The name Erin Viancourt may be new to you in country music circles as it was to Lonesome Highway until we received a review copy of her recently released debut album, WON’T DIE THIS WAY. The Cleveland-born artist has spent the past eight years in Nashville steadily and deftly growing her profile from playing small dive bars to more recently playing arenas while touring with Cody Jinks. The first signing to Jinks’ Late August label, her debut album is forged from both traditional and modern country roots, while avoiding anything that approaches the pop/crossover sound currently dominating the airwaves. A maturing artist with a crystal-clear career trajectory and mentored by one of the most successful independent country artists in Cody Jinks, Viancourt is set to move swiftly from the ‘one to watch’ category to the ‘one that has truly arrived.’
Was there more rock and roll than country music surrounding you growing up in Cleveland?
Yes, lots of rock and roll of course being in Cleveland, but my family also listened to a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker, Asleep At The Wheel, Patsy Cline and John Denver. Lots of Irish music too, we’re a bit of Scotch, Irish and French, we have a heavy Irish bloodline.
You headed to Nashville when you finished school. Was that daunting at the time?
Not at all, it was wonderful. It was ‘get me out of this town, I’m ready to go.’ I had a very supportive family. My dad drove me to Paris, Tennessee, before I moved to Nashville as I had a cousin living there. That made it an easier move. It was fun telling my high schoolmates that I was going to Paris to sing country music. I didn’t tell them which Pari
Did you have contacts in Nashville?
I did not. I just wandered into the first bar that would let me play and played to nobody for a long time. I played Your Mother’s Bar and Grill and I met people that are still some of my very best friends there, including the guy that plays guitar in my band on the road with me. He was one of the very first people I met in town in this little hole-in-the wall bar. People that were playing to nobody with me back then are now getting to do all this fun stuff together.
I understand that you worked at 3rd & Lindsley for a number of years. Was that a conscious decision to work at a music bar with the opportunity of networking?
I worked at a few BBQ places before that but it was better to work at 3rd & Lindsley and get to see The Time Jumpers play every Monday night. If you’re going to be a waiter or a bar attender you might as well listen to good music too. As well as filling my soul with good music and resetting my brain if I was getting a bit down in the dumps, the owners and promoters there were kind enough to believe in me from a very young age. They would put me up as an opener for acts when they had the choice to do so. They let me open for some wonderful names like Paul Thorn, Travis Meadows, Mikey Guyton, and Alex Williams. Alex actually played a big part in connecting me with the people I’m working with right now, which helped me get my record deal and make this record.
You recently had your album release show at 3rd & Lindsley which must have been particularly pleasing for you.
Yes, I got to do my album release show there. It was really full circle for me back playing there and we had a good turnout.
When did you make your first formal recording with the debut single, Playing Old Records?
I opened up for Alex Williams at 3rd & Lindsley in April or May of 2019 and released that single, Playing Old Records, in September of that year. The team that I have behind me now reached out and told me that they were paying attention and asked me to come to Texas and talk to them, which I did. Then the world shut down, but I stayed with them and as soon as things opened up again, they had me opening up for Cody Jinks and Travis Tritt, and they kept asking me back to play more shows with them. They also told me that I needed a record out and that’s what we did.
You had already written a number of the songs from your early days in Nashville. What were the first and last songs that ended up on WON’T DIE THIS WAY?
Yes, I had. The first song, Beautiful Night For Goodbye, was written in 2014 and the last ones, Some Things Never Get Old and the title track, Won’t Die This Way, were both written in 2021.
Is that title song, WON’T DIE THIS WAY, tongue-in-cheek or factual?
That is a very literal song. When you’re in a situation in your life when you are so heartbroken and you think ‘This can’t be it, this isn’t how I want to live only knowing this feeling. I got to do something about it.’
The album is truly modern country. You avoided going down the more mainstream pop/ country crossover road.
I won’t die singing pop-country music. I tend to like old country music and not the mainstream country. There’s room for all of it, although I don’t necessarily listen to the crossover stuff. I want to make the kind of music that I’m a fan of. You don’t know what the end result is going to be like while recording an album, as much as you attempt to make it the way you want it to sound. My goal while recording is always to make an album that I would love listening to.
You have blended the classic country sound of yesteryear on songs like B24, Old Time Melody and Beautiful Night For Goodbye, alongside the Brandi Carlisle-type anthem, Should’ve Known Better, which is a show stopper.
That’s a song that I get a lot of messages about, people saying that they’ve screamed that line from the top of their lungs many times. That song can be about so many things. It’s the classic thing that most people can relate to, ‘I knew better but I still did it.’
You are the first signing to Cody Jinks’ Late August Records. How did that come about?
When I played that show with Alex Williams at 3rd & Lindsley, Cody’s management team heard what we were doing and asked us to come down to Texas, which we did. From there we signed on as a team with them and after Covid, we went down to Austin and opened up for Cody Jinks and Travis Tripp. They were kind enough to ask us back continually and we did a good amount of touring with them from last year. We spoke a lot with Cody about music and protecting the integrity of your own music in this business. He’s just a good guy that not only wants to help young artists to get their music out there but to also inspire them to keep making music and writing honest and authentic music, and to be aware of protecting it. So, I’m very proud to be on Late August records and have that team around me. I consider myself to be one of the luckiest people in Nashville.
What has it been like touring with Cody and playing to large audiences?
The most fun thing about playing shows with him is the variation. Some days we walk into an arena or a large amphitheatre but there are also shows where he goes back to small dive bars that only fit a couple of hundred people and they’ve got them packed in there. I know that’s what fills his soul, playing those smaller gigs where you get to be up close and personal with the audience. We’ve played to fifteen hundred people, twenty-five thousand and a couple of hundred people. It’s really sweet to watch him weave in and out of that and loving what’s he is doing. As well as opening, I get to do a couple of songs with him during his set. We sing his song, We Get By, which is one of my favourite songs of his and also cover the Bob Seger song, Still The Same. We actually recorded that song and will be releasing it sometime this year.
As the opening act, how does playing in large arenas compare to smaller rooms?
I’ve only played once to twenty-five thousand, so I have a long way to go to get there for my own shows. When you’re the opener in a show you can be playing to a lot of empty seats sometimes. It’s almost like a challenge to find those people that are there that don’t know who you are. But, you can see some that are enjoying themselves and also tune out the people who have got up to go and get a beer. You also find people that are singing along and they are the ones that I’m singing to. For smaller crowds, you just play like there are twenty-five thousand people singing along to your songs. As well as a support act we’re slowly making our way to headlining shows, where I get to pretty much play the whole album out on the road.
A lot of artists like yourself comment on how hard it can be to get regular shows in Nashville away from the commercial tourist scene.
Yes, you wouldn’t think so, but it can be hard to find yourself a spot to play in and get paid in Nashville. There are many wonderful spots in Nashville where the locals go and not really tourists. So, if you want to hear good country music there are a lot of community-based places like The Underdog, Honky Tonk Tuesday at The American Legion, Dee’s Cocktail Lounge, where you can meet your friends and play music.
I get the impression that you’re a very structured and goal-driven person. Where would you like to see yourself in ten years’ time?
My ten-year plan is to be consistently touring, ideally with a full band that I can pay handsomely, still making music and being able to pay the bills doing that. I’ve dreamt of places that I’d love to play like The Opry, The Ryman, and Red Rocks. Coming over to play Europe and especially Ireland and maybe making ten more records.
Interview by Declan Culliton