Julianne Ankley - Country singer/songwriter

Nashville Dinner Theatre CMA Fest Review

A couple of weeks ago I became the talent buyer for the Nashville Dinner Theatre and I had the “opportunity” to throw together a CMA Fest showcase with about four days to make it happen before the biggest Country Music festival in the world kicked off. Four days full of music from 2 pm to 2 am Thursday through Sunday. It was a whirlwind for sure and I faced just about every adversity you could think of during that time but we came out of it clean and ready to make great things happen.

I want to highlight some of the artists that I got to see at our venue during those four days and maybe talk about a couple disappointments so that maybe some other musicians trying to make it can take something away from it.

The first artist that impressed me the most with the total overall package was Julianne Ankley (www.julianneankley.net.) She just goes by “Julianne” for her stage name. Julianne is chasing her dream and started only a short 5 years ago but is so far ahead of the game compared to most whom have been doing this for much longer. Not only is she talented with a rich voice, but has really good phrasing as well. Her songwriting is strong and her presence on stage is captivating and mature. She is very professional, and has a knack for telling great stories, which helps her relate with the audience and she is attractive. Her image is polished and she marketed herself very well at our venue, much better than anyone else actually. I have left all of her material out to this day so that people will find out about her because her marketing material is top notch.