Hey, everyone. It's Kristina with the She's Brave podcast.
You guys, I have never been more excited to have today's three female guests on. They are freaking amazing. Even my husband is excited. Even my husband, like, Googled them. Even my husband watched them on YouTube and by the way, millions of people have watched them on YouTube.
And even my husband cried. Can you guys freaking even believe it, but they are amazing. Today's episode is going to be all about grit, the power of persistence and incredible female empowerment. Yes. Today's guests are none other than the country music band, Chapel Hart. Hey guys. Welcome. How are you doing?
I'm doing so awesome. I have so much more to share with my audience about all the things that have been going on with you guys and your history. And we got to dive into it. You guys have performed at the grand old Opry. I'm going to start with this one sentence. One of you said on America's got talent, ‘Ccountry music doesn't always look like us’.
Are you intrigued yet? With over 600, 000 followers on various social media platforms, Chapel Hart is an American Country music, vocal group from Poplarville, Mississippi. The group consists of sisters, Danica Hart and Devon Hart and their cousin, Tree Swindle, all of whom are vocalists. Chapel Hart has independently released three studio albums and 11 singles in July of 2022.
They competed on the 17th season of America's Got Talent, where they finished fifth. The group's most popular song is, you can have him, Jolene, an answer to Dolly Parton's song, Jolene. I freaking love that you guys. Now I want to talk about your beginnings because you guys all began singing together in 2014.
And you started performing literally on the streets of New Orleans, who even came up with this idea? And I know because I also teach podcasting and I've had podcasting students. One of them went live actually on an interview recently and he said how freaking terrified he was that on day one or two of class that I made him and everybody else record a trailer on the spot. How did you get the guts to come together and say, let's just try to start singing it on the streets of new Orleans. How did that happen?
How it happened it was random. I've been living in New Orleans for a while. And people were like, you should sing. Cause I just like just sing while I did stuff. I don't know. I call it like devotion in motion, like sing while I'm like working on something. And I was like, no, I know somebody who should sing. My cousin Danica, and it took about 2 years of trying to convince her to come to New Orleans because I like to say Mississippi and New Orleans are about 40 miles and 40 years apart.
And it's actually like a small town. It's like a different world. Yes, no, even from. When Tri and her sister, when they sent the first message, they were like, Danica, you should come down here. You should sing. You should come. It's so much culture.
It's so much music. You would just thrive here. You would love it. And literally, everybody who I would tell my hometown or my family. I was like, I think I'm gonna go down to New Orleans and try to think. They're like, no, you're not gonna make it. You're gonna die.
I'm not gonna die. You're gonna you're not gonna be. And I was like, you sure? Not even one day? Should I not try it? And so it took me like two years I was working at the hospital in popular bill. And if probably, if you get a job at the hospital, you've made it.
And so I lost my job at the hospital. So I was like, this is it. It's life is over. I've got nothing else to live for. Might as well go to the to send city but there was something in there. I'd been let go for a week. I was watching my money like the window down and I was like, this is it.
And I was like, I was like, but. If I've got 1 more thing, I was like, I'm ever going to be a real singer, at least to say that I tried it. I was like, I'm going to just see if this invitation is still extended from treating her sister and I'm going to just go down and see. And literally, I had 26 dollars.
I think 13 cents in my account and I drove down and we wrote down a list maybe 10 or 15 songs and we had this piano that ran off of we called her Bertha. A big piano Yamaha piano and it ran off of batteries. So we took it down the Royal street. Found the spotlight somewhere towards the end of the street.
We set up and our 1st, couple of songs that they were a little nervous, but roundabout song, number 3 or 4, people started to stop and listen and they put money in our I think we had a hat at the time. We didn't even bring a bucket with us. People started bringing money and put it in there and we were like, whoa. Okay. So we really enjoyed this. And so that was like, day 1. so I go, I went back home and. Yeah. I came back, I don't remember what it was, if it was like a week or a couple days and I came back and we did it again, a little bit more confidence this time.
And from song one, people started putting money in the bucket and they would stop. And I was like, you know what? And I was like, can I stay with y'all a few days and maybe I could do this a few days, make a little money and go back home? Back home. And that was in February and at the end of February and March the first, I was like, you know what?
