Check Out CJ Field’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to CJ Field

Hi CJ, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
let me see…

in 1987, I was born the youngest in a household of 6 siblings in rural western Massachusetts. large gap in age so it resulted in a lot of alone time to use my imagination. Also had the advantage of watching my siblings do a lot of things so I was pretty good at just about everything I tried. Though nobody was a “musician” in the family, music flowed through everyone in my house. Everyone, including my parents, had a love for music. My siblings influenced me a lot in many ways and while performing was always a natural thing for me, as I got older I focused more on sports. In middle school, my first guitar entered the story but stayed mostly in my bed room. my folks switched to a rival school and subsequently the new kid started getting into a lot of fights. By high school, I began to focus on the sport of wrestling and made friends my age for the first time since grammar school.

at 17 years old, my best friend and practice partner was murdered in cold blood. This changed everything. That next season I went on to earn All-American honors (top 8 in the country) in the 171lb division and then deferred from my first year of college to be home for the trial as a character witness and slow down and process what happened. In that year I visited an open mic hosted by my old technology teacher who coerced me into getting up and singing. It was then I rediscovered performing. People liked it. a lot. I was addicted, Unfortunately, at the same time, I drank and partied for the first time and made many mistakes that led to arrests, jail, and probation for what would be 3.5 years and 6 without a drivers license. All of this had to come to a screaching halt upon the news that I would be a father. it was time to get a job. I tried going back to school without wrestling but the motivation for class without sports wasn’t the same. I was still immature. I ended up failing “guitar 1” and “poetry 1”. (kinda funny for a current Grammy, ACM, and CMA nominated songwriter). Meanwhile, my music had grown popular enough locally to now need a band almost full time. I was taking gigs as they came in anywhere with no clue where it was going. I honestly was just addicted to the feeling of getting my pain out on the mic.

In 2008, after a near death experience of my own and a week in ICU, I was selling timeshares in the berkshires when I got a WILD opportunity to go on the road playing rhythm and harmonies in a southern rock artist/band from Macon, GA where I was told there would be sponsorships, housing, touring etc. I got support from my family as the kids were literally just born. I mean, how often does an opportunity like this happen in a small town? the answer is NEVER. However, I moved to Macon to find out that there was no tour, no sponsorships, no fender deal and housing was a very temporary situation. I didn’t have the heart to tell my parents how big of a flop this was. so I literally learned how to live with nothing. I lost tons of weight. knocked on doors and found gigs. Stood on corners with immigrants hoping to get selected for daily labor work, learned how to play slide guitar, learned about the allman brothers and otis redding. lived off of one free sandwich a day, did side jobs for cash and built a name for myself until I could go back home with some dignity. I could write chapters on this time on my life so I’ll cut it short and let you ask if you want.

At this point, I dont have the luxury to live as a starving artist in GA with two kids at home. so I moved back home in 2009/10 with loads of experience under my belt and the ability to play in Macon whenever I want but deciding to pursue opportunities up North in NYC as its not a far drive from home and in the meantime worked for family and sold timeshares some more. hated it. didnt last long. It was around this time I got to sit in with blues legend Little Sammy Davis a few times and was even able to accompany him to Levon Helm’s midnight ramble in Woodstock, NY where I sat behind the drums and watched one of my biggest musical influences play his entire set.

Then in 2011, while playing acoustic at a private party in Williamstown, MA I meet someone who to tells me I NEED to go to Nashville with my talent because i’m a songwriter and thats where songwriters go and my talents are being wasted playing people’s birthday parties. So with some pushing from this person and again, the support of my family and friends and fans, I decided to give music city a try.
I got shit-lucky. flat out. it just so happened that I had already gotten my ass kicked in GA, so when I got my chances to get up at my first writers rounds and my first broadway slots….I was ready. My second night in town I met a songwriter named Trent Tomlinson. I ended up going to see Trent at a place called the Blue Bar for Bobby Pinson’s “sing for your supper”. It was that night I met Terri Jo Box, Blue Foley, Randall Clay, Ashley McBryde, Eric Torres, Roger Hodges..pretty much all of my friends now. I quickly moved in with Blue and Randall to help cut back on expenses and dove right in to “the life” , periodically coming home for important dates and taking care of things. Again, I was lucky to make great friends and get great advice right off the bat, so I was able to get off the doom loop of broadway and began booking shows on the road to actually get paid real money. Sometimes solo and sometimes as a two piece roots/rock band called “The Delta Riot” with former Josh Thompson drummer Jme Christian. This schedule left my weekdays open to write in Nashville and then every Tuesday we would meet up at a dive bar to sing our songs to each other at a writers night hosted by Terri Jo Box. This show still exists today twice a week at The Local in Nashville on 28th ave as one of the longest running writers nights in town called “The Music Row Freakshow” hosted by TJ. (Freakshow is named after my song “Greatest Show On Earth” co-written with Box and Ashley McBryde)

