By Paige Nash
Lakeside High School graduate and long-time resident of Webster Parish, Clayton McBroom attended the 8th Annual Josie Music Awards in Nashville, Tenn. The JMA is held at the Grand Ole Opry and is the world’s largest independent music awards show.
While in Nashville this past week McBroom was able to attend the JMA Fest the day before the award show, walk the red carpet at the Opry house and expound on his already extensive list of musical connections.
“I got to meet and spend time with many great and well-known artists,” said McBroom.
Although McBroom did not take home any awards this year, he was nominated for Traditional Country Vocalist of the Year, Fan’s Choice Award and Traditional Country Single of the Year for his song “Echoes of Love” written by Jena, La. resident, Mellanie Randall.
“Just being nominated was a huge honor in itself. I was nominated in 3 different categories this year. Only 1.8 percent of 52,000 submissions were lucky enough to be nominated, so that is a huge accomplishment, and it makes you feel like the effort you put in is definitely worth it,” said McBroom.
McBroom has been on the musical journey since as far back as he can remember. He grew up watching his grandfather play and listening to him reminisce about all the shows he used to perform, including the once widely popular Louisiana Hayride.
At the age of 10 years old McBroom got his first guitar, but at the time music was more of a pastime or hobby until his late teens.
“Even after I got my first guitar, I never really got into singing much until I was about 17 or 18 years old,” he said. “When I was 21, I started singing in some vocal competitions and when I started winning, I decided to really pursue music.”
Over the last five years things have really taken off in his career. At the same award’s show in 2019, McBroom won the Rising Vocalist of the Year category and in the following year took home the award for Modern Country Song of the Year with his song titled, “If Someone Would Listen.”
This song was produced by Juvi Navia with music by Matt LaRoux, but was written by McBroom himself. He felt moved to write this song to help bring awareness to bullying and suicide.
“A close family friend, I called her my cousin, Haley Danielle Cox took her life on May 20, 2011, because of bullying. While the song isn’t solely based on just her story, that was a lot of the motivation behind it,” McBroom said. “Suicide because of bullying is becoming a much more prevalent occurrence in today’s time.
It is safe to say we can expect to see much more from McBroom in the upcoming year as he finishes up his first modern album with all original compositions.
He said, “We are going all in this year and going for awards in 2023 that we haven’t had a chance to go after yet.”
If you would like to stay up to date with McBroom as he continues his musical adventure and show support, you can follow his Facebook page “Clayton McBroom Music.”
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