Nashville Noise sat down with talented singer-songwriter Alex Guthrie ahead of his Nashville show at The Basement.
Guthrie is a dynamic artist from Atlanta who blends soul, folk and rock. He became a familiar face as “the guy from the Jennifer Hudson commercial.” Although we asked him about that, we got to know the man behind the video.
Nashville Noise: First of all, you’re a singer-songwriter in Atlanta. For those of us in Nashville that aren’t familiar with that music scene, what’s it like?
Alex: The Atlanta music scene is smaller than Nashville, but what I love about that is everyone knows one another and is ridiculously supportive and inclusive.
You became a familiar face as “the guy from the Jennifer Hudson commercial.” What’s the backstory on that?
I had no idea what I was getting into when I answered a Facebook ad looking for “a guy in his early 20’s with a soulful voice for a live performance.” I auditioned, got the part and showed up to find a whole camera crew waiting for me. The crew told me to start playing and the rest is what you see in the ad. It was all a complete surprise to me.
https://youtu.be/FpdKo6JnQJA
Wow. What a cool story. Since then, your incredible voice has spoken for itself. Now you’re heading out on your first big tour. What are your feelings ahead of that?
Thank you! I couldn’t be more excited. Over the past few years I’ve played around 1,000 gigs, so the nerves don’t really get to me anymore. Now I’m eager to experience performing in a bunch of new cities and making new friends.
You’re coming here to Nashville to play The Basement. You’re no stranger to playing here. You’ve played songwriter events, Whiskey Jam, etc. What do you like about Music City?
Everywhere you go there’s another amazing musician waiting to be heard. Literally, everyone I’ve seen is incredible. I love that the competition is so intense here — it really seems to make all the players bring their A-game.
What can people expect from that live show?
I started out playing the folk-songwriter scene and am moving towards soulful pop nowadays. When you come to my show, you’ll get a mix of the two genres — storytelling sandwiched between singing my heart out with my fantastic band.
Guthrie plays The Basement on June 8 and tickets are just $10. Grab yours now on TicketWeb, you won’t be disappointed.