In 2014, Even though things were going really well for me and you would think I was on the right path, things at home were complicated with co-parenting/family court/school/visiting the kids over skype to see new they’ve learned new words and it just began to be too much weight on my heart. I decided to literally make a deal with God. If I go home and focus on the kids and family just work and work and work…that maybe music would come back to me if it was meant to. So, I went back to Massachusetts for what I thought was the final time, leaving some belongings at my drummers house until I had the ability to come back and get them. I LEAVE NASHVILLE knowing it’s likely over this time.

In 2017, i’m working on a construction job doing finish carpentry for my brother’s company. i’ve paid off my debt, caught up on support, got a license, a bank account, built up enough credit to buy a house, then built good credit, then got a truck.. working in construction gave me something music never did. security. I had spent three years without leaving and no real gigs to speak of. Meanwhile Ashley was just starting to pop. She was on tour with Eric Church when the famous viral clip of her getting called up on stage happened. A star is born. I can remember talking with her while on the job and it was absolutely surreal. Around the same time, I got asked to do my first band show in 3 years and someone was willing to put up enough money to make it happen. But I had to go to Nashville and get my guitars and amps from Jme. While I was down there getting my gear, I met up with Ashley and we wrote “Home Sweet Highway” which would go on her Grammy, ACM, CMA nominated debut album “Girl Going Nowhere”. A record that would debut at #7 on Billboard. Things changed. I didnt come back to music full time yet, but now my phone calls would get answered.

– 2018 my friends chipped in and flew me to nashville to celebrate the life of my former roomate and cowriter Randall Clay.
-2019 I started my own contracting company with my brother, again not thinking I was going to be returning to music .
-2020 home sweet highway becomes an anthem for Ashley’s fans as shows are cancelled during the pandemic. Home Sweet Highway becomes the most streamed Opry Live performance to date at that time.
– a studio opens in my hometown giving me a place to record and work on my demos.
– I started making my demos at night gettin ready for the master escape plan. so I would work during the day, coach youth basketball or whatever after work, go home and once everything was settled and kids were asleep, I would sneak off to the studio to work on my stuff until I was exhausted.

– 2021 Ashley cuts “6th of October” for what would be her third album but it doesnt get released due to the “lindyville” album being dropped first. This year, I get to visit the Opry back stage and see my songs at the Ryman.
this also coincides with a new studio being built in my hometown for which I got hired to do work at. One thing leads to another, people say “hey you shouldnt be a contractor. why arent you doing what you love? we want to help you get some music recorded and do whatever you need to get out of this and into music again” and all at the same time, I started getting calls to play festivals and start writing again and even though it was scary because I was finally secure and doing ok…I just started saying yes. My friend Blue introduced me to Tracie Hitz who helped transition me out of contracting into music.

