Songs and Stories #188: Nashville’s Renee Wahl

Sometimes, the long way around turns out to be the straightest path. Nashville’s Renee Wahl came from a military family and served 12 years in the air force. Then with a physics degree in hand, she eventually became a teacher. But since the age of six, Renee had been playing and writing music. She eventually worked her way to a position near Nashville. Music was always in the background – and in her crosshairs – and rightly so. These days she’s a full-time, touring songwriter. Renee has a classic country voice, and she’s armed with an admittedly dark sense of humor (which often balances well with her Nashville cowriters). She’s on the road – a lot – either with her full band, the Sworn Secrets, or just her her percussionist David Strayer. (Touring as a duo a drummer as her side person enables them to play either small, intimate rooms, or put some volume behind it for larger venues.) I met Renee a few months ago when she was a guest on KPIG radio’s live music show “Please Stand By”, and I was cohosting. Renee makes frequent trips to the west coast, so we decided to meet the next time she was in town for a proper, lengthy sitdown chat. In this interview, we chat about touring logistics, how the meaning of a song can change as you’re performing it, and how we as songwriters are in the pursuit of “micro-cents” (a term I just learned) in today’s world of streaming music platforms. This episode includes “Meds,”, off Renee’s latest release, “Cut To the Bone” and live take on her song “Me Before You”, also off her new record. You can purchase and download Renee’s songs from iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.