Meet Kate York, Nashville’s Hit Songwriter

In 1999, songwriter and Southern California native Kate York moved to Nashville “to be in music, to just be around it, somehow,” as she put it to me on the phone recently. Little did she know that, more than a decade later, producers would come hunting for musical innovators to fill out the authentic sound of a fledgling country-music series called Nashville.

If you’ve ever swayed to a Juliette Barnes track or flown to iTunes to download the latest Scarlett/Gunnar duet, you’re already a fan of York’s—you just don’t know it yet. She’s written seven songs for the show, coached the stars through their interpretations, and even jumped in on backup on the tracks. The 36-year-old told me all about how a song goes from her brain to our screens and what fun it is working with Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton.

MA: So, tell me about how you came to be one of the musicians who gave Nashville its sound.

KY: The people on Nashville were doing a big push with all the publishers in town, looking for music. They came in and gave us the gist of the show—Connie’s the established star, Hayden’s the bitch. Everyone in town was trying to get songs on there. I just decided to send a couple of songs: “Stronger Than Me,” which I wrote with Sara Buxton, and “I Will Fall,” which I wrote with Tyler James. Within a half hour, literally, they were like “we want them.” After that, it snowballed.

MA: How does the process of getting a song onto the show work?

KY: Typically, I pitch the songs myself, though Callie [Khouri, Nashville‘s show runner] has called me before and said “We love this, we want to have it on.” Next, I go in with [executive music producer] Buddy Miller and sing a guide vocal for the actor, in whatever key the actor needs it in. Then, they’ll sing it.

MA: It must be wild to see your songs sung by other actors on TV.

KY: The first one I really remember was when Hayden sang “For Your Glory” in season one, in the scene where she’s at church. We were watching together. It was just a crazy moment, like, I hardly know her, and I’m at her house watching her sing a song of mine on TV. It’s a feeling I can’t really describe. We got to watch another one together recently—when she sings “Trouble Is” in the party scene—and we were high-fiving.

MA: As far as your music career outside the show goes, how has Nashville affected things?

KY: Sara and I ended up getting nominated for an Emmy for the season-one finale, which was obviously helpful for visibility. The devastating thing was, after it was released to the press and everything, we found out that Emmy rules dictate you have to have written the song for the character. We wrote the song in 2011, so we ended up not being able to be in the category.

MA: That’s so sad. And it seems kind of counterproductive—like, wouldn’t you just want the best music, no matter what?

KY: Right. The thing is, the show is digging for songs that will fit the character, and giving people work. It’s all part of them helping the songwriting community. So that was a huge bummer. I cried many tears over that one. But Hayden was so sweet about it, she just said: “Kate, you can’t undo that kind of press. You were nominated, and they can’t take that away from you.”

MA: Aw. I love that you guys are buddies.

KY: Yeah, we go to this bar in town, the Red Door, quite a bit. We enjoy our fireball whiskey. She’s working on a record now, so we’ve begun writing songs together for that.

MA: That reminds me to ask you: one of my favorite scenes ever is the one where Rayna and Juliette stay up till dawn trying to write a song. It’s just all messy buns and liquor. True to life?

KY: Yes, that’s how it happens! They nailed that. You’re just up drinking whiskey all night.

You can find Kate’s vocal versions of her songs that went on to Nashville on YouTube (I love her on “I Will Fall”) and more of her music on Spotify. Follow Kate on Twitter here and Instagram here.