-2022- i’m able to leave my company by the end of the year. things blend together so i’m not sure if I have the timeline correct but from 2022 til now its been a dream. Ashley released “The Devil I know” which features “6th of October”. The song was recently performed on Good Morning America. She is now a member of the Grand Ole Opry. and i’m proud to say that my graduating class is all killing it! TJ has cuts with lainey, CoJo, Miranda, Ashley. Blue hosts a very succesful international writers festival, Eric Torres is a #1 producer now and co-produced my album with me.

in the last two years,I’ve been able to meet and write with legends..I’ve seen the opry stage, performed for NCAA football, nascar, PBR, oveseas twice, Tin Pan South, on the radio for the first time, put out my first singles, went on TV for the first time, had my song on national television for the first time, i’ve played literally as far west as Utah and AZ and all the way from Massachusetts to Key West Florida. we just did a showcase at the Local in Nashville where we were BLOWN away to see a full house of fans from Oklahoma, Kentucky, Ohio, GA, FL all wearing CJ merch. I’m not playing giant venues yet, but i’m now pulling up to sports pubs and dive bars and being surprised to find crowds of people who have driven or flown in to see me. Or being surprised to pull up to a place where people already know me. I’m soooooooo not used to this.

– 2024 I recorded and released my own full legnth Album made from the demos I started years prior. the album is currently available ONLY on vinyl. I’m trying to do things different than my peers. it takes 1500 streams to equal 1 mechanical sale. Instead of taking my album and dicing it out to singles and social clips like a cheap whore..and hoping to go viral so someone will pick me up….I made something I love and i’m performing it live to audiences wherever I can, i’m selling it at shows and on my website. its also different in that its a live recording, with real people. No tracks. No clicks. Ashley sings back ups on it as well as features from some of my favorite people like artist Shelly Fairchild and Sister Sadie singer Dani Flowers. I brought in choice people to accompany my bassist and I. whom I’ve been playing with since day 1.

my album is entitled Cannonball.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
god no. as fore mentioned, deaths, mistakes, arrests, substances, family, kids, health scares, lies, being broke, winning over crowds, transitioning from carpenter to singer songwriter fulltime, building revenue streams, starting a fan club…fighting the industry machine weekly. literally the entire thing is a chain of struggles. the logistics of being on the road, sleeping in cars or rotten motels…budgets…getting phone calls returned…making content, watching the machine help an artist and not allowing your heart to get broken….the whole thing is a chain of struggles. bottom line is, youre either in it or not. If you are, then you signed up for all of this. If you dont like it, you can go be miserable elsewhere and deal with the struggles of construction and want to quit that daily. Then get up at 5 am to pour concrete in freezing cold weather while some angry little super intendant screams at you about an unrealistic deadline that the owners and project manager have been pushing.. you can go do that if you want. if not….deal with it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
my stage presence…my honesty…. my story comes with me on stage. my show is a human experience. I think thats more important now than ever. it used to go without saying that a live show was in fact a human experience but we are drifting away form that all the time. The Honeymooners was shot in one take in front of a live audience. If there was a mistake or someone laughed, they HAD to make it work. Thats performance!! we are losing that. My show has no set list. ever. no papers on the floor, we have no devices mounted to the mic stands so we can read as we play, no ipads in front of our faces, nobody is listening to a track or a click in their ears. its me…with the audience. live.

also, I play multiple instruments. In one show, you may see me on piano, guitar, harmonica, drums, a horn etc…I produced my first projects myself and coproduced this current album with Eric Torres. Im writing the songs, playing, recording, producing, performing, doing all my artwork myself (including painting the artwork for my album cover) right down to the submission for distribution. very few artists can literally go start to finish on every part of the song. as Kanye says “do the rap and the track. triple double no assist”. kidding I have assistance.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
With the mistakes i’ve made. The things and the people i’ve done wrong, the fact that I can be here doing this, in the greatest country on Earth and receive the blessings that I have, the family, the friends and fans, successes. my health. I owe that and my talents to he who gave his life for me on the cross, Jesus

my family. all of them .

Tom Corrigan – technology teacher who encouraged me as a youngster but also introduced me to performing years later at the open mic. gave me the acoustic I did my first road gigs with.

my drummer Jme Christian (jamie) huge in instilling a belief in myself.

obviously Ashley has been like a big sister through all this. I was staying at her house while I cut my record. lol

the Freakshow. the old Rusty Nail crew that became my graduating class. the family of songwriters and performers that lift eachother up and support one another.

my friend Chris Shrader I met playing downtown and he would always call and check on me even years later when I was doing carpentry. remind me its just temporary.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cjfieldofficial.com
• Instagram: @cj_field
• Youtube: @cjfieldmusic
• Other: https://patreon.com/cjfield