Sam Mooney. Photo by Laura Amour.
Hailing from Brookhaven, Mississippi, Sam Mooney began his music career as something of a pop-fusion wunderkind, winning the Mid-South Talent Competition at age 17. The next summer he hit #10 on the iTunes U.S. Singer-Songwriter chart with his debut EP Somewhere in Between — at a time when charting that high was no easy feat.
Now based in Nashville, Mooney has continued to build an impressive career in pop-fusion music, touring all over the country and boasting over 2 million Spotify streams. He’s also one half of The Highland Rim, the special duo project he shares with his wife and fellow singer-songwriter, Polly Mooney. Mooney has two new solo singles now available for streaming and download, and he recently sat down on my Words Like That podcast to discuss touring, “vulnerable” songwriting, his little-known love for Star Wars, and more.
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The following interview is adapted from Words Like That with Cole Powell, S4, E2, and has been edited for length and clarity.
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Cole: You started out like all musicians do — local scene, then statewide, then regional — and now you’re touring all over the country and based in Nashville, the Music Capital of the World.
What has been the biggest difference going from the small pond to the big sea?
Sam: That’s a great question. There are so many wonderful things about both ways of doing it. I was in Brookhaven for a long time and then in Oxford for several years, and those were wonderful scenes to be a part of. To this day, there are things I would tell an artist in those cities to appreciate about being in that situation.
That said, Nashville’s been a lot of fun. I’m a small-town kid, so for me being in a big city is still somewhat of a new experience. The novelty and the access to some of the unique things in a major city is still something I really enjoy. At the same time, Nashville is a small world. One of the cool things is how many people I’ve gotten to know that I used to listen to before I ever moved up here — even chances to play with those people in real time. I do think that is part of why a person would move to a place like Nashville: to be on the ground. You go to the gym, and you see three touring artists on the treadmills next to you.
So, there is this hub of musicians, and you’re always around great people. Your network can expand so much. And one other thing about Nashville: it’s very practical but kind of interesting. I’m a geography nerd. One interesting thing about Nashville is it is within like 600 miles driving distance from over 50 percent of the country’s population. So, it’s an incredible place to tour from, just logistically, because so many metropolitan areas are at your fingertips. Even cities in the Midwest that sound far really aren’t — like Indianapolis or Louisville or Cincinnati.
It’s funny. I’ll play in Chicago next month. To me, that sounds so far away, and it’s the same distance as my hometown is from here. They’re both seven hours away. That also speaks to what long states Mississippi and Tennessee are, but it’s a funny thought. All that to say, being up here has been fun and it’s definitely been inspiring.
If you’re a small-market musician, I could tell you twenty things that you can appreciate. But Nashville made good sense for me at the juncture that I was at, and I really like it.
Cole: You’ve mentioned this before to me. We’ve talked about the proximity of Nashville to all these places, and I was blown away. It’s so close to so many different places.
Sam: And for that reason, artists who live here and tour really only have to leave for more than weekend runs if they go to the West Coast. Basically, everything on the eastern half of the country — and even middle America — can be done by leaving Thursday and coming back Sunday. So the only time people have to get out for two weeks is if they’re going to play California and Seattle and all that.
I think as the whole world is kind of trying to figure out healthier, more affordable ways to live — especially for mental health and stuff. I think a lot of artists realize, “Okay, having a rhythm of weekend-run touring actually works pretty darn well.” So, Nashville is a great place to do that.
Cole: Is there any drawback to having moved from home?
Sam: That’s a great question. There’s so much talent everywhere. Mississippi produces crazy amounts of talent. But naturally, as a hub for musicians, Nashville, per capita, has a crazy amount of talent.
So, I would say, one of the drawbacks is, when you’re in a non-music city, you just have more interactions with people where they’re amazed that you could do that. To be able to play an instrument well or write a beautiful song or sing well — that’s a rare skill that not everyone has. And if you’re not in a music hub, you constantly encounter people’s reaction to that. Whereas in Nashville, there’s some sense of, “Well, I know 20 amazing musicians.” So, it’s kind of funny. You’re looking at the world through a distorted lens, and you can kind of forget, until you leave town, how special your skill set is. Because there’s just so many people who do exactly what you do, if that makes sense.
So, I do think if you’re in a small town, you might get a little more wind in your sails from people around you just because there’s less people doing what you do.
Cole: You’ve released two EPs, one full-length solo album — I think Time Bomb was technically a full-length because you had those nice interludes in there that were just phenomenal.
Sam: Thank you, yes.
Cole: And then you had a full-length album with you and your wife’s project, The Highland Rim. You’ve released a few singles. And your music crosses genre. I referred to it as pop-fusion in my intro.
Sam: I love that.
Cole: Would you say that was a fair assessment?
Sam: I have not heard anyone describe it that way, but I think that’s really, really cool. I like that. I might steal that one.
Cole: Yeah, absolutely. Free of charge, my friend, but if you want to give me credit for it, that’s….
