Since moving to Music City eight years ago, SJ McDonald has worked to, as she puts it on her newest single, cut a slice of “Honky Tonk Pie.”
McDonald spent her first seven years cutting her teeth on Broadway. All the while, she spent countless hours in writing rooms and in the studio honing her sound; dialing in on the artist she wanted to be and what she wanted to say. The result? A supremely confident singer/songwriter who is releasing the best music of her career.
Now, as the one year anniversary of leaving Broadway approaches, McDonald has unveiled “Honky Tonk Pie,” a steel-laden boot stomper that pays homage to those years of her life, and at the same time, folks who are working hard in pursuit of their own dreams.
We chatted with McDonald all about “Honky Tonk Pie,” as well as her 90s country influences, her early start in music, growth and more!
Pro Country: Your bio mentions falling in love with country music from the 90s and 2000s very early in your life. Who were some of the artists that spurred that love, and what was it about those sounds and eras that struck a chord with you?
SJ McDonald: One of the first was early Carrie Underwood. Her album, Some Hearts, was my bread and butter. Then there were artists like Brooks & Dunn, the Dixie Chicks and Sara Evans. And of course, Alan Jackson. Who doesn’t love Alan Jackson?!
I feel like the Carrie Underwood influence really comes through in my music. Sometimes I’ll even notice myself singing notes how she would sing them. I find it in my writing, too. I mix the Carrie and Dixie Chicks influences a lot, combined with the grit of Brooks & Dunn.
PC: You began writing songs and performing at just nine years-old. What was it about those crafts that connected with you so early in your life?
SJ: I think I had a crush on a boy and I didn’t know what to do about it [laughs]. I remember the first song I wrote was about this guy taking me away on a white horse. It was very Taylor Swift-y [laughs]. I’ve always loved love, so that’s where a lot of songs started.
For some reason, at an early age, I was digging into really tough songs, too. I remember being 12 years-old and writing a song about a little girl who lost her mom and her dad takes her to her mom’s grave every day. Like, why was I thinking that at 12 years-old?!
It was all so natural to me, though. I don’t remember thinking about it or questioning it, I would just sit down and write songs.
PC: With that deep love for music and planting your own roots within it, when did you realize you wanted to, and actually could, pursue music as a career?
SJ: That came around age 13 or 14 when I started playing shows with my own band. I started performing in karaoke competitions to backing tracks at around 10 years-old, but when I got a band, I knew that was it. I always knew I wanted to be a singer. I didn’t know how, but I knew getting a band was the first big step. I had a band of a bunch of 40-something year old men that were listening to a 13 year-old girl tell them how to play the music, and they were liking it [laughs].
PC: You moved from your native Virginia to Nashville at just 18 years-old. What emotions came with moving so far away from home and everything you knew to pursue music?
SJ: I was applying for colleges, and somebody in my hometown said that I should apply to Belmont, so I did. The way I saw it was as long as I had a place to get my education, eat and sleep, I’d be fine. I went to Nashville, and I don’t remember having an “oh my gosh, I need to be here” moment. I remember it feeling like what I was supposed to be doing. For some reason, it never felt scary, which is surprising, because I grew up on a farm. I always joke that I grew up under Patrick Star’s rock, because I hadn’t seen the world. I was never scared, because I figured that was a dream that God had put on my heart, and that kept me from being scared to take a big leap.
PC: You got accepted into Belmont and studied songwriting. Though you’d been doing it for about a decade up to that point, what was it like to be surrounded by the collective talent at the University, and how much were you able to learn as you navigated through the program with the University’s guidance?
SJ: Moving to Nashville and being surrounded by that talent, especially at Belmont, threw me off a bit. I’d never been around that many musical, like-minded people. Everybody was so confident about what they were doing. At that point in my life, even though I wasn’t afraid to move to Nashville, I wasn’t confident enough to stand in a park and sing, and that’s what all the kids in Belmont were doing. It gave me a kick in the butt to find my confidence.
It was eye-opening, though, to find so many people with the same interests. When you’re in a small town, there’s really only a few things you could get into. None of my friends from high school were really into music, it was just me. In Nashville, it felt like community was finally showing up.
PC: How long did it take you to find your confidence and come into yourself as an artist and a songwriter?
