While she may be from a quaint mountain town in Eastern Kentucky, Hailey Newman is anything but. The pop-rock country singer/songwriter is breaking onto the country scene with her strong-willed attitude and vocals to match, along with a storytellers’ touch. In 2020, she released her first set of songs (“Fine By Me,” “Never Mine,” “Always With Me,” “Now I Know,” and “Driving Me Crazy”) and has since been working with veteran songwriters including Doug Kahan (Trick Pony, Clay Walker, Jon Pardi), Holly Lamar (Jo Dee Messina, Wynonna Judd, Faith Hill), and Drew Womack (Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw). Tomorrow, Hailey is releasing her fifth single of 2022, the thought provoking “Some Place Better“, premiering exclusively today with The Country Note.
We recently caught up with Hailey to get to know her musical journey, the inspiration behind her new single and more.
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
HN: My name is Hailey Newman and I am from Eastern Kentucky. I am a country pop singer/songwriter. This has been a passion for me ever since I stepped on a stage in middle school and saw the reaction from the crowd. I knew then that performing music was what I wanted to do with my life.
CN: Which artists have influenced you both personally and as an artist? Being from Kentucky there are some incredible artists right from your home state…
HN: I would have to say Loretta Lynn because she showed that no matter where you come from you can still make a big impact. With hard work and dedication anything is possible.
CN: Your new single “Some Place Better” is set to release tomorrow. What was the inspiration behind the song?
HN: My inspiration for this song came from all my travels town to town. All the places I’ve been have had one big thing in common and that is homelessness. No matter where I go, I always see someone needing help and it’s heartbreaking. I wrote this song to bring awareness to the problem that’s going on in our own backyard. If we all work together we can make this world “Some Place Better.”
CN: You wrote the song with Kim McLean. Was it a song that came to you both quickly?
HN: Yes!!! Everything just fell right into place. Kim was really great to write with when we sat down to write, the words to the song just started pouring out of both of us. It was so much fun writing with Kim.
Check out the Exclusive Premiere of “Some Place Better” below:
CN: Do you often pull inspiration from personal events in your life when writing?
HN: Yes, all the songs I write have to do with myself or the people closest to me. In any moment the lyrics to a song may just be something you hear from someone or it may just pop in your head, for me I’m always listen to what everyone is saying and I say to myself that’s something I need to take a note of, so I write it down for a future song.
CN: Can you take us through your personal songwriting process?
HN: Song writing can be a complicated process. For me personally, I take personal events that happen in my life or people around me and twist it into a song. I try to get all the information that I can about what I’m writing then put all the heartfelt words into the song. In the end it becomes the perfect song.
CN: The lyrics to “Some Place Better” are very visual – are there plans for a music video?
HN: I felt like this song had a very strong and important message behind it. The lyrics were very moving and had a lot of sentiment behind them. In this case, the lyrics spoke for themselves.
CN: Where can fans catch you on the road this summer?
HN: I’ve only got one show planned coming up on September 3rd and it’s near my hometown in Minnie, Kentucky. I’m going to be planning more show dates and you can check those out on haileynewman.net. Right now, my plans are getting in the studio and creating new music for 2023. So I’ll see everyone this fall on the stage somewhere.
For more information on Hailey Newman, visit her website haileynewman.net and follow her on Facebook and Instagram.