Sam: (laughs)
Cole: I feel like all of your music, no matter what style you touch on — you do a lot of jazz. These two singles we’re going to listen to clips of here are heavily jazz-based tracks, which I love. That’s my favorite side of your music. And you’ve done blues, you had some country lingers, I’ve heard some folk leanings in there. I feel like the genre thread that runs through all of your music is pop. Like everything has a pop foundation to it. Whereas I would say in my music — rock kind of runs through everything. Even if I do folk, it’s folk-rock. For you, I feel like pop music is your thing.
So these next two tracks that I already mentioned — these are kind of getting back into a style you’ve done before. You did a lot of this on your first record Somewhere in Between. You had a lot of jazz-pop-rock stylings, and these two tracks are right there. They sound like they could have been on that record but with more mature vocals from you because you’re cutting these now much older than you were.
Sam: Yes.
Cole: And I also feel like from a production standpoint — because now you’re in Nashville and produced them — they are more modern, slickly polished tracks than what you got on the Somewhere in Between record. Not that that record wasn’t great, because it was. But — I tell you what… Do you want to tee these up or just jump right into the clips?
Sam: That’s a great question. This is all so fun. I like you leading the questioning. So I say let’s do the clips and then whatever jumps to mind.
Cole: So this first one — this is “Once in a While.”
Cole: Classic Sam Mooney keys.
This second song is “Something Different.”
Cole: Love that vibrato there.
Sam: Oh, thank you.
Cole: And I played a little bit longer clip on that one because I really wanted that little instrumental break there with the keys.
Sam: Oh, thank you. Yeah, I was really happy with that solo.
Cole: You have a very particular piano style. And I feel like I can just hear it — “That’s Sam Mooney keys right there.” I don’t hear that style with anybody else. There’s nobody I’ve ever heard that I thought, “Man, that sounds just like Sam Mooney playing it.”
Sam: No, that means a lot. It does.
Cole: You are packaging these like an old-school A-side/B-side single. I love that style. That’s how I think about releases. And I think these two complement each other perfectly. They’re both jazz-based like we talked about earlier, but one I think leans more into a modern pop vibe of jazz — that’s “Once in a While.” That’s the A-side of the single, if you will. And then the second track we played, “Something Different,” the B-side — that’s more traditional jazz. And this is like a classic love-song jazz standard that Frank Sinatra could have sung in 1947.
Sam: That’s such a great compliment, man. I love that stuff. Jazz is the number one thing I listen to just as a fan of music. Not even so much my favorite artist of all time. Stevie Wonder is jazzy, but not jazz. It’s the best easy-listening music in my opinion. So, it’s what I put on when I’m doing chores and anytime I want to relax but still be listening to music. The instrumental jazz, the primary thing I’m doing when I’m working — you know, writing emails. So I’m constantly absorbing it. And even though pop is certainly a big part of the gumbo of my music —
Cole: The roux. The gumbo roux.
Sam: Yeah. Jazz always tends to sneak in. And these songs particularly are heavy on that influence.
Cole: Let’s talk about these two tracks lyrically and thematically. I’ll start with the second track: “Something Different.” This is very much in the lyrical style of most of your music, which you started writing, like most of us do, when you were really young. You were a teenager. And what’s the thing that is most on the minds of teenagers? Romance, right? Relationships. So I feel like most of us, when we start writing songs, we start writing that early, and we’re focused on that topic — romantic relationships. And even into young adulthood, we’re writing love songs, breakup songs, unrequited love songs. And most of your songs have kind of played in that theme. Plus, that’s also the kind of music we’re listening to. Music that’s made for that demographic, those teen-young-adults. That’s what you played into and you did it so well. Even the songs that didn’t deal with relationships — like the title track “Somewhere in Between” from your first record or “Find My Way” from your second record — those weren’t romantic songs, but they were still speaking to a young demographic. I feel like it was written by a young person. You could tell that you’re in a transitional phase. I still get that with this second track, “Something Different.” The other track, the A-side “Once in a While” — I feel like this is, in your songwriting, a graduation track for you.
Sam: Dude, thank you.
Cole: You can correct me if you don’t think this is a fair assessment: I feel like this is the first song in your catalog that really is an adult song. And I don’t mean “explicit.” I mean that it’s written by an adult. It’s playing to adults because you’re talking about adult stuff. The refrain is “Why can’t I have peace once in a while?” That is such a grown-up thing. You can tell that you as a person have now experienced that. You’re out of that transitional phase and you’re experiencing, “adulting” things. And it’s starting to come through in your music. Would you say that’s a fair assessment?
Sam: I think that’s a very, very fair assessment. And it’s actually fun — we could camp out here for a minute because there’s a lot I could say about that shift in my writing.
I think you’re spot on. When you’re 18, most of your songs are going to have something to do with love: either love that you feel, love that you’re trying to find, love gone wrong. And then….
Cole Powell is an arts and media commentator, and award-winning singer/songwriter from. Jayess, Mississippi, USA, with degrees in computer technology, liberal arts, and theology. https://colepowell.net