A country way of life, Episode 28 (Adam Shoenfeld, Brice Long, Nicolle Galyon)
Author: Jonny Brick.
Player: Adam Shoenfeld
Curiously, all three of this week’s backroom figures have put out solo albums, scratching an itch that playing guitar or sitting in writer’s rooms cannot abate.
In 2022 Adam Shoenfeld released his debut solo album All The Birds Sing. Born in New Jersey, Shoenfeld played in a rock band with Kenny from Big & Rich, which made him an easy hire when Kenny formed his duo and opened for Tim McGraw. The singer remembered Shoenfeld, who also co-wrote Mississippi Girl for Faith Hill, and hired him as his own touring guitarist.
As well as a road hog Shoenfeld has also been a studio cat, playing the solos on the three dozen number ones from Jason Aldean. He also has credits on albums by Blake Shelton, Thomas Rhett, Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban, whose own offer to be a touring guitarist Shoenfeld once turned down. ‘Playing guitar means doing what it takes for the artist you’re playing for,’ he has said.
Songwriters: Brice Long & Nicolle Galyon
Born in Kentucky, Brice Long is yet another country songwriter who retreated to the writer’s room after having a go at being a star, in his case as an opening act for Eddie Rabbitt. He put out a self-titled solo album in the mid-2000s including minor hit Anywhere But Here, but at that point he was much better known as a songwriter.
His copyrights include Nothing On But the Radio for Gary Allen, All American Kid for Garth Brooks, Like a Cowboy for Randy Houser and Heartache on the Dance Floor, which he wrote with Jon Pardi. He has also written songs for Texan acts like Cody Johnson (Where Cowboys Are King) and Randall King (Hey Cowgirl and Hang of Hangin’ On).
Nicolle Galyon has helped transfer the female perspective into an era of country music which has been unkind to female performers. Galyon grew up in Kansas before heading to Belmont University in Nashville. She has made use of her music business degree by setting up her publishing company Songs & Daughters which ‘nurtures both the art and the artist’. Its focus is on female writers, which has attracted Lauren Watkins and Hailey Whitters.
Galyon co-wrote five songs apiece on Kelsea Ballerini’s album Kelsea and Carly Pearce’s Hummingbird. She has written several songs for Miranda Lambert including the nostalgic pair We Were Us and Automatic, and she and Lambert co-wrote Thought You Should Know with Morgan Wallen. Alongside her husband Rodney Clawson she wrote Win Life for Luke Bryan.
Galyon’s other credits include Tequila for Dan + Shay, It Ain’t Pretty for Lady A, Love Triangle for RaeLynn and All the Pretty Girls for Kenny Chesney. She performed some of these songs on keyboard during the Songwriters event at Country2Country 201 and included versions of Consequences and Boy, written for Camila Cabello and Lee Brice respectively, on her debut album Firstborn in 2022.
Often her writing method is to start with a word and try to get to the root of it with her collaborators. Galyon also wrote an excellent column in 2024 for American Songwriter emphasising the ‘road of almosts’ that define working in Nashville, a path ‘not for the faint of heart’.
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