Kane Alumni moving to Nashville to pursue music dream
KANE—Local country music artist Brianna Blankenship is playing her last shows in the area before leaving for Nashville to follow her dreams.
Blankenship has been singing and playing professionally for six years at venues throughout western New York and Pennsylvania. She has played as far away as Orlando, Florida and has been traveling to Nashville for the last four years or so. Down south she has been playing shows, writing songs, and making connections.
The catalyst of her music happened when she was encouraged to try out for the high school production of Footloose during her senior year at Kane
Area High School. She took the advice to audition and landed the lead role of Ariel.
Before that, she had sung in the high school chorus, but the musical inspired her to follow her heart. Looking back, she says that was the turning point when she realized that performing in front of a crowd was her passion, she just didn’t yet know how it would work.
After graduating from KAHS in 2016 she kept singing and began learning the guitar. She went to beauty school and obtained her New York and Pennsylvania cosmetology license to do hair. She took a job at a salon, but at the same time she started to play and sing for money on the weekends.
Blankenship’s sound was well received and the shows she played quickly overtook her job at the salon. She found a different job that allowed more room for her music and the pattern continued. It wasn’t long before she was earning a living on her shows alone.
The hard work paid off when she was noticed by a music scout from Nashville after posting a video of herself singing on Instagram. She was connected with a team from Nashville that helped her to produce her first two original songs, “Church” and “The Good Guy” in 2020.
She has since developed her voice and singing style even further and released three more original songs on her own: “Spinning”, "Lightweight", and her latest track “The Hardest Thing” which she wrote for her parents.
She said that leaving her family behind was the hardest part of leaving Pennsylvania. She privately gave the song to her parents for Christmas before releasing it to the public in January.
Blankenship made the decision to move to Nashville after planning it for the last few years. She was waiting for the right time. The last piece of the puzzle came together when her husband landed a job in his field in nearby Kentucky where the couple will live.
Although most people move to Nashville with hopes to hit it big and get famous, she says “As long as I can continue doing what I’m doing, write songs, record music, play my shows and play big shows once in a while..I’ll be content.”
Blankenship also had some advice for anyone with big dreams, “Don’t let growing up in a small town stop you from wanting to do big things. You can do anything you set your mind to. It was very hard to see that..until I did.”
Blankenship’s last performance in her hometown of Kane is Saturday, March 9 from 7-10 p.m. at The Wilds Sonshine Factory located at 3480 Route 6 West, Kane, PA 16735.
Follow Brianna’s journey on social media @BriannaBlankenshipMusic.