NashvilleSteeringCommittee-BethSass

Beth Sass

She was born in New York and raised in Boston

She lives in Nashville

She's under five feet.

And what the hell does any of that have to do with writing exceptional songs? Well, it all adds up to a dynamo lady who, by eighth grade, was part of a duo that lasted through high school and one record.

Why not?

By age 12, Beth Sass, inspired by her poet mother and artists such as the Beatles, Laura Nyro, Dusty Springfield, and Leonard Cohen, had written her first song.

It only seems natural when high school was behind her that Beth attended Berklee College of Music. There she studied composition. As her reputation grew due to her poignant songwriting and elegant piano work, her artistic identity was solidified. As a professor at Berklee suggested, she sent her compositions to Nashville, where Sony (then Tree Publishing) signed songs from her catalog. This is no little accomplishment. Tree Publishing was the big time...by the time Sony Music bought Tree it had a catalogue of approximately 35,000 songs and had been the leading publisher on the Billboard charts since 1973.

But Beth didn't move to Nashville right away. Instead, and wisely she was performing in the Boston area as a solo artist at colleges and coffee houses and suddenly, fraught with angst that was captured and recycled into songs, she found herself a huge draw at massively attended piano bars. She also spent several years on the New England Country Music circuit, fronting her own band.

But Nashville was not to be denied. She was signed as a staff songwriter at Multimedia Music and later Alabama's (the band) Maypop Music Group, where she was mentored by great country lyricists Don Pfrimmer (Don had a top ten hit almost every year in the 80s and 90s, and 2000s. In all, ten of them went to number 1) and John Jarrard (Jarrard had 11 number ones on the country singles charts before diabetes caught up to him). And get this.... she supported herself as honky-tonk country keyboardist, and piano-bar and demo singer. She also toured for several years as keyboard player, for acts like Herb Reed and the Platters, The Drifters and The Coasters. Through it all she is learning, collecting experience, and setting herself up for her own successful career.

Beth then recorded with producer Richard Adler (Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, Alison Krauss). “Naomi” hit Indie Music Community Garageband.com, reaching #1 in Acoustic. Also, her song “Stampede” was chosen for a Shuteye Records Americana compilation, "The United States of Americana".

She continued to write and record, including the 2012 release, "Knowing Me", which was produced by her and Jerome Kimbrough (Ray Stevens, Ronnie Milsap). “Just one man worked best for me on this record,” says Beth, who says Kimbrough was invaluable.   “We did it all ourselves. This was a product of two people having a big conversation...It’s six songs and six emotional places that I hit over the course of the season.  It’s a season of feelings.”

More recently, Beth has been collaborating with the certified rockstar Walter Egan (“Magnet and Steel” and “Hot Summer Nights”). Together they have written and recorded and performed a wide array of poignant songs and released the album WEBS.

Just in time to record her new album, "Blue Blind Sky", Beth was endorsed by Casio Music Gear, promoting Casio Keyboards for performance recording, and education throughout the United States.

About "Blue Blind Sky", Beth said, "This new album is a phoenix of magnificent creative teamwork rising out of pandemic-era separation".

"Since my need to document life and love through songwriting can't be vanquished by challenging logistics like bicoastal time zones and divergent sleep schedules, technology prevailed, and the artistic process won out.  Thank you to visionary songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Ira Ingber for his compositional and production midwifery."