Daily Inspiration: Meet Anthony & Lily Nguyen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anthony & Lily Nguyen.

Hi Anthony & Lily, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We’ve always been aspiring musicians! Ever since Lily and I were little, we dreamed of being able to tour around, write music, and be professional artists. But it wasn’t until we met each other that we realized we shared the same dream and could make it a reality.

I played guitar throughout my college years and had been in and out of many different bands. When Lily and I met and moved from Wisconsin to Tennessee, we started an acoustic folk/pop band called “The Smoky Nights.” Getting our music off the ground wasn’t easy, and it wasn’t even our biggest priority at the time. When we started in 2015, it was much more of a hobby since I (Anthony) was working as an Engineer, and Lily was finishing college at Tennessee Tech University.

Over the years, our band grew in popularity, and Lily graduated from college in 2019. After her graduation, we married and decided that we wanted to take our music more seriously – we quit our jobs. We started writing original music that would eventually become our first studio album, “Burning Bridges.” Now in 2022, we have a second studio album released and are currently touring around the Midwest with the band.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being a full-time musician is not a smooth road! One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is dealing with the behind-the-scenes aspects of running our music as a business. As independent artists, we don’t have the backing of a label or a marketing team working with us. Between the two of us, we handle booking shows, graphic design, marketing, creating events, organizing practices with the band, creating setlists, and then actually playing the shows! There’s a lot that goes into maintaining our online presence and also our music itself. It’s absolutely a full-time job.

It’s also been challenging balancing the type of shows we play and finding our identity as a band. We started years ago as a cover band playing bar shows, and now with two albums recorded, we’re also trying to establish ourselves as an original band. When we tour out of state, we play mostly originals, but we also have to appeal to different audiences at specific venues. We’re a wedding band, a bar band, an acoustic duo, and an original band – and that’s a lot of music to keep track of.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Our musical style is somewhere in between folk, rock, and pop music – and our instrumentation is primarily acoustic instruments. So we’re a regionally touring band called The Smoky Nights. The band consists of violin, mandolin, acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and 2 lead vocalists. My wife and I (Lily & Anthony Nguyen) are the band’s vocalists. We’ve been married for 3 years and have also been professional musicians for 3 years. We’re very proud of our original music! Currently, we have 2 studio albums released, “Burning Bridges” (2019) and “Waking Up in Wonderland” (2021) – those albums are available everywhere online. The songs on those projects have original lyrics & music; the band recorded them in Nashville, TN, and Muscle Shoals, AL, respectively. I would say that “Burning Bridges” is more of a pop-oriented album, and “Waking Up In Wonderland” is more on the folk/rock side.

In my opinion, what sets us apart from other artists is the wide variety of music we play at shows and maybe the instrumentation of our band. I think most bands with a violin & mandolin would tend to play either bluegrass, folk, or country music, and that’s not our style. So we arrange pop songs & classics to fit our instrumentation, but we still keep the spirit of those songs without changing their genre. Lily and I have also been very inspired by R&B and soul music, so we try to add that flavor into our music!

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
Our music career relies on the continued support and encouragement of our family, friends, fans, and venues. We just wanted to give a shoutout to a few organizations. County Q Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, was where we recorded our first studio album. The team at County Q was instrumental in helping our vision for our original music become a reality.

MMA Creative is a company in Cookeville, Tennessee, that organizes food sports competitions all over the country. They were one of the first companies to believe in our musicians’ performance, allowing us to have our first experience playing music on the road in Dallas, TX, in 2019.

The city of Cookeville, TN, has supported our music career, and we’re lucky to live in an area where local & regional musicians can thrive. Whether we’re playing local festivals, supporting other local artists, or just bringing people together – we are glad to have the support of this city.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thesmokynights.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesmokynights
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSmokyNights
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesmokynights
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheSmokyNights
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4z1WfzN59pZ2MXFdKt6IEv

Image Credits
Photographers: Matthew Antoniak, Lisa Gong, Hailey Allen, Kristen Drum, Stephanie Joy, Claudia del Rivero