Kenton Bryant

CMAfest

Kenton Bryant

They say Nashville is a ten-year town, and Kenton Bryant is on year nine. He has struggled through the ups and downs of being a singer and songwriter and thought about quitting a time or two but has finally found his groove with a newly released song, "Die Too Young," drawing 30,000 streams in its opening week. It is a fun summer ballad about living outside the box and enjoying the best of life instead of settling down.

On top of that, a song he released a few years ago, "Sometimes she Stays," is still moving up the charts and broke 2.2 million streams on Spotify this year.

"I moved to town to make it in the music business, not to be famous. If my life is writing songs for XYZ guy and girl, I love that too. I think that's a blessing too. The only magic I get to do is write a song; that's magic."

Although he is just as talented a singer as a songwriter, his pen and guitar have allowed him to express himself and tell his stories in a way that Nashville and the world are noticing.

His most famous song to date, "Sometimes She Stays," is a ballad written about a one-night stand from a man's perspective. Instead of the traditional story many of us hear of the girl getting up and leaving and the relationship going nowhere, Bryant puts a spin on it. It becomes the beginning of a relationship, and the man not wanting her to leave, a perspective that hasn't been written about in Country Music. "We are in a culture now where the one-night stand is the catalyst of many, many marriages, and I am not saying that it's bad." The song shows a romantic side to a traditional unromantic situation, and fans can't get enough of it.

With many exciting collaborations coming up soon, Bryant is sure to become as common a name in the household community as he is in the writing community here in Nashville.