Nashville Lights headliners named

Oct. 9—"Every year has been great, but this may be our best," Nashville Lights organizer Peter Svendsen said of the concert's upcoming 10th anniversary edition. "We're celebrating a decade of great music helping out our Cleburne schools. We started this 11 years ago, missed a year for Covid, so this is our 10th actual annual show and we wanted to bring something really special to Cleburne."

Nashville Lights returns Oct. 19 to the Cleburne Conference Center.

The concert highlights professional Nashville and Texas country singer/songwriters many of whom have penned top hits for major names. Each year an up-and-coming local songwriter, or two, is tapped to open the show as well.

Proceeds from the concert benefit the Cleburne Education Foundation which, through grants, funds the purchase of programs and equipment needs for Cleburne ISD teachers and students.

Svendsen and CEF President Paige Harris recently announced the Nashville headliners for this year's show. They include: Zach Kale, Dave Turnball and Bryan Simpson.

Alabama native Kale, who relocated to Nashville via Atlanta, is a multi-platinum CMA and ACM nominated songwriter, producer and artist.

Kale wrote and produced two number one hits — "I Hope" and "The Good Ones" — for Gabby Barrett and went on to write for Nelly, Keith Urban, Tyler Hubbard and more.

Landing a cut with Florida Georgia Line — only the seventh or eighth song he'd penned — gave Kale the confidence to make the Atlanta to Nashville jump.

A jump a little unnerving, Kale admits, but one taken on faith.

"Our daughter was in a good school in Georgia," Kale said. "It was a case of going from a good job in Atlanta and uprooting the whole family to Nashville to try to make it."

Except, Kale said, he never really looked at it that way.

"I didn't really do the try to make it thing," Kale said. "It was more let's go from Atlanta to Nashville for six months to see if there are any doors God's opening up. If there are, we'll walk through them. If not, we'll celebrate landing the Florida Georgia Line cut and live happily ever after. Because you can't lose what you never had."

Such maturity perhaps arises from Kale's late entry in the music business. A former University of Alabama student, Kale married, moved to Atlanta and worked full-time in ministry for more than a decade.

"Because I've written for so many artists my sound is typically a little all over the place and I'm a bit of a chameleon," Kale said of his style. "But, the longer I've written, I realize there's variety but always a strain of myself brought out by my soul in everything I write. I noticed there's a specific thing, little added soul, little more swag to everything I do as I've continued writing."

Variety, however, remains the goal and the fun.

"I like to try to do things no one's done before in music," Kale said. "I enjoy the puzzle piece of that, the creative energy that comes from that."

While some excel at duplicating the sounds of former hit songs, groundbreakers are harder to find, Kale said.

"I think because it's hard for the pioneers, the creators trying to lead the charge," Kale said. "It's lonely too and risky because the failures fail big but the wins win huge."

Being a frequent writer for others, Kale said the joy of music derives from passing it on.

"The greatest joy I get from music is writing songs then standing side stage while someone else lives their dream," Kale said. "I get to live my dream too that way. But, because I'm a bit of an introvert, I get to live my dream watching them live their dreams too, and, man, it doesn't get much better than that."

Having played Texas rarely — Kale's last visit to the state came during Barrett's wedding — Kale said he can't wait to hit the Nashville Lights stage to sing and play alongside his fellow performers.

Turnball moved to Nashville in 1993 after graduating from Virginia Tech University and signed his first publishing deal in 1997.

Turnball's first top 10 hit — Darryl Worley's recording of "If Something Should Happen" — followed in 2004.

Turnball went on to score four No. 1 singles: "Lucky Man" by Montgomery Gentry, "The Boys of Fall" by Kenny Chesney, "Old Alabama" by Brad Paisley and "Anything Like Me" also by Paisley.

Blake Shelton, Randy Owen, Neil McCoy, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw and others also recorded Turnball-penned tunes.

Luke Combs current album, "Growin' Up and Getting Old," features "Where the Wild Things Are," a song co-written by Turnball.

Fort Worth native Bryan Simpson departed Funkytown for Nashville with only a fiddle, guitar, mandolin and box fan to his name.

"His passion for writing music and performing covers a wide variety of genres," Harris said.

Country stars ranging from Shelton, McGraw, Chesney, Hailey Whitters, Old Dominion and others have covered Simpson originals.

They include McGraw's 2010 hit "Better Than I Used To Be" and Sheltons 2017 chart topper "A Guy With A Girl."

Simpson is also a founding member of Cadillac Sky, a progressive bluegrass band and is finishing up his new solo album, "The Oldest."