Nashville's New Sound: Brooke Waggoner

AT FIRST LISTEN, it's hard to imagine how country music has anything to do with songstress Brooke Waggoner. There's no real sense of the West in her style; her music generally showcases softly sung melodies complimented by piano, strings and minimal drums. But the classically trained pianist's music wouldn't sound as it does today without the heart of country music: Nashville, Tenn.

Waggoner's road to the center of country began three years ago when she graduated from Louisiana State University and started looking for a music-conscious city to begin her career in.

"I never thought I'd live in Nashville to be honest, it was sort of a whim move," she said over the phone from Nashville. "It was the closest, most affordable music city I could get to."

Her most recent release, "Go Easy Little Doves," chronicles part of that time in her life as she began to find a place for herself in a city whose most cherished "classical" composers have names like Cash and Nelson instead of Tchaikovsky and Wagner. Although she may have felt like an underdog at first, her stylistic bent only helped Waggoner find a niche in the local music community.

"People here aren't doing classical," she said. "I'm in a really weird city doing that. But, I like it. I think it causes a rub, which is really important. I think if I was in an all classical setting, my music would probably go more pop in a reaction to that."

Part of how Nashville has shaped her music stems from the very nature of its residents, something Waggoner learned about as she began to cultivate a local fan base.

"It's a musician's town," she said. "Musicians go see other musicians and I love that. It's a critical town. But at the end of the day they appreciate artistry so much and they appreciate the song and the writing so to be honest Nashville's my favorite place to play still because of the critical eye. I think its good to pay attention to what you listen to and don't be a robot."

Still, no matter how the city itself has played a role in her musical development, don't expect to hear Waggoner whistling "Dixie" on any upcoming release. She doesn't allow country, or most other types of contemporary music, to get into her head.

"I don't listen to a lot of music to be honest," she said. "I think maybe because I do it now for a living, I'm trying to find a release and my ears just get tired quick. I just try to be careful because you know, like food, you are what you listen to so I just want to really hang on to, as cheesy as this sounds, my whole inner voice thing and I want to make sure that it never sounds like a replica of someone else's work, so I really just try to filter a lot if I can."

What Waggoner doesn't block out, however, are lessons — and Nashville has taught her an important one when it comes to music.

"It just goes to show there's sort of a common thread in what people can connect to," she said. "It doesn't matter what your background is or what you're trying to do. Music is music and it causes certain emotions no matter what. It's pretty cool."

Photos by Brandon Chesbro, Heidi Ross