I just gotta jump. I gotta jump and do this, it was just one of those things. I was like, I can't do part time. I was like, I've just got to be here and be in it. And if I got to take myself serious as a musician, and that's really, I believe, like, where it all begin. We were off to the races. It was finding a name finding out what color we were going to wear. And we were like, trying to, we were like, we've got to make this as professional as we can make it. I was like, I don't even know professional street singing as a thing but honestly I never thought that it would get to the point to where the days that we didn't go out and sing, Seeing not only people who were like visiting the area, but people who worked in the shops on Royal street, they were like, oh, my gosh, where were y'all somebody else set up in your spot.
And we had to listen to somebody else. And it was like, it became like a. A street family, or people would come on vacations to New Orleans and typically to see us, and they go visit wherever else and they come back a year later just to see us. It's I think that was the thing that I just couldn't wrap my brain around that people would like inboxes on Facebook with our with our like thousand fans and they were like, listen, we're coming back to new Orleans.
We want to make sure that we can catch all out. Are you going to be. Yeah, no, we'll be there. So that was the coolest thing. I don't know if I'd ever experienced anything like that as a street performer. And when I say performing on the street, I always say it's like the most honest crowd you will ever find.
Yeah. Because a hundred percent of the people are heading somewhere else. Like you're literally just on the wave somewhere. And sometimes people would stop and spend hours, like just listening to us on the street canceled dinner plans or Reasons they came to New Orleans. People's I was going to go see this show, but we're just going to hang out.
I'm going to call my friends. They're going to come over from the hotel and we're just going to hang out on the street. Yeah. Or they'd be, or they go to these really fancy restaurants with they, she's, they were like, people would tell us we've got a party of 32 that are here and we're supposed to be at dinner right now, but we cannot leave y'all like y'all saying we're going to cancel our plans with them. They would buy tickets to come to New Orleans to watch a show and they were like, it won't get any better than this. We're not going. And I was like, man, that is so cool. And I think that's just where it all begin for us.
When you watch somebody, give up their plans, or they plan this entire trip and the music and the joy that you have, and that you share is enough to make them say, look, I don't care about those tickets that we bought for our family. We're coming here to see you and that people would bring their kids back to come see us.
And we would play, we play all about that base or something like that and get the kids dancing and singing. They would come up and sing with us. And, I just don't think at the time we didn't realize what we were preparing ourselves for.
We didn't realize that we were preparing ourself for for the future Chapel Hart,
yeah, yeah, I was just going to say I love, there's just certain pieces that are just so powerful to me like Danica, how you said, it took me two years to have the courage to go to New Orleans and go to Royal street, which by the way, I just went for the first time in my life.
Loved Royal street. Love the shops. Love the shopkeepers. So beautiful. Love New Orleans. Loved everything about it. Had this incredible trip. But yeah, like it took you two years to be like, Oh, okay. I'll try to sing on the corner. And the first day didn't go that great. But you did it.
And once you got through that hurdle, it was like, that was just like this, the snowball starting, right? Like it's incredible. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of stuff. And I also love, I never thought about it that way, but the people on the street are. They're like a powerful form of feedback because they don't have to be there.
They can get up. They can just keep on walking. And and the fact that people were coming on their vacations to listen to you guys on the street. So but it's not been a short journey.
My husband and I, we just, we were watching this YouTube video.
Of 2022 and you guys are on America's Got Talent and it, you talk about how it's been, it was so hard to break into Nashville. You guys are a female black country group. So you know, tell us more about that journey.
Danica usually says you can't miss any steps. Sometimes you see people in it whenever they do literally shoot up overnight or over the course of a couple of months, it usually doesn't last that long.
It's because you really can't miss any steps. Like we literally went from playing our first show for catfish and potato salad to playing in a stadium. But I think it's hard for anybody breaking into, especially a place like Nashville, because you have to think about the influx of people.
Like. Thousands of people come there every single day just to do music. And then you have to figure out how to wade through there and, find your footing. And we're just, we're resilient, but I like to say we just hard headed. People say it won't work and we just do it anyways.
