First, the reader should know that the title was run by Terah first. While this isn’t a politically charged article, but a spotlight on a woman with a rather interesting story, one cannot look up Terah Lynn without finding out where she’s from; Appalachia.
She’s a singer, a songwriter, businesswoman and is surprisingly skilled in construction and back-breaking labor. Much of who she is can be traced back to the mountains she so fondly mentions.
“Backwoods” is a location, not a label for some lower-class people. That’s where we’re from-the mountains, the woods, the rural areas of America. It’s a beautiful place with hardworking, unseen, and underappreciated people.”
The singer, who currently resides in Nashville, carries pride about where she’s from and a conviction to help others understand the beauty of the parts of this country that are often out of the spotlight, away from convenience, and quite often, looked down on.
As we know, this isn’t a new subject for musical artists. Country music is largely built on carrying out the blue-collar theme. It’s nothing new. However, what is new is for a woman to be the one carrying it.
While there are many amazing female artists in the Country, Americana and Southern Rock genres singing about the hardworking, country life, we rarely see any of them putting on roofs, hanging drywall, or digging drainage ditches, all of which Lynn has done “to get by,” as she states.
Even in her relocation to Nashville, Terah became the first female supervisor over Gibson guitar’s lumber mill, a move that proves the upward trend and evolution of the once shaky guitar brand. ‘I didn’t do work like that to prove a point or to say women can do what men can do. It was purely out of opportunity and necessity. I wasn’t good at the things you would typically do for work where I’m from. I was always better working with my hands than with my head, so I did what I was good at.”
Needless to say, she is a unique addition to the industry. Terah highlights the “blue-collar woman” in a way we haven’t seen done before. Her story is out of the ordinary, and so is her voice. Lynn boasts a gritty, gravely vocal tone that has been likened to Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Tyler, to name a few.
Whether working in the hot, southern sun or filling in on the bandsaw at Gibson’s lumber mill, Terah would often write songs in her head and dream of the day she would hear them on the radio. And that she has.
One of those songs, “Landmines,” has just been announced as her next release. “Landmines” was recorded at Sound Stage Studios in the infamous Music Circle. The track was produced by Jeff Huskins, whom you would remember from the largely popular band “Little Texas,” having such hits as “God Blessed Texas,” “My Love,” and “What Might Have Been.”
Given her skills and accomplishments, when we sat down with the 6-foot tall singer, we expected a dominating presence. However, we found a soft soul who loves two things, “Jesus and music.”
A self-proclaimed Christian, Lynn doesn’t force her faith in conversation but rather comes across with an air of kindness and love. Of course, professing your faith isn’t always the smartest move to make in today’s society, but to her, it’s not a stance, it’s just part of who she is. “The most important part,” she says.
“My life has had its fair shares of ups and downs. Truthfully, I should be dead many times over. After going through something difficult, I was kicked out of high school a few months shy of graduation. I was finding a full-time job while my friends were going to prom. I got involved in drugs just trying to find peace in my heart. I overdosed on cocaine when I was 18 years old and struggled in many more and different ways in my life for many years. The reason I’m here is God. If you only knew what I’ve been brought through. So I’m not trying to force anything or take some stubborn stance, I am just stating facts and giving credit where because I’ve been dealt a lot of miracles in my lifetime and I’m just thankful. Simple as that.”
So here we have Terah Lynn; the blue-collar woman, the gritty singer/songwriter, and woman of faith, but there’s yet another interesting facet: a businesswoman.
Terah owns and operates Bridge Music Magazine, a quickly growing online music magazine based in Nashville.
The magazine, which she started on her couch, aims to connect artists to audiences. Her vision is to “hype” up and help other artists in all stages of their careers in the same way she would want to be helped as an artist herself. “This industry is so volatile, so cutthroat. I’m a words of affirmation kind of person, so I hate that. I want to sow positive seeds. So many people ask me why I would promote my direct competition, but I don’t see it that way. I can’t do what they do, and they can do what I do, we’re all in the same family. We love music, so why not connect and hype each other up? My genre is filled with amazingly talented women and I’m honored to get to hype them up!”
bridgemusicmagazine.com is growing so much, in fact, that recently the magazine entered into a strategic partnership with Universal Music Group, one of the largest record labels in the world. The label’s new 1824 division focuses on “the connection of artists and brands directly to fans through storytelling and experiences.”
“It’s been so much fun,” she says, “connecting with other artists, getting to support their careers the way I would want done for me. My job is listening to other people’s music, being trusted to listen to the art that pours from their souls the way it does mine. I’m very lucky.”
One might wonder how Lynn has time to work a full-time job, run a magazine, and continue to build her own music career?
“I have no idea,” she says with a laugh, “Some days are kind of a blur, but I love what I’m doing so it rarely feels like work.”
At this point, we feel that we’ve only scratched the surface of this rising star, and we look forward to seeing where this journey takes her. What started out as a three-day vacation in 2012 with nothing but a backpack and a guitar has taken Terah Lynn through many states, to many jobs, and now to releasing her own music, helping to support others, and of all things, helping build guitars.
Her life has all the makings of an inspiring movie if we’ve ever seen it, and perhaps one day we will.
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