The Ups And Downs Of Nashville's New Digitally Distanced Songwriting Sessions

Congregating in person for concerts is out of the question this spring and for the foreseeable future, so music fans have gotten used to watching performers livestream from home. What's less obvious is that segments of the Nashville music community that work out of view have been equally resourceful in finding virtual stopgaps during lockdown.

In the industry culture of Music City, fully booked and productive work days can have the appearance of neighborly socializing, so it only makes sense that many music-makers would look to shift their standard, three-hour co-writing appointments and studio sessions to videoconferencing in comfy clothes.

Among those working this way are Stephanie Quayle, a plucky, expressive country-pop singer and songwriter whose Montana roots make her partial to ranching and rodeoing imagery, and Alex Kline, the conservatory-trained composer and multi-instrumentalist producing Quayle's music.

They'd planned to reserve a studio and hire players to record two new songs in April --that, of course, was not to be. By mid-March, Quayle was sheltering with her husband on their working farm in North Carolina and Kline was self-quarantining in her West Nashville bungalow. Together, they pondered how to carry on with the project amidst a pandemic.

During a joint phone interview, Kline recalled her reasoning: "Well, I've got more time than I usually do, and I know a lot of musicians that are dying to work right now. All the ones that I use have their own home studio set-ups. So we can still get this done."

"It was never, 'Oh, I guess we'll just have to wait.' " Quayle affirmed appreciatively. "It was, 'Let's see what we can do.' I love that sort of mentality."