I love that so much. And I think it helps that there you have each other. You have that power of collaboration, right? Yes. Yes, you should. Yeah. Yeah. So that's super, super cool. And Devin, you've been really quiet. I was literally just thinking, I'm like, dang, they're just doing so good. So I think that, but I think we're getting around to the story to where death comes in.
So I think she's perfect. Let's go for it. We started out with me and tree and then by the time we played almost every bar. And New Orleans, we had our little bars that we would play. And like I said, it was the most beautiful thing, because people who would stop to watch us on the street would like, they stayed with us which was a beautiful thing.
And I think it's about, it's all about building your fan base, building your customer base. , it's all about connecting with them and making sure that you're watering the seed that they planted and vice versa. So that way, because they would come back and go, it's us and Lucy, and we were like, from the New England and but Jim and Lucy would then come when we moved.
We started playing like BMC and Vasso and 30 by 90 and on Frenchman Street and Jim and Lucy would follow us there and they followed us from just being street performers. And then we started playing Bourbon Street and they would follow us there. And so now, next thing, We had a fan base, whereas most of it was just foot traffic in New Orleans.
It's whoever's there, whoever's coming in now, but we somehow we're able to build a fan base from being street performers.
I think it's the raw connection with people that, that kind of, we'd started our fan base with. And so it made it a lot easier whenever we migrated to plan different bars and even the family, they came to see us play at this like Marina RV park yacht.
On to train land and they used, they would come to vacation and see us there, but we've literally seen them in Ohio and Kentucky and Indiana and Nashville. They're like, then we say the Lewins are our extended family. It's cultivated your fan base or client base or whatever your business is.
It's making sure, because even when you stumble, I love that when we started this, we were talking a little bit before we pressed play and we were just talking about how There's something that, that you can connect to imperfection sometimes. When you build that fan base, there's that almost that little cushion to be for imperfections that when you don't quite get it, they go, Oh no, that's okay. Look, when you rewatch, let us know.
We don't realize that our fans are very forgiving and they love us even more when we admit that we aren't perfect.
Oh, Lordy, that is us. We like say sometimes we stumble or, one time we were after AGT and we were trying to like work with a new merch company.
And some weeks we got backed up. So we were like three weeks backed up on orders and we finally just like, we'll take all of these orders and we're just going to do them ourselves. So we apologize to the fans. We're like, we're so sorry, but look, these are all our envelopes. We're going to send all of these out to y'all.
We love you. And we thank you. And they were like, 1st of all take your time. We're not in any rush, but thank you for letting us know what's going on. But thank you for being transparent and we admire you all so much for just taking the reins and doing this actually doing it yourselves.
And so it was, but it was something we were so worried about just saying, we were like. We should we tell them should we just go and try to put it out and we decided we were like, no, we'll tell them and then we'll put it out. And, if they want, if they're upset, then we understand. And there wasn't 1 person who was like.
I don't care. Like I want my package now. Everybody gave us grace and and I think that's the beautiful part about being transparent a lot of times people will come to our show and they say, we just wanted to see if y'all were who you were on TV and that it wasn't some and it's no, what is what you get.
There's something about you guys, because I don't know how it is that my husband and I can watch a few YouTubes with the three of you. And we're literally crying. We're rooting for you because you've had a lot of ups and downs throughout this journey.
And some of them are covered on YouTube and they're so interesting. And you guys you keep it so freaking real.
That's it. I feel like that's what the world is missing. Now, everything is so you throw a filter on it. Everything can be edited. It can be this. It can be that. And especially when there's people who are who already live in that fake bubble. It's so easy to be portrayed this way. But then the minute that. Something tragic happens or the minute that they are down or they hit a road bump in their life.
It's just Oh my life is over. And people are like, Oh my gosh, I would have never expected that. And I'm like, I'm not, she's a human people. But yeah. And which is why it's important for us. Sometimes we go through some rough stuff. And sometimes people will tell us like, maybe y'all shouldn't be so transparent with your fan base.
But I was like, I don't want anybody to believe by any stretch of the imagination. You can see us on the red carpets. You see us playing at award shows. You see us. But we are real people dealing with real life everything. I was like, yeah, but you also will see us with people and people pictures and Walmart with people and we look like we just finished cleaning the house.
