Carly Simmons, a Chester County-based singer armed with the musical artillery of live performances, an unmistakable stage presence and a handful of songs and videos that are making the rounds of the country music industry, was on the bill at the Whiskey Jam in Nashville on Dec. 4. It’s a gig that has become a rite of passage for anyone looking to crack the scene, and for Simmons, it gave her a chance to show her skills and fine tune her songs among her peers.

I caught up with Carly by phone last week, in between her many obligations in Music City.

Caroline Roosevelt: So when did you head down to Nashville?
Carly Simmons: I’ve been here since last Tuesday and then I go back to Chester County on Dec. 8.

I am assuming your schedule is jam-packed while you’re in Nashville.

Yes, definitely. Like today, I went with my friend to try on wedding gowns for her wedding. So I’m fitting in some wholesome activities besides the typical Nashville thing because it’s a lot of…well, the famous saying is it’s a drinking town with a music problem, which is hilarious because that’s what all networking is. Everyone’s just always out drinking. I feel like it can get really exhausting.

Where do you record when you’re in town?

I’ve gone to multiple different places, from the big recording studios on Music Row to the makeshift studio in somebody’s house or apartment. I went to a studio yesterday that was like a professional studio in Berry Hill. I was visiting to potentially record there. 

There is certainly no shortage of country music studio musicians in Nashville.

A person I’m playing with runs the studio and they had the rhythm section from Taylor Swifts’ first six albums. The guy who was drumming is the drummer that’s about to go on tour with Kenny Chesney. It’s just insane! When you go to the studios, the session players have done some amazing stuff and they’re on and off tour all the time with different artists. Even though it’s a massively growing big city, there is such a small town feel to it, especially when you’re in the industry. 

I haven’t been in Nashville in a year, and I walked into multiple different bars while I’ve been here for writers rounds and bumped into people I know. It’s just such a tight-knit community. Everyone wants to build each other up.

You’re getting married soon and putting down roots in Chadds Ford, right? In addition to traveling to Nashville, will you also be cultivating more of a musical arrangement here in Chester County?

Definitely! I plan to continue to play more shows at The Creamery and on the Main Line. I’m booking another show at The Queen in Wilmington. It’s so cool now that I am playing at the Whiskey Jam because this will be the biggest show that I’ve played and I’m playing alongside other established artists in Nashville who already have a great following.

Name names.
I went two nights ago to see my friend Clayton Johnson perform. There is also a musician named Dalton Dover, and Whiskey Jam just celebrated their 900th show and they have people coming through like Bailey Zimmerman, Morgan Wallen, Megan Moroney, Tyler Childers and Jelly Roll. Ward Guenther has a podcast and a playlist on Apple Music where he’ll interview upcoming country musicians and so my goal is to basically impress him at my show and try to land one of those interviews. 

I’m interested to hear how you developed your country personality because you weren’t initially wanting to be a country artist, right?

Right, but I did grow up listening to a lot of country music, like Shania Twain and Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, but I just never thought of myself as country. I grew up in Wilmington and went to a really small Catholic school and there was no real music program. I never took any instrumental lessons and I didn’t have anyone or anywhere in the community, like a mentor to learn from. I grew up listening to Motown Records and R&B and I always considered myself to be more Pop/R&B/Soul so I think I was stuck on that. Then, when I was in college and my early twenties, I started getting into house music and dance music, but it just took one writing session in California where I wrote my song “Whiskey Kisses” with my old band members for things to click for me.

I realized how much soul there is in country music and what the roots of country really are. It’s rock, it’s Motown, it’s soul and it’s blues -- it’s all those things that I always imagined myself to be. Plus, the stories in country music are so real and authentic and I feel like that’s what drew me to it - the authenticity, the truth, the lyrics. It’s about telling a personal story.

It’s really cool that you found your home with “Whiskey Kisses.” I listened to it it this morning and I also listened to your latest, “Strong Woman,” and I loved the lyrics to that. Is it a personal story?
Yes. My mom had cancer three times -- a super rare type of sarcoma. She first discovered she had it when I was living out in L.A. and she made it seem like it was going to be benign, like nothing’s wrong, and she wasn’t really giving me a lot of details. Then she got a laparoscopy and was at Johns Hopkins, and then a year later she found out she had it again. Then she did another laparoscopy at Johns Hopskins and when it came back a third time, she went to Sloan Kettering, where she underwent major surgery. 

I moved home for the summer to be with her during her recovery because she couldn’t get out of bed. My stepdad was working, so I did the grocery shopping and helped with dinner and driving and running errands. That song was inspired by her because she acted like her illness was no big deal. Now that I’m getting married, she tells me, “This is why I beat cancer. I’m not leaving this earth without going to your wedding.” She’s just so strong-willed, and an inspiration. This past May, she was officially deemed a survivor as she hit her five-year mark cancer free.

Was she aware that you had written “Strong Woman” with her in mind?

She didn’t know I had written it. I was playing a show in Philly for Hello Sound Room. My mom was visiting and on the way to the show, I told her, ‘Oh mom, by the way, I wrote this song about you,’ and we listened to the song on the way to the show. She began crying in the back seat and I told her that I didn’t want to tell her because I knew she would cry when she heard it, but I knew that if I were to sing it in front of her for the first time on stage in front of people, I wouldn’t be able to get through the song, so I felt that I had to get this over with on the car ride.

That’s the best gift you can give a mother.
Yeah, but it’s not just for her. The way that we wrote the song, we wanted it to relate to all women. We women, we have so much strength - we give life, we raise babies, we still work, we deserve equal pay, we deserve respect, and we don’t deserve having all of these pressures put on us. 

To learn more about Carly Simmons’ music, visit www.instagram.com/carlysimmonsmusic, or visit her on Facebook.

Click here see the video for her song, “Whiskey Kisses”.