Rising Stars: Meet Lindsay Harper

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lindsay Harper.

Hi Lindsay, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Lindsay Beth Harper is a country music singer-songwriter from the mountains of Blue Ridge, GA, who moved to Nashville in 2019 to further pursue her songwriting career. She combines sounds of traditional and modern country music with poetic, lyric-driven songs and emotionally textured vocals to create a uniquely appealing sound.

Currently, she is busy bouncing back from the pandemic, filling up her schedule with live shows, co-writes, and recording sessions. She’s also building up her following in Nashville and networking with hit songwriters and rising artists like herself.

During the pandemic, Harper decided to learn how to produce her demos. For several months now, she has been releasing these new demos online, and building up her portfolio, working toward a new EP or full-length album soon. Her new music is inspired by love, heartbreak, and the struggles of trying to make true friends in Music City.

In 2019-2022, Harper not only moved to Nashville but also checked off some venues on her bucket list, making her debut at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA, and the Crimson Moon in Dahlonega, GA. She opened for Lee Greenwood at the Anderson Music Hall at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds in Hiawassee, GA in October 2021. She also played numerous songwriter rounds at the Commodore Grill and The Local in Nashville, TN: two very esteemed bars for established and up-and-coming writers alike.

In 2018, Lindsay crowdfunded and released her first fully self-written, country EP, A Woman Like That, to local acclaim. It is available on all your favorite streaming sites: Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc. The EP sold out of its very limited release of 300 physical copies.

In the first 10 years of her adult life, Harper performed at a lot of venues and festivals, including the 2013 Peach Drop NYE celebration in Atlanta and at the VIP Room at Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood in Atlanta for Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts, and Blake Shelton concerts for the 2013 summer concert season. That same year, Harper sang with the legendary Brenda Lee at Hiawassee, GA’s famous Anderson Music Hall, and worked as Pebbles the intern/on-air personality for the Moby in the Morning (now retired) country music radio show in Roswell, GA.

While in college at Kennesaw State University from 2011-2014, she worked with Zac Brown Band members, Coy Bowles and John Driskell Hopkins, in the Joel A. Katz Music and Entertainment Business Program.

In 2011, Harper was experimenting with pop/rock music. She released a self-titled EP, which showcased three songs from this discovery period in her music career. These songs were eclectic and all three distinct styles/genres. By popular demand, she recently put these songs back on streaming services as an anthology collection: The Singles 2008-2014.

In 2008-2010, Harper experienced some of the hardest times in her life, losing her father, and two grandparents in only a couple of years, this rough time in her life would go on to influence her to learn guitar and write songs as an outlet for her emotions.

At ages 9-11, Harper made appearances on major networks such as NBC’s America’s Most Talented Kid in 2003 and the PAX (now Ion) version in 2004 as a yodeling prodigy. Other notable acts that appeared on this show included Jordin Sparks, Hunter Hayes, Taylor Lautner, Tori Kelly, and JoJo. Although she did not win, this show would go on to garner Harper some minor fame early in her life.

Harper began singing at the age of six in front of audiences. Since that early age, she has never gone more than 6 months without performing for an audience. Her father and both her grandfathers were musicians, influencing her craft for years to come.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I would say from ages 5-11 was an amazing time in my life and career. I went from feeling like an outcast in school where all my classmates were athletes, to finally feeling like I had a purpose in my life. Of course, it came with bullying as the years went on. I didn’t fit in. My small stature and red hair made me a prime target. I also have severe social anxiety and panic disorder, and back then it wasn’t as normalized as it is now to take care of your mental health.

Middle school was terrible, as it is for most kids. I had gotten too old for the cute yodeling bit I was doing. I entered a phase where I felt ugly and untalented. I saw a guy on YouTube call it “Gifted Kid Syndrome” because when you achieve so much as a young kid, eventually everyone else is gonna catch up with you and you spend most of your time trying to chase that high again.

My dad started drinking heavily as well when I was in middle school, and he would get emotionally abusive, and it took a toll on mom and me.

In 2008, my high school let out at the end of May. In June, I turned 15 and got my learner’s permit, and just a week later, my dad went to the doctor. 4 weeks later he died pretty graphically, I won’t go into detail, in the house I grew up in. Mom witnessed it. I was asleep. That was the moment in my life when I felt my innocence disappear. No holidays or life events felt happy anymore. He grew up in a time when no one knew the repercussions of tanning and getting burned. My dad was a redhead like me. And my parents always made sure that I wore plenty of sunscreen.

I had to go back to school for the sophomore year just a couple of days after my dad passed. I was in a bad place mentally, but mostly in denial. I tried to pretend that the grief didn’t exist, which just made the grieving process take much longer.

A month after my dad died, my grandma Francie, who was like my second mom and my best friend, had a severe stroke. She was paralyzed on one side and had no will to live. I had a year to kinda accept that she was gonna go soon. She died in 2009 just a couple of months after my 16th birthday. And her husband, my grandpa, succumbed to his grief and Parkinson’s in 2010 and passed.

Mom and I moved to a new house and started a whole new life. I think it took me a good 10 years to fully process that period in my life.

Another hardship I had was with Moby in the Morning in 2013 as his college intern. By the way, he just passed away about a month ago. I made fans and learned a lot, but he was so mentally abusive that for the first time in my life I finally decided I needed therapy and medication for my anxiety. He told me that I wasn’t good at guitar and should never play it again.

I didn’t play my guitar for a year, but once I got past that, I never put it down again and got better. I kinda wish I could’ve communicated with him once more before he passed, but I didn’t know he was sick.

Other hardships that are more recent would be like moving up here to Nashville and getting scammed by so many contractors renovating my house. Mom and I lost quite a bit of money on things that got broken, stolen, or done completely wrong.

One contractor who came to help clean up the mess became a close friend of mine. He introduced me to so many people in the short time I knew him. Unfortunately had a random heart attack in 2021 and died.

COVID ruined everything for a lot of people, and it has been hard work trying to re-establish my regular shows. I feel like I’m just now kinda fully bouncing back. I had a romantic relationship then, too where I was cheated on, and that was also very difficult to come back from.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a country singer/songwriter, and performer. I would say I am more of a lyricist than a composer and more of a singer than a guitar player, but I do all of these things. I will always be proud of all the achievements I had as a kid. I was on the NBC show, “America’s Most Talented Kid,” when I was 9. I was performing festivals and fairs almost every weekend in my elementary school days.

I’m proud of my work with Moby even though it was traumatizing at times. I’m proud of working my butt off for the last ten years on getting out and gigging and finding my voice and my sound. I was never the greatest singer, and it took a long time for my voice to mature and develop. And I still forget sometimes that I’ve come a long way and how much work it took to get even just where I am.

My red hair has always set me apart from others. I will not ever dye it until I start to go grey. My red hair is a huge part of who I am, and I never wanna change that. Also, I try to bring my story and unique points of view to my music. So many songs have been written about every topic imaginable, and I always try to make a song unique in some way.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I think my determination to keep pushing and never give up is definitely what’s keeping me holding on to this dream.

There have been moments where I knew I should probably quit, but I wouldn’t let it happen. Each time I push through the hard stuff, something wonderful happens. I just keep telling myself to never give up.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.lindsaybethharper.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/lindsaybethharper
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/lindsaybethharper
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/lindsayharpermusic
• TikTok: @lindsaybethharper

Image Credits
Amber Cather Photography