{"id":1227,"date":"2012-03-13T17:12:40","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T21:12:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/sites\/gsm_spr12\/?p=28"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:58:47","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:58:47","slug":"nashville-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/13\/nashville-connection\/","title":{"rendered":"Nashville Connection"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>University Alumni Leaving a Lasting Impression on The Music City<\/h3>\n<p>If you\u2019re a country music fan, chances are good that many of the tunes you hear every day on the radio were either written or performed by Georgia Southern alumni. Maybe your favorite is \u201cThe Dance,\u201d by Garth Brooks. How about \u201cHoney Bee\u201d by Blake Shelton, \u201cGimmie That Girl\u201d by Joe Nichols, \u201cFarmer\u2019s Daughter\u201d by Rodney Atkins, or \u201cWe Rode in Trucks\u201d by Luke Bryan?<\/p>\n<p>These lyrics, penned by University graduates who got their start performing in Statesboro\u2019s night spots, are now sung by some of the hottest talent in country music. They\u2019ve received such honors as ASCAP\u2019s Songwriter of the Year, the Song of the Year award from the Academy of Country Music, and countless Grammy and Country Music Association nominations.<\/p>\n<p>Alumni have performed hundreds of times at the Grand Ole Opry, hosted Sirius XM radio talk shows and one artist\u2019s gold single recently sold more than 128,000 tracks in just one week. Here, we present a tribute to our alumni whose dedication to their craft has rocketed them to stardom in The Music City and beyond.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>-Stories by Mary Beth Spence<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/lukeBryan60.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1528\" alt=\"lukeBryan60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/lukeBryan60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a><strong>Dream Big, Work Hard<\/strong><br \/>\nTalent and focus take Luke Bryan to the top of his industry<br \/>\n<a title=\"Dream Big, Work Hard\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/dream-big-work-hard\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1526\" alt=\"cookingStorm60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/cookingStorm60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><strong>Cooking Up a Storm<\/strong><br \/>\nElizabeth Cook writing songs and \u2018touring like mad\u2019<br \/>\n<a title=\"Cooking Up a Storm\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/cooking-up-a-storm\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/singingOnKey60.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1530\" alt=\"singingOnKey60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/singingOnKey60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><\/a><\/strong> <strong>Singing on Key<\/strong><br \/>\nSongwriter Dan Adams joins his peers for annual Key West festival<br \/>\n<a title=\"Singing On Key\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/singing-on-key\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1527\" alt=\"layingHitsBeddingfield60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/layingHitsBeddingfield60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><strong>\u00a0Still laying out the hits<\/strong><br \/>\nEric Lee Beddingfield<br \/>\n<a title=\"Still Laying Out the Hits\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/still-laying-out-the-hits\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1525\" alt=\"ASCAPHayslip60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/ASCAPHayslip60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><strong>ASCAP Songwriter of the Year<\/strong><br \/>\nBen Hayslip<br \/>\n<a title=\"ASCAP Songwriter of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/ascap-songwriter-of-the-year\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-1529\" alt=\"masterTunesmithArata60\" src=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/masterTunesmithArata60.jpg\" width=\"90\" height=\"60\" \/><strong>Master Tunesmith<\/strong><br \/>\nTony Arata has penned more than 600 songs<br \/>\n<a title=\"Master Tunesmith\" href=\"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2012\/03\/12\/master-tunesmith\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>University Alumni Leave a Lasting Impression on The Music City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-1227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-spring-2012"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}