And I'm like, I look terrible, but I 100 percent take a picture with you. But I want people to always have that real perspective of. Us that, if you can be a superstar, but you better bet and believe that life does not stop and life does not go easy on you because you are a superstar.
Yeah. You are still human. And so I want people to, I want people to know that even people who are out there dream chasing, we always say we're the spokesman for the dream chaser. And but even for people chasing dreams, I don't want you to think that every day. I don't wanna put on Instagram every day, that every day's oh every day.
I love that. Some days sales are going to be low. Sometimes engagement's going to be low. Sometimes you're going to be low, but just remember hey, waves, , I just remember after our tour, we've had, there were some days that we would have to cancel just because ticket sales were down.
Really? Everybody has to make money. The venue has to make money. We're independent artists. So we still have to pay everybody out of pocket and so We just told our family we were honest with them because they are thinking, Oh, y'all just canceling shows y'all are just you know Irresponsibly just planning these shows, but it's no, that's not the case.
And like Danica said, it just goes back to just show that at the end of the day, we're still, we're real people and real life situations happen. And you can't always control what those things are. And so I think, like she said, just being transparent with your fan base or whoever, it just opens up a little bit of a window, I guess you could say.
I love this so much. And it reminds me of the YouTube video that one of them that brought us to tears was, you guys performing for the first time and it wasn't going to be aired on TV. So you guys were on the show. America's Got Talent and you Danica, you started out by saying it's been really hard to get to where we are.
And then this was in 2022 and you were, you, before you sang the song that you were going to sing, you talked a little bit about your journey and it was like, Bang, there was this instant connection where my husband and I were rooting for you guys. Yeah. Because you were so freaking real about how hard it was to get it was short, but it was like, you could just be like, no, like these people aren't just like magically appearing on the stage and having everything handed to them.
That's not how this is working at all. And then you sing the song. You Can Have Him, Jolene, and it's such a freaking powerful song. And by the way, I freaking love your music. I have no idea. Love it. Love it. Love it. It's all so freaking empowering. And as women, we can't get enough of empowering women.
So thank you for empowering women all over the world with what you're doing. Yeah. And I don't even think that was like the initial intention, like whenever, cause we just write songs about, be it like a personal experience or like maybe come up with an idea, but I don't think that we said, we're going to write a whole bunch of empowering songs for women, but I feel like.
You have after the fact I didn't even think that you can have him Jolene in that sense until we've started getting emails from women. I've been in an abusive relationship for 20 years. I heard your song and I got the guts to tell him, you know what? I'm done go. And I'm like, okay, so maybe we are a little empowered.
And it's just but it was like, even sounds like this girl likes Ford's and I feel like women, we've worked so hard and, yeah. It's I say sometimes at the show, I said, I feel like the last, like from the two thousands on, it's just been like, Hey girl, come get in my truck, put on the shorts and make 'em shorter.
And it's we could do that. I was like, I've got a truck and you can come ride with me. Sometimes and it's just sometimes I think that country music just isn't saying from that perspective, like it isn't saying even songs like our song tailgate trophy I'm not just going to be your tailgate trophy.
Like I've got stuff going for me. And also too, if you ain't going to do right, brother. You see that guy with that truck over there. I can go get him too. So don't like, you know what I'm saying? And it's just it was and not until people were like, thank you for saying this.
Thank you. Did we not even go? Man, that's like that. I guess that is that's cool. And it's from the perspective of a powerful woman, but also sometimes that, that gentleness, there's a gentleness to that.
It's I'm powerful, but I'll still love you. I'll still hold you. I'll still do all this. I'm not like, I'm not all like muscles and stones, but to also show that there is that you can still be that same woman. You can be very powerful, also you can be the one to hold it, to hold your man at night and make, and listen to him and call him and cook for him and all those things.
Yeah. It's going to be okay, baby, sometimes they need that, it's, I think that it brings a, I think that will bring a very unique viewpoint to It's so powerful. What I want to point out is, I'm 56. Okay. I was born in 1968, Dolly Parton's song, Jolene, came out in 1973.
