Georgia Middleman's love affair with music is evident in every song she sings. Her songs blend passion and insight into the human condition with powerful melodies in a combination that hearkens to the timelessness of classic American popular music.
Faith Hill, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire, Terri Clark, Joe Nichols and Tracy Lawrence are among the many artists who have recorded her songs, but her fans know best the magic that she herself can bring to them. Live, she wraps one of music's most expressive voices around lovingly crafted glimpses into life and love at their most compelling.
Nowhere is that magic more effectively captured than in “Things I Didn't Know I Knew,” her most recent CD. It finds her bringing her unmistakably deft touch to love, both at its most sensual, as in "I'll Take What I Can Get," the cool and sexy "I Couldn't Have Said It Better," and the sultry title cut, and at its most tragic, as in "Death By Perfection"; to the miraculous joy of parenthood, in "The Best Thing"; and to the transcendent power of the human spirit, in "Gypsy When She Dreams," among others. Throughout, the intimacy and empathy of her approach make for a powerful musical statement.
The record was an outgrowth of her connection with fans through her live shows.
"I try songs out with audiences," she says, "and I take note of the ones that really resonate. These audiences are not made up of people in the music business--they're people who just love music. When they consistently like a certain song, I know I’m onto something."
Two songs in particular formed the cornerstones of “Things I Didn't Know I Knew.”
"I had 'The Best Thing,' about having a child, and 'That's What I'm Talking About,' and I kept getting requests for them, "she says, "and I thought, 'It's time to make a new record.' They worked so well live and I knew they deserved to be heard. I did it my way, orchestrating the songs with some wonderful musicians, and it was so much fun."
The joy of making music is something she has known nearly all her life, and her talent was evident almost as early. The day she took her first guitar lesson, she was asked by her teacher to join his rock band--she was 10.
"They were all grown men," she says. "We were called Sutter's Gold Street Band with Boogie Allen. We did Beatles songs, Eagles and all kinds of pop and rock stuff. We each made $25. I cut my teeth on that band and I learned if you always have standards in your repertoire, you can sit in anywhere."
Her parents had her do just that, taking her to restaurants that had bands and having her sit in. "After I got used to it," she says, "I found that I could adjust to just about any situation." Soon she was sitting in every weekend at the Texas Star Inn in San Antonio. She was also learning how to write.
"When I was 12," she says, "I heard the song 'Inside' by Ronnie Milsap and it blew me away how that songwriter could turn a phrase, or in this case, a word, so many different ways. I realized something beautiful about song structure and I wanted to do whatever THAT was."
She studied the craft and listened to everything from Joni Mitchell to Gershwin, soaking in the best from every era and strain of popular music, finding herself drawn to the honesty of country lyrics and the rich expressiveness of pop melodies.
At 13, her father took her to Nashville, where an executive told her, "Go home and be a little girl. If you want to do this when you're 18, come back." Even at that young age, she understood the value of that advice and did just that.
Her love of music competed with a love of acting in high school--"It was something I was good at"--and she earned a scholarship to NYU, where she was a theater major who kept alive the musical side of her talent playing with a band in different clubs in Manhattan. Then, she visited a high school friend in Nashville and “That’s when everything changed. I fell in love with this town because it was a community of writers. 'Now I get it,' I thought. It's like a bug that bites you. I’ve got to be here."
She moved and got a job in a show at Opryland, a time she calls "the most innocent part of my life. Two friends and I palled around Nashville and it was safe and fun and sweet. There was no pressure and we all wanted to do our own thing and to be stars." Friends from those shows included John Rich, Chely Wright, James Bonamy and Dean Sams of Lonestar. One by one, they began getting breaks.
It took five years to the month after she moved to Nashville to land her own publishing deal at Polygram, a period in which she also waited tables and recorded better and better demos.
"I treated it as a job long before I got paid for it," she says. "I would wait tables at night and write and demo my songs in the day. By the time I got a publishing deal I had pitch-ready songs, ready to go."
She would quickly land cuts with Radney Foster, Martina and others. Her knockout live performances were also serving her well, and a showcase earned her a record deal with Giant Records. After four years of waiting for her record to come out, the very month it was to finally bow, Giant Records closed their doors. At that point, Georgia decided the only way to have more complete control over her fate as a recording artist was to release her own records on her own label. Thus, Middle Sister Records was born.
As would be the case with “Things I Didn't Know I Knew,” her first independent record “Unchanged” would be anchored by two truly exceptional tracks--"Table 32" and "Now That You've Met Molly." The former, about a world-weary waitress and an May-December couple, and the latter, a thoroughly modern look at a single mom's attempt to establish a romance, spoke volumes about her abilities as a first-rate story-teller and helped cement her reputation as both writer and artist.
She has never lost her desire to improve her craft nor her love for all kinds of music.
"I love Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra and the way they could interpret classic lyrics and beautiful melodies," she says. “I love Randy Newman for introducing me to what he calls the ‘untrustworthy narrator.’ His lyrics are brave, bold, colorful and honest. Sometimes so honest that it’s frightening to the ear, but that’s what makes it work for me. Choosing the unpredictable but more interesting angle. I dig Gershwin’s torch songs; I started writing songs that tried to emulate that style. Those artists have inspired me to get more simple with my writing. The goal has always been to say the most with the fewest words possible."
“Things I Didn't Know I Knew” captures Georgia at her best, showcasing an artist at the height of her power and music of uncommon breadth and depth.
For more information, please visit Georgia at www.georgiamiddleman.com
hi there georgia.....thanks so much for the add. i really appreciate it. i feel so lucky to get to be living my dream at 15.... singing and meeting new people along the way, like you:) hope you had a great thanksgiving! hope to see you at the bluebird!
HEY GEORGIA. I'D LOVE TO SEE YA AT THE BLUEBIRD ON THE 17TH, IM GETTING THERE SUPER EARLY TO TRY AND GET A SPOT. COME HANG OUT IF YOUR NOT TOO BUSY. TAKE CARE.
Since you’re one of my friends… I thought you'd want to know- I’m starring on a TV show on CMT in August! To get all the details, enter your email address on my red & brown email sign up box on my MySpace page!. I’m psyched about being on it and I have a feeling you’ll love the TV show! Ha! Sage Keffer .com PS Country legend, Lee Roy Parnell, just left me a great note. See my top blog. It's incredible to get such a great endorsement from him!
Dear Georgia, Thank you very much for friendship. I realy love your voice and your music. You're so beautiful, sensitive, gifted. Hoping see you one day on stage in Paris or USA. Wishing all the best for you, success and love. Sending you many kisses.
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