SJ: I really started coming into my own when I was 19 or 20. And from age 23 on, that’s when I really hit the ground running and truly figured out how I wanted to sound and what I wanted to say. I had to become okay with being different. When I first moved to Town, I think I chased some things. I chased how I could sing like Carrie Underwood, so I tried to do rockin’ country, like her song “Last Name.” I thought that was the girl I needed to be. I had to take a step back and ask myself why I was singing angry songs, because I wasn’t an angry person. Changing from chasing to finding what’s in my heart and getting back to my roots really gave me confidence.
PC: “Hot Damn” was your second single, and the first that had a great moment on streaming, earning hundreds of thousands of streams and listens. As a new artist at that time, how encouraging was seeing the response and life that “Hot Damn” had?
SJ: “Hot Damn” was a moment for me. That was the first song where people in Nashville started to say, “Oh shoot, she can really sing and write a song!” Looking back, “Hot Damn” even felt a little like I was chasing. At that moment, I was just writing to write; I wasn’t pulling from my heart and what I wanted to say yet. That wasn’t fully developed, fully-confident SJ. That’s grown every day since.
PC: There were almost two years between the release of your debut EP, How to Live, and its follow up single, “Rosemary.” Since then, you’ve been pretty consistently releasing new music. In that time between, did you see that as a time where you began to come into your own as an artist and what you wanted to say?
SJ: There was a lot of that, but at the same time, it was financial. I’m such an old-school person; I want to record my songs in a live studio with a live band. I want them to be of the same caliber of the 90s and 2000s, and that’s expensive to do.
I’d released How to Live in 2021, and in the fall of 2022, I was going to put out “Rosemary” and “Who Hurt You,” but I got into a huge car wreck, and I spent every dime I had in my savings account on a new car. I had finally saved up the money to get in the studio and do those songs right, but then came a huge life event where I walked away, with barely a scratch, from a huge car wreck. It made me slow down for a minute, but it also gave me the time to keep working on the songs. In those two years between the EP to this new era of music, I changed so much. I grew up around bluegrass music and I still love it, and I’ve started incorporating a little bit of that into my music. I didn’t want to be super rocky like “Hot Damn” all the time. I wanted to mesh the sass of “Who Hurt You” with the rock of “Locked Up.”
PC: “Who Hurt You” went viral on TikTok a few days before its release, and went on to perform very well on streaming as well. What was it like to see the song have a moment before its release and to see it carry into the release?
SJ: Oh my gosh, it was like cocaine! I’ve never done cocaine, but I would imagine that’s what it feels like [laughs]. On paper, the plan is to post on TikTok, blow up a song and release it. To finally have a song that people gravitated towards, and wanted to hear more than once, was really gratifying. It reminded me that I was on the right path. Making those changes that I made had moved me towards my audience; an audience who loves the 90s and 2000s traditional-leaning country that I love.
PC: You kicked off 2024 with two acoustic, almost bluegrass-adjacent singles. How much did you enjoy tapping into those roots and influences with those songs, and to see “Right Hand Man” connect with people the way that it did?
SJ: Bringing in my bluegrass influence was another validating moment. Bluegrass and country are cousins; you can’t have one without the other. They feed into each other. You see that with Zach Top and Sierra Ferrell now. Leaning into that has introduced me to a new demographic of not just country fans, but bluegrass fans who get down with country. I always tell people that I’m a country singer having a love affair with bluegrass. It’s nice to pay respect to my roots. In the Shenandoah Valley, people show out for bluegrass. There’s videos of me singing “Two Dozen Roses” and “Lose Again” by Alison Krauss, and they’re fun for the love of music. That’s what I love about bluegrass: everybody loves to jam! It’s not about selling tickets to an arena, it’s about getting together with your friends and playing music in its most pure form.
PC: Your new single, “Honky Tonk Pie,” follows your grooving, last single, “Wild Women.” Why did you feel “Honky Tonk Pie” was the right follow up single?
SJ: I’ve always wanted a barn-burner song. When we wrote “Honky Tonk Pie,” it turned out that way, and it was also about my life. I made a shift in how I write songs; I used to write songs just to write them and to have the coolest song to put out. I realized with “Right Hand Man” that people wanted to hear my story, because that song is 100% true. “Wild Women” was also 100% true about my family. “Honky Tonk Pie” is 100% true about my life. It’s been really empowering to tell my story.
