EllieMay Kay of Nashville North pays it forward to future musicians

EAU CLAIRE — EllieMay Kay was once a rising country star in Nashville. Now Kay and her husband bring Nashville to the people of the Chippewa Valley.

“I did not get into the music business until a little bit later in my life because my kids were growing up,” explained Kay, a native of Fall Creek. “I never really thought too much about music.”

While she was not initially performing music, her husband was in a band with his mother. Kay’s initial experience was running sound for his band.

Things took a turn in 2007 as the cable television station CMT ran a program called “Music City Madness,” encouraging people to submit original songs online. Kay took her chances and filmed an original song in the Stones Throw venue in Eau Claire.

“I did my song and I actually submitted it on the last day of the competition,” she said. “And I got in; I can’t even believe it. I think it was eight people got chosen out of the United States to actually compete in this Music City Madness competition, and I was one of them.

“I was blown away.”

Kay described her confidence growing as various opportunities started to open for her. She began writing music for her first album, “The Musician’s Wife.” The songs on that first album were autobiographical songs including Kay’s signature song, “The Girl with the Fishing Rod.” Her foot was in the door and her and her husband moved south to Nashville, her experiences being the basis she penned her next album, “More of What Matters.”

In Nashville she followed her dreams of being a star, performing as the primary musician a a bar and grill on the main stretch in the city to make ends meet. Dizzying heights soon followed; she was in talks for being an extra in the CMT drama series “Nashville,” with the possibility of being in a spinoff series that had its roots in her “Girl With The Fishing Rod” song.

Unfortunately, Kay soon learned how fleeting her experiences in Nashville would be.

”A LOT OF TEARS”“We were flying high; we really were,” said Kay. “And then, we got in a car accident.”

She remembered being on her way home to get ready for a show later that evening. At a stop light, another driver had hit her vehicle from the back side at around 70 miles per hour, causing Kay’s vehicle to flip over a 15 foot embankment.

“It took about 45 minutes to extract us from our car, and we almost lost our lives,” recalled Kay. “Our family had to come and take care of us. It was several months before we were able to even travel, and then they had to move us all the way back to Wisconsin. Because we couldn’t take care of ourselves. We were that bad.

“There were a lot of tears and, yeah, a lot of rehabilitation.”

While she hurt physically from the accident, she also hurt emotionally knowing that her dream of being a country music star, due to no fault of her own, had been suddenly extinguished.

“I think that we had a hard time with it, honestly, because we were at the height of our career at that point, but I believe that God always has a plan about things,” she said.

THE BIRTH OF NASHVILLE NORTH

Despite the accident and its aftermath, Kay and her husband still had the love of music inside them. Once they recuperated in their home in Fall Creek, Kay made a proposal to her husband.

“We decided that if we weren’t gonna make it to Nashville, I told my husband that we’re going to bring Nashville to us. That’s when we decided about Nashville North,” she said.

Making their “piece of Nashville” a reality brought up many questions for Kay and her husband, including the value of Kay’s dreams of stardom that led her to Nashville in the first place.

“I realized that I just love the music so much. Do I have to be a star? Why can’t I just do what I love and actually pay it forward to other musicians? So we decided we’re going to entertain the people right here in our own backyard,” she said.

And that’s just what Kay does at Nashville North. The venue holds an annual summer concert series featuring up-and-coming country acts here in the Chippewa Valley, bringing more well-known acts such as The Kentucky Headhunters, The Bellamy Brothers, and T. Graham Brown. With those stars, less-experienced acts also get their moment in the spotlight at the venue.

“I want younger people to build a fan base, and so we started bringing younger musicians in that are just starting out that don’t have a lot of confidence and we’re collaborating with them,” she said. “We’re having them be a part of what we’re doing — playing along with musicians that are famous.”

For Kay, she remembered having her big break, and she feels that she can do the same with the next generation of musicians in her little part of Nashville right here in Wisconsin. She is proud that paying it forward is already paying dividends.

“All the young people that we’ve had in Nashville North have had their confidence has been built up, they’ve formed their own bands, they’ve moved on, and they’re performing everywhere,” said Kay. “ I couldn’t ask for more. This is exactly what I wanted. I wanted these younger people to be competent and to pursue their careers. They’re our future as far as I’m concerned.

That’s what I wanted to do — we set a good example.”