He’s one of many songwriters coming to Songfest July 24-27
(This article first appeared in the July print edition of the Hendersonian)
Jamie Teachenor has been described as a “genre-less” musician, recording and writing in a variety of music styles.
But for Teachenor it’s simply weaving the stories of Americans into music.
“Telling the story of folks is truly a genre-less thing,” he said.
He, however, said if you asked him to pin it down, “I think in my core I’m country.”
Teachenor, known as a country singer-songwriter, who according to his website has written songs for or recorded with major artists such as Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, Collin Raye, Trisha Yearwood, Gretchen Wilson, Kenny G, Vince Gill, Warrant and rock-n-roll legend, Jerry Lee Lewis, will be performing 6 p.m. Friday, July 26, and 8:15 p.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters Festival.
Both Teachenor’s performances will be at Rookies.
Teachenor has lost track of exactly how many Songfests he’s been to, but estimates it’s been 10 or twelve times and says he’s one of the longest running performers.
“I love how everyone comes together and makes you feel like it’s one big community and one big family,” Teachenor said about his Henderson visits during past Songfests. “There’s something really special y’all got going on there.”
Teachenor’s range, though for the most part rooted in country, can take him other places. For example, “Semper Supra,” the Space Force anthem that Teachenor wrote, seems far from what normally comes out of Nashville.
The story behind how Teachenor came to write the Space Force anthem is an interesting one. It started with a bit of luck.
In 2015, he was looking for a change and to make his life “more about something else and less about me,” Teachenor said. He was online searching for vintage guitars when he came across a Craigslist job ad for a country singer for the U.S. Air Force Band.
“There it is,” he thought. He applied.
Soon Air Force officials came to Nashville to audition him. He got the part, enlisted, and packed up his family, wife, Jen, and children, Charlie and Lily, and moved to Colorado Springs.
A part of the public affairs division, his job title was lead singer. He fronted Wild Blue Country, a band of active-duty musicians whose job is to support the Air Force and the Academy.
Teachenor spent four years in the Air Force, and in that time, he often witnessed military personnel connected to Air Force Space Command, the section of the Air Force focused on space before Space Force was initiated in 2019. Teachenor’s enlistment ended in June 2019, several months before the Space Force became an official branch of the military that December.
Soon after, several people from the Air Force and Space Force reached out and asked him to write the branch’s official song.
On Jan. 25, 2020, Teachenor sent his song in for consideration. Two years and nine months later, his song was officially selected as the Space Force anthem.
He said the song was written by his being able to see so much of the work by military personnel working in the space command during his years of active duty.
“They wrote their own song in many ways,” he said. “I’m honored to get to be a part of it.”
It’s a march, with a sound you’d expect to hear at an Independence Day parade, and another example of Teachenor showing his range, which, it turns out, extends beyond music.
In 2022, he earned a doctorate in education from Liberty University where his dissertation was titled “A Phenomenological Study of Trauma, Creativity, Resilience, and Artistic Inspiration.”
He’s currently working on a book that he hopes to self-publish by the end of this year that deals with the creative process and stepping out on faith.
Teachenor is working on getting a podcast off the ground, which he also plans to have going before the end of the year. He’s calling it “Country Roots and Combat Boots.”
Additionally, Teachenor is an adjunct professor of songwriting at Middle Tennessee State University.
He’s also a sought-after speaker, and according to his website, he’s been a keynote speaker for Fortune 500 campanies, given TedX talks and spoken at academic conferences.
Topping off the long list of jobs is his role as a county commissioner for Sumner County, Tenn. He took office on Sept. 1, 2022.
“Everything in my life and path makes sense,” he said, adding all his endeavors support and align with each other.
Teachenor grew up in Missouri, has been playing in bands since he was nine years old and began touring in 1997, when he was 17 years old. He moved to Nashville in 2001, the day before he turned 21 years old, he said. His first big hit was the song he wrote for Blaine Larsen, “How Do You Get That Lonely.”
Teachenor urges music lovers to come to as many Sandy Lee Songfest shows that they can.
He said the intimate, cooperative nature of the Songfest venues allows for a special chemistry, sometimes causing an attendee to hear a song in a new light.
“Sometimes you fall in love with a song you maybe didn’t like when it was on the radio,” he said.
Teachenor said a Songfest show is a “living and breathing event” in which audience participation has an effect on it.
“It’s so personal and such an experience you get to experience together,” he said.
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For more information and to buy tickets to the Sandy Lee Watkins Songwriters Festival, go to sandyleesongfest.com.
