Jennifer Nettles is an accomplished songwriter, having written a lot of Sugarland’s hits, plus her own music, like her latest song, “I Can Do Hard Things.” And it turns out she’s had a lot of time to perfect her craft, because she’s been writing songs almost all her life. “I can remember being a little girl, even just like on the swing set in my backyard coming up with little melodies and things, Jennifer says. “But the first full on song that I ever remember writing was on the piano and it was a couple of church songs that I wrote, that my church let me come and sit down at the piano and then play in front of them, that were originals.”
But it was when Jennifer was about 17 and she got her first guitar that her songwriting really ramped up and she started writing classic heartachin’ country songs. After she learned to play guitar, she says, “The first song I ever wrote then was actually a country song and it was called ‘He Couldn’t Give Up the Bottle So She Had to Give Back His Name’ and it was super sad. And I remember much of it, I should try to remember all of it.”
We’re guessing it took Jennifer a little while to start writing great songs like “I Can Do Hard Things,” but as they say, practice makes perfect.
Jennifer Nettles – first songs wrote :41
“I can remember being a little girl, even just like on the swing set in my backyard coming up with little melodies and things. But the first full on song that I ever remember writing was on the piano and it was a couple of church songs that I wrote, that my church let me come and sit down at the piano and then play in front of them, that were originals. But then when I was 17 I got my first guitar and that also sort of changed my trajectory as a musician. And the first song I ever wrote then was actually a country song and it was called ‘He Couldn’t Give Up the Bottle So She Had to Give Back His Name’ and it was super sad. And I remember much of it, I should try to remember all of it.”