Griffin House

“Rising Star” is not a phrase one would normally use to describe an artist like Griffin House, who has been touring for more than 15 years and has recorded over 12 studio albums.

The title of House’s upcoming release, Rising Star, references the first track on the album which tells the story of a character who moves to Music City, like so many do, with a guitar and a dream. Although not intended to be autobiographical, the listener gets the sense that this comical and fictitious tale could hardly have been woven by someone without a similar life experience to the protagonist in Rising Star.

Indeed, House’s story began in much the same way. Moving to Nashville as a young man in 2003 with not much more than a guitar and a handful of songs, he took a part time job downtown at a Broadway gift shop, biding his time before he caught his big break. That big break came after just a few months, in the form of a phone call from Island Def Jam Records, which jumpstarted his career and led to him signing with CAA and Nettwerk Records.

After that, things happened quickly for House. His 2004 debut album Lost and Found was lauded by music critics such as Bill Flanagan (Executive VP MTV/VH1 Networks) who featured House on the CBS Sunday Morning show as one of the “best emerging songwriters.” He began touring, opening for acts like John Mellencamp and The Cranberries, and found himself meeting people like Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson. By all accounts, House seemed poised to be more of an “overnight success” rather than a ”rising star”… but that’s not exactly how things turned out. “I’ve been a “rising star” for the past 15 years” House jokes, “It’s a slow rise.”

Although House has enjoyed plenty of success as national headliner for over a decade and has earned a great deal of respect as a well-known performer and singer-songwriter, he seems to not take himself or his career in the music industry too seriously.

Now married, sober, and a father, House has learned to balance his career by making his family and his sobriety his first priority. He pays tribute to his wife and children with When The Kids Are Gone, a song about watching his daughters grow up and imagining he and his wife as empty nesters.

There’s a sense of lightness in his new record, which comes across particularly in the first few tracks, such as in Mighty Good Friend, where you can hear his daughters on the recording, and the tongue-in-cheek humor in 15 Minutes of Fame.

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