ALL ABOUT DREW
Country/Americana songwriter Drew Haley is fueled by deep love: love for the art of storytelling, love for the classic rock and blues music she grew up on, and love for her husband and three children. Her voice exudes a subtle yet soulful power, inspired by the tight country harmonies of the Judds and the Dixie Chicks as well as the effortless cool of alt-rockers Jewel and Sheryl Crow. An agile, candid songwriter, Haley has developed a country-leaning, narrative style rooted in real experience, with hope and healing at the emotional core of each song. As an artist, she finds strength in both spirituality and self-reflection, and she views songwriting as a vital therapeutic outlet: “I always have a melody floating around in my head, and I have to get it out. My goal is to make music that uplifts others—especially young girls, moms, and anyone who is struggling.”
Raised by antique-collecting teachers, Haley developed an early appreciation for singular artists like Hank Williams Sr. and Otis Redding through her parents’ extensive vinyl collections. When her older brother went to rehab for drug addiction, she picked up his guitar and taught herself to play at eleven years old. She wrote her first song for him, then continued to write her way through every crush, heartbreak, trauma, joy, and sorrow that followed, scribbling in her Hello Kitty notebook from the cow pastures of East Texas. In middle school, Haley started her first band as an outlet for sharing her original music. By seventeen, she’d written over one hundred songs. She played local venues and bars across East Texas throughout high school, incorporating classic rock and blues covers into her sets, then recorded her first solo album. After high school, she moved to Austin to join a band from Craig’s List, performing down 5th and 6th street for five years and recording her second full-length album, Within my Soul, as well as three demos and an EP, along the way. In Austin, Haley met blues guitar player Lance Keltner, and the pair collaborated to record a bluesy demo EP in Los Angeles in 2010. Her song “Within my Soul” won the 2011 ASG songwriting contest, earning Haley a showcase at iconic Nashville venue Bluebird Cafe. “I was a full-time mom at that point, so touring and performing took me away from my kids,” she says, “but I realized I could live in Nashville and focus on songwriting.” She moved with her family in 2011 and began taking songwriting workshops and collaborating with a broad spectrum of local songwriters.
Haley has written and co-written in a wide range of genres, honing her unique perspective through folk, blues, rock, pop, Christian, country, Americana, and rockabilly songs. “I like having the freedom to let each track take on a life of its own,” she says. In 2019, she joined all-female-fronted act "The Highway Women” and was featured on track "Dead Man Walking," which premiered exclusively on Taste of Country, along with a music video released in April 2021. Her 2019 solo single and music video “Wildflower” was released in November 2019 and debuted on Apple Hot Tracks with Heart Songs Records, followed by single "Fool to Remember" in June 2020, which debuted on Apple Hot Tracks as well as CMT. Haley released her EP Wildflower in October 2020, showcasing her storytelling skills and effortless vocals in five lush, country-pop ballads. Next, she dropped singles “High in Denver” in July 2021 and “A Good Woman” in November 2021 (along with a music video in December). In September 2022 she released moody pop single “Hallway” on all streaming platforms followed by a video shot near her home in Nashville, Tn.
Now poised to release her next EP early 2023 one single at a time, Don’t Mess with Mama, Haley is returning to her roots with a heartfelt country-Americana collection inspired by her life as an artist, mother, and modern woman. “When it’s hard to write, I go back to the beginning, to when I knew how to pour out my heart. My songs come from a vulnerable, very raw place. But I had to re-learn how to be patient and trust that the songs will come. I had to get out of the way and make room for them.” Don’t Mess with Mama is fueled by Haley’s years of songwriting in Music City as well as her personal progression into the next phase of her life. “I wrote some of the tracks after an ugly divorce, and some while falling in love with my current husband,” she says. Recorded at RCA Studios, distributed by Sony Orchard and produced by David Spencer, Don’t Mess with Mama showcases Haley’s knack for narrative songwriting with a country twist, in the vein of acts like Chris Stapleton and Little Big Town. Lyrically, the 5 song EP covers bold emotional and physical shifts—changes of heart as well as changes in circumstance—with graceful, accessible language. Acoustic, laid-back, and emotionally striking, it’s a compelling example of what Haley does best: revealing what it feels like to be human. “I hope people see themselves in my songs,” she says. “Being a writer means being vulnerable and willing to share who you are with an audience. If that audience can empathize, then you’ve achieved the goal. Nothing feels better than pouring your heartache into a song.”
In addition to her songwriting and performing career, Haley is a co-founder of Get it Girl Nashville, which offers business and creative support to female songwriters in the male-dominated music industry, and co-founder of the collaborative initiative "Be a Highway Woman," which was featured in Forbes Magazine. She also raises money for women’s shelters and Breast Cancer Awareness organizations.