By Steve Barnum, Studio M staff //
Born and raised in Odessa, Texas, singer-songwriter Brian Milson has called Nashville home for about a year now. Since then, he says life has been moving pretty quickly — and that’s a good thing.
Singer-songwriter Brian Milson in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Steve Barnum, Studio M)
“Moving here really made me fall in love with music all over again, just because this city is inundated with it, you know?” said Milson, 34. “I’ve met so many great people and so many just tremendously talented folks. This town makes you work really, really hard, because you don’t want to be left behind.”
On Oct. 13, Milson will release a new EP, “I’d Have to Kiss Ya,” and the title track has already broken the top 60 marks on the Music Row CountryBreakout chart.
Milson has come a long way since he first started performing a little over 10 years ago.
Milson went to the high school famous for “Friday Night Lights,” Permian High School. He played football for about a year and decided to switch to golf. Then, after joining the choir, he fell in love with music.
“That’s when it became more than just a desire for me,” he said. “I started writing songs when I got to college and started playing local bars around Lubbock. The rest is history. The day I graduated college, I jumped in the van, and we drove to a gig.”
That first gig would set Milson on a mission to try and make it big.
“I was a nervous wreck, but then after I got through my first song and heard the response … there was no better high, you know? Just pure joy, pure adrenaline, and that was it for me. That’s when the switch flipped and there was no other option,” said Milson.
Producer Anthony Smith has been lucky enough to work with such artists as Chris Young, Lonestar, Reba, Vince Gill and Donna Summer, and he puts Milson right up there with them.
“His music speaks to the kind of person he is,” Smith said. “He likes realness and down-to-earth songs. His music is like the cool, hip new stuff but laced in tradition.”
Milson plans to release a new EP every year and spend the rest of his time on the road. As he puts it, he just wants to spend his time “burning up the white lines.”
“I just want to play shows all the time and whatever else happens is wonderful,” he said.
Steve Barnum is a senior in journalism at Middle Tennessee State University and has written for MTSU Sidelines, The Greeneville Sun, Savannah Courier and the Marshall County Tribune. Follow him on Twitter at @steve_barnum.
Studio M, a project of the College of Media and Entertainment at MTSU, allows student journalists to be published statewide and nationwide. It’s made possible through grants and donations from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Tennessean and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