And it's literally a woman begging a woman named Jolene to give her husband back. Please, like you're cheating. You're cheating with my husband. I, please give him back to me. And I'm like, what, and that was the mentality, like that's a whole mentality. And I wanted to just talk about that song to point out how far we've come.
Yeah. And yet it it took you guys you guys are really part of this movement. Where we're saying enough, we will be treated with respect or I'm throwing the car keys at you and you are leaving like yeah. I love that.
I love that. And to that, I just want to say this. When we first released, you can have him Jolene, which was probably like a year or so before we went on a GT CMT wanted to have a meeting with us and say hello and welcome us to country music and all the things that were going on.
And at the end of the meeting, they said you guys have anything you want to sing for us? Or, or before it was even released. This is not long after we had written the 1st time. It has ever made its way into the world. And we sing, you can have them drooling from front to finish.
And everybody on the zoom, there's probably like 20 people on the zoom. Everybody on the zoom is silent. And so we were like we can play something else. And Leslie Fram, who is who was like over CMT, Leslie Fram said, she said Chapel Hart in 50 years of country music. Nobody has ever said that. And we were like, what?
And that is exactly it. She said, y'all are breath of fresh air in this space. And, and she said, we're going to do everything that we can to lift y'all up to put you forward. And, she was like, because we country music needs you.
And I was just like, it was like 1 of those oh. And but that's exactly what that reminded me of when you said that. And it's just but it's time for that perspective. It's time for some I feel like there's either it's either extremely on 1 end I'm going to kill you and blow up your car or extremely on the other end.
And it's oh, I love you. And I'm going to stick by you no matter what you can run over me with a train, but I'll come back and you can run over me with a train and try to get another 1, but I'm going to come back and love you just the same. And it's there's nowhere in the middle, but I don't know.
It was something that you said earlier, like bringing that unique perspective, but also going back to just the realness and authenticity of our music. I feel like we're giving. The general like perception and the things like most people, it's like the woman's supposed to be prim and proper and, and all nice and neat.
Or she's like you said, hard edge, being tough all the time. But I feel like that, does that not encompass every woman? You can be tough, but you can be gentle. You can light a fire, but you can also cool it down. And I feel like just the pure duality of what it is to be a woman isn't really portrayed because you either have the bad girl.
Or the sweetheart, you can be a little bit of both. Yeah. That's supposed to just be though, but you, you look sweet. There you go. But I love, like I said I just think that is a, I think that's a powerful, it's a powerful statement. And as a woman, there's so much that we do and there's so much that we have to be.
And, and even, and like you said we got to go out in the work world and we got to put our suit on to be, Tough and and just to be able to compete and hang in there with the guys, but then when we get home, we just want to be healed sometimes. And, we just, we want to let our little girl on the inside out and just say hold me, rub my feet always tell my husband, pet me and tell me I'm beautiful.
Okay. I love that so much. I want to go back to you guys have done so, so much. Like I couldn't even get through all the things that you guys have accomplished. And let's see it. CMT selected you guys as one of several artists for their 2021 next women of country campaign, which promotes new and upcoming female country music artists.
Simon Cowell, Mentored you guys. Holy crap a moly, guys. Holy crap a moly. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. So I want to go back to 2022. You guys sang, You Can Have Him, Jolene. And that was not being aired live on TV or anything, but you can, everyone, the audience that you guys listeners just go back and watch it on YouTube.
It's so crowd powerful. You will cry. I cannot believe I freaking cry, but I cried. Oh, I cried. And what, oh man, like, how did you get through that? Nervousness, and there's so much more to the story because then it goes South things go bad for a while after that for a while, they go really bad and then they get really good again.
But let's start with 2022. You're on the stage and Simon and Heidi and Howie and they're all up there. And. And you talk a little bit and you start singing, how nervous were you guys? And how did you do that? How'd you have the courage? What, tell me more. Listen, we, first of all, we thought this was going to be like a one day thing, just in and out.
Absolutely not. Did not happen that way. We. We're there for three days. We were one of the last two auditions. So we were exhausted. We were so tired as well as like production, like practically push this out on stage, golden buzzers. Just go last one. Let's go. And so we got there and it was so many people and we were just like taken aback, but we were super nervous.