This month, I’m celebrating one year of leaving Broadway. I played on Broadway for tips for seven years, which is what “Honky Tonk Pie” is about. It felt like a good time to put this song out and celebrate that I’ve been able to tour full-time for a year and lift off some dreams.
I want and hope that people can see the song as something that’s not just about being a musician, but anybody chasing a dream. We specifically made the cover photo a pocket of a jean, instead of a pie, so it can apply to blue collar workers, people chasing a dream to be an athlete, a nurse, people raising kids; people who get up every day and work their asses off. That’s another reason I’m putting this song out: I want to make some fun out of the hard work.
PC: From your earliest recordings through present day, you’ve served as a co-producer on your releases. How much have you enjoyed the role of having such a hands-on approach with your music, and how do you think you’ve grown in the studio?
SJ: I think you can hear from “Give Me Back My Heart” to now how I’ve gotten more intertwined in the production. The music feels more true to me. I realized that I know what I want, and I’m not afraid to ask for it. I have a lot of fun collaborating with the musicians in the studio. When we recorded “Rosemary,” I was cutting live vocals while the band was playing. Between takes, I’d be calling out numbers on the charts and editing little things for the band. It’s another creative outlet for me. As an artist, I don’t think the work with the song stops when you finish writing it. It continues in the studio, and I want to be a part of that.
PC: Within the last year, you’ve earned major label cuts with Mackenzie Carpenter, Mae Estes and Caylee Hammack. How encouraging is it to know that your songs are being heard by a major audience, and how much do you value the relationships you’ve built with some of the great female country music singer/songwriters?
SJ: It’s so cool to invest time in your friends and to see it work. To have your friends believe in songs that you helped them write to the point where they’ll put them out for the whole world has affirmed me as a songwriter. I’ve been making the joke that right now, I’ve been struggling on TikTok to get my music to pop off, but my girls that I write songs with are getting them to pop off, so at least somebody likes my music! [laughs].
PC: 2025 marks eight years since you moved to Nashville. In those eight years, what do you feel has been the biggest thing you’ve learned?
SJ: There’s a few things. First, the growth I’ve seen in myself gives me confidence. I’m not the girl that came here begging for somebody to like her. Now, I’m the girl that knows I’m loved and knows that I love my people good. I know that I write good songs and that they’re going to resonate with who they need to resonate with.
Another thing I’ve learned is to keep my head down and not compare myself. That’s the hardest thing to do, but I find myself so much better off when I’m on social media a little less. I’ll get on, make a post, like and comment on my friends’ posts, and then I’m out. I go live my life, keep my blinders on, and remind myself that just because someone is on a certain path, it doesn’t have to be mine. I think about how Luke Combs got turned away by every label in Town. Lainey Wilson didn’t get a publishing deal until her 7th or 8th year in Town. Stories like that keep me going.
PC: You have plenty of shows across several different states lined up for the rest of the year. How much are you looking forward to staying busy on the road and on the stage and bringing your music to new people?
SJ: I love being on the road so much that I’ve actually struggled being home in Nashville. I realize that routine is so important for our bodies, but mentally, I love how every day is new. It’s another thing that’s like cocaine, I bet it would feel like what being on the road feels like! [laughs]. There’s a lot of new shows in new places. I’ll be opening up for Emily Ann Roberts in markets that I haven’t gotten into yet. I’ll also be opening for Collin Raye for a few dates, which is really exciting! Every day that I get to play outside of Nashville is an opportunity to make another fan. People would come to Nashville all the time and find me on Broadway, but not everybody can afford to come out here and spend all their money. I want to find a balance of playing for the people here and playing for the people everywhere else.
PC: With “Honky Tonk Pie” now released, what do you have planned for the rest of 2025 and going into 2026?
SJ: I was just in the studio last week! The plan after “Honky Tonk Pie” is to get new music out within two or three months. That’s the plan on paper. Everything as an independent artist is so fluid, but I’m very hopeful. I may or may not have a music video in the can for a certain song that I have to figure out how to get out there. Those are the big things right now.
Pro Country 