When you think country music and Australia, the first person who comes to mind is that guy married to Nicole Kidman. But he wasn’t the first. He was beaten to the states by a then teenage girl, who arrived here in the 1980s with her parents. But her first job wasn’t singing, or writing. It was as a character on an iconic 1980s TV show.

If you remember The Facts of Life, think back to the final season and a character named Pippa McKenna.

Pippa was played by Sherri Austin...who would do a little more acting in LA before moving to Nashville in the mid 1990s. In 1997, she signed a recording deal and got some airplay on country radio, including a sad but beautiful ballad called Streets of Heaven that, in 2003, became her biggest hit. But her first love- more than acting, more than singing, was writing, which she continued to do even as she left Nashville for a time in 2005 to sing on the stage in New York city. Returning to Nashville in 2011, she released another album, Circus Girl, which displayed her full talent as a singer/songwriter. But, as Austin will explain, she was drawn more towards writing and performing, and since then has become one of country music’s most respected writers. 

When you think country music and Australia, the first person who comes to mind is that guy married to Nicole Kidman. But he wasn’t the first. He was beaten to the states by a then teenage girl, who arrived here in the 1980s with her parents. But her first job wasn’t singing, or writing. It was as a character on an iconic 1980s TV show.
If you remember The Facts of Life, think back to the final season and a character named Pippa McKenna.
Pippa was played by Sherri Austin...who would do a little more acting in LA before moving to Nashville in the mid 1990s. In 1997, she signed a recording deal and got some airplay on country radio, including a sad but beautiful ballad called Streets of Heaven that, in 2003, became her biggest hit. But her first love- more than acting, more than singing, was writing, which she continued to do even as she left Nashville for a time in 2005 to sing on the stage in New York city. Returning to Nashville in 2011, she released another album, Circus Girl, which displayed her full talent as a singer/songwriter. But, as Austin will explain, she was drawn more towards writing and performing, and since then has become one of country music’s most respected writers.

You know their words and melodies, but maybe not their names: Write You A Song features country music’s most successful songwriters talking about their craft with host Tom Mailey from Bonneville radio station New Country 105.1 KNCI in Sacramento. Tom is a country radio veteran with over 30 years of experience in Seattle and Sacramento, and has always been a song lyric junkie. He hopes this podcast will shine a spotlight on the talented men and women who, mostly behind the scenes, write the songs that become part of our lives. (Follow Tom on Twitter at @kncitom, Instagram at @tomailey or on Facebook at facebook.com/kncipatandtom)

You know their words and melodies, but maybe not their names: Write You A Song features country music&rsquo;s most successful songwriters talking about their craft with host Tom Mailey from Bonneville radio station New Country 105.1 KNCI in Sacramento. Tom is a country radio veteran with over 30 years of experience in Seattle and Sacramento, and has always been a song lyric junkie. He hopes this podcast will shine a spotlight on the talented men and women who, mostly behind the scenes, write the songs that become part of our lives. (Follow Tom on Twitter at @kncitom, Instagram at @tomailey or on Facebook at facebook.com/kncipatandtom)

Write You A Song Podcast

Write You A Song

Songwriter Sherrie Austin shares her journey as an actor, performer and, ultimately, songwriter and Nashville business woman

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