Blakely McHugh
Rising country star Shelby Darrall is making her mark in country music world. Born and raised in Napa Valley, Calif., music (and wine) is in her blood.
You can thank her father, Chuck Darrall, and his band Silver Creek for that.
“My dad was in a band when I was growing up and I was kind of always around it and watching him do it,” Darrall said about her childhood. “[I was] inspired by him in a lot of ways.”
In fact, her first time ever on stage was with her fathers band. But she didn’t get handed the mic just because she was daddy’s little girl, she had to put in the work.
“He was like… ‘you’re not just gonna go up there and sing badly,” Shelby recalls. “He wouldn’t let me come up and sing with them until I learned to pick out harmonies.”
So that’s what she did. Around the age of 11, she studied the music, found the harmonies and actually had to try out, if you will, for his band.
That’s when she got the green light to perform with them.
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When she got old enough, she started performing at tasting rooms, playing covers and throwing in some original songs to see how the crowd connected.
But that only lasted so long before she realized Nashville was the place to be to make this a career.
So, at 20 years old, she “moved to Nashville and finished school at Belmont and just kind of made [her] way through.”
Since then, she’s been recognized for in-depth way with words and her unique voice. She’s collaborated with artists like Brett James, Troy Verges, Emily Weisband and Jake Owen just to name a few.
In addition, her mark on the Nashville songwriting community was recognized by multi-Grammy winning music executive and record producer, Ron Fair (Christina Aguilera, The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga).
“He’s incredible. It was very intimidating because you walk into a studio and there’s like gold records everywhere and I’m like, ‘oh god,’” Darrall shared with Celeb Secrets reporter Blakely McHugh about the first time she worked with Fair.
He helped create her debut EP, Entertainment For The Brokenhearted, which was released at the end of April this year.
The inspiration for the album came from a place many albums do– heartbreak. Darrall says she put her feelings into lyrics and wrote six songs representing a different chapter in her healing process.
“My goal was maybe anybody else who could be going through something similar could kind of go to whatever chapter they needed and have that help them get through it.”
Now that her first record is out, she’s switching roles with her dad, pulling him up on stage versus the other way around.
During her EP party in Napa, she forced her dad to duet with her, “Pick Me Up.” A fitting choice, considering the song is about him.
“I forced him to sing with me and he pretends he hates it, but he loves it,” she said jokingly.
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If there’s anything you should know about Shelby Darrall, it’s that she doesn’t hold back. Her songs are like her musical diary.
If you know anything about women who journal, they don’t leave out any detail.
“I’m kind of ruthless to men in my writing a little bit, but not like man hating,” she said. “I love men but there’s certain things that need to be talked about.”
So when it came to a guy who recently hurt her, she “Taylor Swifted” him.
“I was so mad, I went into a write the next day… and I came in very hot and was like ‘I need to let this out.’ We wrote the song and it’s called his name.”
To which I asked, “the song is called ‘his name’ or it’s his name.”
“It’s his name,” Darrall clarified. “I don’t wanna say it. I might say it. His name is Brady.”
Brady if you’re reading this, prepare yourself for when the track drops.
“He messed up and he thought he could maybe get away with this and I’m a songwriter buddy. Like, you’re not getting away [with it].”
Darrall says she hasn’t decided if she’ll release the song or not. If she does, it’ll possibly be part of her next project.
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Have you listened to Shelby Darrall’s debut EP? Let us know what you think of her music by either leaving a reaction at the bottom of the post or by sending us a tweet at @CS_Country.
You can connect with Shelby by giving her a follow on Instagram at @shelbydarrall.
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