Nicolle Galyon

Prior to launching her performing career, Nicolle Galyon established herself as a prominent songwriter within Nashville, penning nine songs that topped the Billboard Country Airplay charts and earning two Song of the Year awards from the Academy of Country Music. The first of these honors were granted for "Automatic," a 2014 hit from the modern-day outlaw Miranda Lambert, with the second arriving in 2019 for "Tequila," a sunny smash from country-pop duo Dan + Shay. Galyon's music lies somewhere between these two poles, demonstrating a classicist sense of craft, a lyrical eye for detail, and a willingness to embrace contemporary production styles in a fashion not dissimilar to Kacey Musgraves or Ashley Monroe. All these qualities were showcased on firstborn, her 2022 debut album. Born on July 22, 1984, in Winner, South Dakota, and raised in Sterling, Kansas, Nicolle Galyon headed to Nashville's Belmont University after graduating high school in 2002. Initially, she believed she'd become an agent or an artist manager, but while she was attending Belmont she was drawn to songwriting. After her graduation in 2006, she inked a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Nashville. By 2011, she had placed songs on records by Point of Grace, Josh Kelley, and Lauren Alaina, yet Galyon started to develop an itch to perform. She wound up as a contestant on The Voice as part of Adam Levine's team in 2012, and though that appearance didn't open many performing doors beyond a single from the show, she did meet Miranda Lambert while on the program. The two musicians struck up a friendship that turned into a creative partnership. Galyon co-wrote "We Were Us" with Lambert and Natalie Hemby, a song Miranda performed as a duet with Keith Urban. "We Were Us" climbed to number one on Billboard's Country Airplay charts, a success that led to Galyon receiving five writing credits on Platinum, the 2014 album from Miranda Lambert. Among those tracks was "Automatic," a song that wound up winning Song of the Year from the Academy of Country Music Awards and Single of the Year from the Country Music Association. Galyon spent the second half of the 2010s co-writing songs for several of the biggest stars in country music. She regularly worked with Dan + Shay, RaeLynn, and Lady A, while also writing songs recorded by Florida Georgia Line, Kenny Chesney, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Walker Hayes, and Ashley Monroe. Galyon also crossed over to the pop charts in 2018 with "Consequences," which she wrote for Camila Cabello. She continued to pursue performing, releasing the EP The Worktapes. in 2016, but she continued to be a greater force behind the scenes. In 2019, Galyon launched Songs & Daughters, a subsidiary label of Big Loud that focused on women artists; Madison Kozak and Hailey Whitters were the first artists signed to the label, while Tiera Kennedy and Lauren Watkins were signed to the publishing branch that was opened in 2020. Songs & Daughters is also where Galyon began her career as a performing artist in earnest. After releasing the "All the Things" single in 2020, she launched the album cycle for her full-length debut in 2022, releasing the singles "winner.," "boy crazy." and "self care." prior to the July release of the autobiographical firstborn.
© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo