Debra Griner | Debra’s passion for music began during her early childhood in Bergen County, New Jersey. Her father, a municipal worker, was an avid record collector and musician who played guitar, banjo, organ and accordion. His musical tastes included country greats like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard and Hank Williams. The family playlist also included folk singer Pete Seeger, folk-rock group The Byrds, and Broadway and movie musical star Julie Andrews.

But Debra’s biggest influence was the folk-jazz singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.

“I wore out that ‘Joni Mitchell Made Easy For Guitar’ book trying to play those songs I was listening to all the time. I wanted to paint pictures with words like she did and sing them over those gorgeous chord voicings.”

In addition to singing, Debra loved acting and it was the call of the theatre that brought her to New York City in her early 20s.

“I wanted to be on Broadway – sing, dance and act – so I enrolled in the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. I was dancing three times a day and doing all the things I loved to do.”

After appearing off-Broadway and on the Cabaret scene in NYC, early jobs in educational theatre awoke in Debra a desire to teach. After many years teaching – and singing – in the classroom, more and more she felt the need to pursue her dream of becoming a singer-songwriter.

And so, Debra turned her sites south and immersed herself in the rich and supportive creative community of Nashville.

Over the past year and a half she has honed her craft and along the way has been embraced by some of the city’s most respected writers like Buddy Mondlock, and mega-hit writer Rory Bourke. Add to that Grammy-winners, Steve Leslie, who co-produced her album “A Place to Start” as well as Don Henry and Jon Vezner (both of whom appear on “A Place To Start”).

“Here in Nashville, I’m living the life I’ve always wanted to live. I’m surrounded by top-notch musicians, listening to great songwriters and becoming part of this incredible music community.”

You can learn more about Debra and her music at DebraGriner.com.

Joe Irrera | Joe was originally from a small town in upstate New York near Woodstock (the famous music festival). He moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music and after graduating with a degree in Composition, he wrote songs, played in bands, and taught guitar in the New England area for about a decade.

He moved to Nashville to pursue full-time songwriting and pitched songs throughout the 90s. He also helped record the first album for The Kentucky Headhunters, which eventually went platinum. He toured with that band for five years as a front-of-house engineer and production manager.

After that, as an escape from constant touring, Joe taught himself to write computer code and develop business apps. After a successful career in technology, he retired in 2022 to once again pursue music full-time.

More recently, Joe released his first album, “Everybody’s Here,” featuring 12 original tracks. Subsequently, he also released three singles, “Clear Sky,” “Cinderella at 12:01,” and “Something Beautiful” to all the major music streaming services.

Learn more about Joe and listen to his music here at linktr.ee/nashvillejoe and NashvilleJoe.com.

Jimbeau Walsh | Jimbeau moved back to Nashville in 2022 after living in Hawaii for nearly 30 years. Originally from Chicago, he grew up playing music as a drummer gigging in a variety of bands and as a studio musician.

In 1976 he started a band in Nashville with Tommy Goldsmith, Walter Hyatt, Steve Runkle, and Champ Hood called The Contenders, whose 1976 re-released, remixed and remastered album was voted Reissue MD Album of the Year by the Nashville Scene. He later worked with David Olney, Steve Earle, Leon Russell, WT Davidson, Walter Carter, Yvonne Elliman, and many other songwriters as a drummer doing gigs and session work. He started writing songs in his teens and continues to receive, write, and explore music as well as play the occasional drumming gig.

He is an ordained Divine Love Christian minister and has officiated more than 3,000 weddings and vow renewals in Hawaii. These days he also facilitates weekly prayer and meditation sessions where he shares his music and gives spiritual talks to many groups inclusive of all religions and denominations from the point of view of God’s love.

He loves sharing songs and stories with other songwriters most especially on Thursday mornings at the Westminster Café and has an upcoming album release titled “Reliable Roses.”

David Harper | After two decades of raising a family, David came to Nashville at the nudging of an old friend, Lauren Ellis. He visited the town to play drums for her several times. The landscape of music professionals drew him in. He hoped he could erk out a living producing music here. Instead, he was hired as a staff writer for Twist Of Lemon Music on Music Row in his first month living in town. This was just dumb luck — 2008 was a crazy year in town. Napster was a nagging reality, but streaming hadn’t evolved to collapse the indie publishing model, so David became extremely busy writing on a great team with pedigreed writers, working in writing rooms with Larry Wayne Clark, Dewayne Blackwell, Karen Staley, Joe Sins, Adam James, CJ Watson, Bill Anderson, and more.

Artists and co-writer clients came in from mostly out of town. Each writer on the team would write one song with them. If things clicked, sometimes they would write a second or third song with clients. The goal was to take 10-12 songs, pick the best 3, and record them with Kenny Royster, Kent Wells, or other talented producers. To his surprise, David’s songs got recorded often, and he became one of the favored writers in-house. A few songs have had strong radio play around the world, but the major domestic “hit song” for terrestrial radio remains elusive.

His music streams all over the world in restaurants, malls, fashion shops, etc. David has had a small project studio in town called “Dave’s Cave,” where he often teams up with friends and fellow writers.

Some of David’s original songs with the best metrics (play count):

• Badadaduh (David Harper) 1M+

• Blessed Is The Storm – instrumental/vocal (David Harper) 1M+

• Blue Sky (David Harper & Jennifer Mandell)

• Days Like These (Louis Biancaniello & David Harper)

• Deep Breath (David Harper & James McGoff)

• Feels So Right (David Harper & Danika Golombek) 1M+

• Go For A Ride (Harper)

• I Get It Now (David Harper, Joe Sins, Chet Blum)

• Life’s A Pool – duet (David Harper)

• Our Girl (Harper & Priest)

• Still About A Boy And Girl (David Harper)

• The Other Side (David & Hayley Harper)

• This Is Good (David Harper) 1M+

• Vino – instrumental (Harper & Ristrim)

• Walk With Me – spiritual (David Harper) 1M+

• Where Ya Goin’ Now Rachel (David Harper)

• Where You Were (David Harper & Adam James)