Songwriters for th Christmas Music and Art Fundraiser
December, 2026
WT Davidson
WT was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, where he cut his teeth playing local spots like The Mill and the Sanctuary. He moved to Nashville in the fall of 1974, having neglected to graduate from college. WT put himself to work as a performing songwriter right off and had the good fortune to have his song “Paintin’ This Old Town Blue” recorded by Crystal Gayle in 1977, and “The Blues Don’t Get Tired of Me” by the great Millie Jackson a few years later.
His biggest thrill as a songwriter came when Ray Charles recorded “They Call It Love” in 1984. He is also very proud to have both “She’s Real” and “Gee, I’m Glad I Worried About That” recorded by the late Michael Johnson, a unique talent and great friend.
WT has played with his band “The Bad Eggs” and as a solo artist from the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville to The Speakeasy in New York City to the Green Awning in Portland, Oregon.
Jimbeau Walsh
Jimbeau Walsh moved back to Nashville in 2022 after living in Hawaii for 27 years. Originally from Chicago, he grew up playing music as a drummer, gigging in a variety of bands and as a studio musician. He started writing songs in his teens and to this day continues to receive and explore music. 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) and 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 to this day continues to receive, write, and explore music as well as playing the occasional drumming gig.
He is an ordained Divine Love minister and has officiated over 3000 weddings and vow renewals in Hawaii. These days he also facilitates weekly prayer and meditation sessions where he shares his music as well as giving spiritual talks to many groups, inclusive of all religions and denominations, from the point of view of God’s love as a Celestial medium.
He loves sharing songs and stories with other songwriters, most especially on Thursday mornings at the Cafe and has released 3 albums: Blessed Doodles, Reliable Roses, and most recently The Descent of the Celestials.
His website is Jimbeauwalsh.com
Glenn Rhodes Burke
Glenn is a Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and musician whose Americana sound draws on country, rock, cosmic cowboy country, folk, and blues. With Texas roots and California sand in his boots, he writes songs about the highs and lows found along life’s highways and dirt roads. About a decade ago, Glenn formed Marshall Rhodes. The band’s self-titled album reached the top 30 on the Americana radio chart. Glenn played guitar and sang alongside Michael Lehman (guitar and vocals), Michael Godwin (bass and vocals), Austin DeLone (keyboards), and Adam Berkowitz (drums, vocals, and producer). Glenn’s song “This Perfect World” appeared in the Warner Bros. film The Postman. His music has also been featured in several independent films, including an award-winning animated short made with artist Craig Frazier and the surf documentary The Women and the Waves.
Ed Branding
Though he is no longer the golden-throated boy tenor who grew up in the Belle Meade Methodist Youth Choir, Ed continues to combine church life and music. Tuesday mornings at 9:30, he plays for the Mah Jong players in the Cafe the instrumentals he writes. And on Thursdays at 10:00, it's sung songs with the members of the Cafe's song circle. While melody is his forte, he is open to lyrics emerging if they are in the mood. Words or no, his soft touch creates a recognizable, signature sound addressing church music and songs of lost love. He doesn't play out much beyond the church walls and a couple of charity fundraisers — no website, no CDs, no gig list, no merch — so this is a chance to hear one of Westminster's own in our church home.
Frankie Staton
From a young age, Frankie Staton awoke singing songs she heard in her dreams. Between 1977–1981, she nurtured her innate musical gifts as a singer and pianist performing at the High Point Market, the world’s largest home furnishings trade show, where she reached a global audience of 70,000–80,000 attendees from over 00 countries during her formative years.
Inspired by that exposure, Staton relocated to Nashville in 1981, where she became a resident performer at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel & Convention Center while also appearing in many of the venues that helped define Music City. Her piano-forward storytelling approach—the intersection between country, americana, jazz and singer-songwriter traditions—was ahead of its time, particularly as an African American woman navigating a genre resistant to change.
Despite industry resistance, Staton carved out lasting visibility, performing for 10 years on The Ralph Emery Early Morning Show and making multiple appearances on Nashville Now. In 1997, she challenged a New York Times assertion that diversity did not exist in country music by founding the first Black Country Music Showcase at the Bluebird Café. Within five years, the platform elevated more than 60 country artists of color nationwide, creating opportunities where few had existed.
On February 7, 2023, Staton made her Grand Ole Opry debut, using the moment to honor artists of color whose dreams never materialized in earlier eras. Her cultural impact is further recognized through inclusion in the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum’s American Currents: The State of the Music – Unbroken Circle exhibit series. Her story and advocacy have been featured in Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as the Amazon documentary For Love & Country and the Hulu documentary CMA Fest: 50 Years of Fan Fair.
Today, Frankie Staton continues to write and perform music that moves fluidly between genres—country, Americana, jazz, singer-songwriter, and cinematic soundscapes—using songwriting and storytelling to both entertain and educate audiences worldwide.
Joe Irrera
Joe Irrera is a Nashville singer-songwriter writing country, folk and Americana songs with a lifetime of stories behind them.
Raised in a small town near Woodstock, NY, Joe studied composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston, then spent a decade writing, performing in bands and teaching guitar around New England. He moved to Nashville to write full-time and pitched his songs throughout the ’90s.
Along the way, he helped mix Pickin’ on Nashville, the double-platinum debut album by The Kentucky Headhunters, then toured with the band for five years as front-of-house engineer and production manager.
Looking for a break from life on the road, Joe taught himself to code and built a long career developing business software. In 2022 he stepped away from tech to return to music full-time, releasing his debut album, Everybody’s Here, that same year. Since then, he has released a string of singles, and his new album, Prayer for America, is due out in early 2027.
Today Joe is writing and co-writing in Nashville, playing shows around town, and getting Prayer for America ready for release.
Learn more and listen at NashvilleJoe.com.
Debra Griner
Debra Griner’s passion for music began in her childhood home in Bergen County, New Jersey, where her father’s guitar and record collection filled the house with country, folk, and Broadway classics. She picked up the guitar at 12 and later found her greatest inspiration in Joni Mitchell, whose songs and chord voicings shaped her songwriting style.
Drawn to both music and theatre, Debra studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, performing in Off-Broadway productions and cabaret venues. Her work in educational theatre led her to teaching, but songwriting ultimately pulled her back, taking her to Nashville in 2022. There, she quickly connected with the songwriting community and has been embraced by respected writers such as Country Music Hall of Fame member, Rory Bourke, Buddy Mondlock, along with Grammy winners Steve Leslie, Jon Vezner and Don Henry - the latter providing back up vocals and Leslie co-producing her most recent project, A Place To Start.
Her music has been featured on WMOT’s Finally Friday, WDVX’s Blue Plate Special, and other outlets. Folk legend Tom Paxton once described her work as “This is what a smile sounds like,” while John Apice at Americana Highways, praised her as having a “country-inflected voice of a calico angel.”
Debra leads the weekly song circle here at Westminster and is especially happy to share this evening of music and Christmas Carols with her fellow songwriters and the Westminster community.
Lisa Aschmann
Bio and picture to come!