and it was just such a quaint, little off the beaten path kind of place.

00:10:22
Speaker 4: I miss that.

00:10:23
Speaker 1: There's a couple of little places like that, but I miss that it is no longer, and I'm disgrateful to have been part of that history. I've been here since seventy six, so it is changed tremendously.

00:10:34
Speaker 4: I don't even recognize it anymore.

00:10:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, there's so many places closing all the time.

00:10:39
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, it just looks like one big high rise.

00:10:42
Speaker 3: I know.

00:10:43
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:10:44
Speaker 4: Well, thank you for sharing that, Kelly, Thank you so much for.

00:10:47
Speaker 3: Being on taking a walk Nashville to say listeners can check out your new singles. I reach for Red and Hollywood and We're excited to see even more ofcoming music from you.

00:10:58
Speaker 4: This here, thank you. Actually it's mod Courtyard.

00:11:01
Speaker 3: Okay, 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 Take It a Walk hosted by Yours Truly Buzznight. All shows are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and are part of the iHeart podcast network