Tia McGraff, award winning singer/songwriter, joins David Delmar to share her experiences navigating the world of music saying: My conscious is all about answering the calling from God to create music. Her perspectives about staying true as an artist and the wonderful experiences, relationships and connections it creates is where the real payoff comes from. She freely shares how changing who she was going to be around made such an impact in her life and how she wants others to know how important it is to be around positive people. So listen in and get advice and powerful wisdom from an accomplished artist and begin to ask the question, “What are my conscious and my songs saying about me?”
Hello, this is David Delmar, your host of SuperPower Creatives, and you’re listening to our episode ‘My Conscious and My Songs’. I believe everyone is a creator and it’s this inherent birth right that’s our source of superpowers. Stepping into this personal authority is scary though, this show celebrates creatives that stay true to who they really are, making a living using their creative superpowers. The stories they share will excite and inspire listeners to do the same, making positive change in the world.
It is my sincere excitement to introduce our guest for today’s show. She’s someone whose audiences listening to her music, and children who adore her books, all whom benefit from her artistic insights and vision. Hailing from just South of Toronto, Ontario Canada. Tia McGraff is an internationally renowned, award-winning Americana singer songwriter and author. Accompanying Tia, along her music journey is her life and music partner Tommy Parham. They both met and got married in Nashville, Tennessee and have enjoyed an extensive career performing, songwriting and recording together for more than 12 years.
The level of honesty they bring to their music has many considering them the modern day Johnny and June. 2015 to 2017 was a standout year as for Tia and Tommy, with sold-out shows around the world including the coveted Blue Bird Café in Nashville Tennessee. International acclaim for their CD release ‘Crazy Beautiful’ and radio play on notable shows like Top airs country, and on the BBC Radio two in the UK. With the 2018 release of ‘Stubborn In My Blood’, first single Strong is already reaching beyond all demographics and boundaries.
Having been adopted by Me2 and women empowerment groups around the world, a new single a cover of the classic ‘One Tin Soldier’ has sure light up radio summer playlist. Gifted author, Tia’s children book Jake the Road Dawg, has helped raise funds and awareness for her local chapter of the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Seven international CD releases, various film and TV placements and numerous nominations and awards, including Americana CD of the year, first round nominations for the 2016 Grammy awards, have earned Tia and Tommy respect in the music industry and a global fan base. The duo have a gift for getting to the heart of the matter, and writing relatable songs about life, love and this crazy world we live in.
Tia, hello, thank you so much for being here today.
Well that’s quite an introduction thank you.
You’re very welcome. Well, hey you earned that introduction, and that’s just my joy to be able to share with everybody that way.
Thank you for such an inspiring show and the opportunity, the vehicle for all of us to join together and share the gift of creativity, and positive creative juices flowing, right?
Absolutely, absolutely, and you’re most welcome, you’re most welcome. Well today we’re talking about our show, ‘my conscious and my songs’, particularly how Tia identifies with her conscious when writing songs and what she thinks about, utilizing songs to be outspoken about important issues. So, Tia, how we start the show off is possibly the obvious question but here it is. What is your creative superpower?
My creative superpower is God.
My creative superpower is God.
Amen.
My heavenly father.
Yes.
And yes faith has always been a very strong part of my life. I was raised Lutheran-
Me too.
Are you really?
I was too.
No! Well, that’s good for everyone in the Lutheran church, and my grandparents immigrated to Canada from Transylvania.
Wow! Wow! That’s cool.
And my mum side are Mcdonalds, and they came to Canada from Scotland two generations ago. But my grandma Hofgraff, my dad’s mum was always my little rock and she sang in the old country, she’s a very strong faithful, and when I moved to Nashville grandma would call me on the phone and I’d say, “Oh Grandma I’m feeling homesick,” and she’d say, ”Oh Tia you’re doing the dream for both of us.”
I love your grandma.
And so I’ve been blessed to have a strong faith and a strong family core, and that’s helped me through many years in the music industry, trying to find my voice, trying to maintain true to myself, also at the same time sharing with my fans and my friends around the world, what I believe we need to say, and we need to hear, and keeping the music real. Not selling out to what I just think music could and would wanna hear, or what would get us maybe higher accolades or whatever. But at the end of the day I wouldn’t feel as accomplished or that I had been as true to myself.
Wow, I mean that’s spoken right out of the proverbial book that this whole show is founded on. Because staying true to who you really are and when music is right there, and the powers that be within that container that’s Nashville, to maintain that solid ground is really a strength that, though they may not mention it or say it or indicate it, there’re many that see that, and there’s many that has a ripple effect throughout that community, that I think are being well served by your staying true to who you really are, and that voice you found, and that you’re just saying. “I’m gonna stay true to this voice regardless of what could get me maybe more accolades, more known within the music industry.” And I just love that-
Thank you
That’s empowering. You’re welcome
Thank you David, well I met Tommy, I had started in Canada then I moved to Nashville and I met Tommy my husband and partner in music. He had a publish staff writing deal at the time.
Cool.
And he was doing very well down there, and I had some songs published with him and I had been doing writing with people like Randy Bachman from Guess Who, and-
Absolutely.
Bachman Turner Overdrive. So Tommy and I were introduced by his publisher. We start to write songs and what we really loved about each other was that we had a message, and it was different than the norm, And we had a few songs cut, we had few songs placed in T.V. and film, when we decided to pursue the artist aspect of my career, and get back into it because I had given up for a while. We sat down with one of Nashville’s top songwriters and a friend of Tommy’s and mine and Jeffrey Steele, and Jeffrey is amazing. I mean he sat me down with us at a Starbucks and he said,” Listen you guys, I’ve listened to your music and it’s brilliant, it’s amazing.” But he said, “But you know what, you probably gonna need to get out there and find your audience base, because it’s not going to hit the mainstream music world, what they’re looking for.”
And so we were kind of devastated to hear that kind of news.
Sure.
I said, “Well gosh I just moved here, what does this mean?”
What does this mean? Yes.
So we kinda found, it was very interesting, I just start booking us gigs. I just said, “Let’s try this out.” And we went to the midwest and Tommy’s from Colorado originally, and so we started hitting Kansas, Colorado, parts of the Panhandle Texas whatever, and kind of Johnny Cash’s little territory, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
We implemented farming stories.
And we found that people loved it, they loved the story songs. I grew up in a rural interior Canada, so we implemented farming stories, things like that and strong faith messages, people loved it. And we just kept true to our music then in our message, and I think that’s what we captured in ‘stubborn in my blood’. I mean it’s my artist album, I believe this one is our masterpiece.
Love it. You just pick all the right words for the show, I love that. Well that’s awesome, awesome stuff here, we gonna take a quick break cause I really wanna hear more about this, more your sharing and how others might be able to discover how they can apply the types of insights that has kept you so strong and grounded, and finding the right people for your music and finding the right people to be in your life ultimately.
Absolutely which is so important.
Yes it is, yes it is. Well before we jump into the break let’s tell people where they can find out more about you.
My website is tiamcgraff.com and off course am on social media, there’s Tia Mcgraff North America fan club on Facebook, Tia McGraff is my personal one which I don’t care, I have my friends and fans there, so you can find me through any of those locations.
Fantastic. Well Alright, so we’ve been talking with Tia McGraff on our episode ‘My conscious and my songs’. We gonna take a quick break and when we come back we gonna talk about how we might reflect on these types of ideas, how to start living a life that’s reflective of your conscious view points. So stay with us and we will be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
Music Credit: Words and Music written and performed by David Delmar. Engineered and produced by John Keenan.
Podcast: Play in new window