But then once we started singing and the crowd just erupted. The crowd loved you guys. The crowd was so loud. I still vividly remember how loud it was to this day. And I think once we just started, we were like, this is a chapel heart show. Let's just do it and give it everything we got. And I think we just left it all out there during that performance.
And then just the aftermath afterwards and just the reaction from the crowd and the judges and the team backstage, everybody was just like. Mind blown we were mind blown. The whole experience was just crazy and I love this, but I love exactly what you're saying. You're welcome. But I love this because.
If we rewind even a year before we were the moment that we're on stage, we had, we were in Nashville and we were like, we've got this song that we would love for you to hear. And we were trying to pitch. You can have him Jolene and we were trying to just get some of our song writing out there.
And we were trying to write with other people. And it was just so many oh, my God, this is good, but you should be writing with this person. Person or you should connect with this person or it was this is really good, not really what we're looking for right now in the moment. So every time that we would pitch this or every time we would go out and put ourself forward.
It was always it's good. But. Not right now where it's, but and so the butt was starting to kill us a little bit. It was like, we were like, and so that's why in that moment when we finished singing, there was no butt people still, they even when they were supposed to be quiet and sit down, they up and they were screaming.
They were screaming. They just sit on. And people are like, man, was that is that moment real? That was 1 of the realest moments of our lives, I think. And it's just you could just see the tears jumping out our faces, because for the 1st time ever, it was just like, we were just validated for being songwriters for being artists for being performers for being singing.
It didn't matter that we weren't a part of the conversation that they were black. It wasn't that. Oh, my God. It's a trio of women. It's never going to work. If they just loved us for who we were in the moment and ultimately, there was no golden buzzers even available and it shows the power of the people and how much they loved us in the room and they were all chanting golden buzzer.
Yes. Yeah. Like they were demanding it. Yeah. And in my mind, I'm like, did y'all don't pay attention. There are no more golden buzzers. It's funny because there's a moment where tree looks over and when the judges are talking and we just didn't know we'd never done an audition like this or anything.
So we didn't know so a tree was like, should we walk off? And thankfully, I was like, let's just sit here another minute. I say, because imagine if we got the golden buzzer and wasn't there to receive it. But we were like, we just we had no idea. But but even if we had not gotten a golden buzzer that moment where.
It seemed like every soul, every person in that building was rooting for Chapel heart and every person was like, man, that's good enough. That's good enough. And we just I said, instantly, it just started to pour out. I was crying tree was crying and usually does the cry baby. But I think when she gets overwhelmed with the most, she just stands there with her mouth open the same since a.
G. T. I feel like we got our water lines crossed still. For sure. The tree and I like would never cry for anything, but after a GT we cry all the time and Deb hardly ever cries. I'm just looking what is wrong with y'all? I'm sorry. Oh my gosh. I adore you guys. Yeah. Tree go. Yeah, so I, so you guys. We're going to be doing a part two because we have crammed a lot in today and I want to say, so we're ending with on this note of 2022, you guys being on a high, the audience, roaring the audience, demanding, the golden buzzer.
Everything's good. You guys end up having Simon Cowell as your mentor, who I have always liked him. I know some people don't, but I do because you have to have somebody who's going to really tell you the truth, tell you the truth. So there is so much freaking more to this story. There is so much more.
So stay tuned for part two and. I love the three of you. I am just reaching out. I'm giving you a gigantic hug because you guys are amazing and you're so inspiring and you're changing the world. And Hey, girls out there listening, you have to listen to their songs. They're so inspiring. You know how they say music actually does change your mindset.
If you listen to uplifting, inspiring, it's incredible. So stay tuned for part two.
📍 Hey, brave friends. Thanks so much for taking time out of your busy life to listen to today's episode. I love learning about what makes you brave. I'm here with you. I see you, I hear you, and I want to hear from you. I want to know how you are showing up as brave and resilient and authentic.
Connect with me on Instagram at she's brave. Podcast, or check out my website at www. she'sbravepodcast. com. If you're interested in learning more about podcasting, join my Facebook group, www. facebook. com slash groups, slash podcast mastery journey. I'm sending you guys so much love until next time, keep being brave.
