Michael Haney

Michael Haney was about six years old when a great-uncle gifted him a guitar and he began learning to play. He’s been writing songs since he was a teenager, and he’d sometimes perform at family gatherings and among friends at college parties. But making a career out of making music always felt out of reach — until 2015.

That year, Haney found himself at a crossroads. He was looking for his next gig after a decade as a sports radio producer and on-air personality in his native South Carolina, but he wasn’t finding the right thing. “If I’m gonna have to start over,” he remembers thinking, “I’m gonna start over in something that I love.”

Haney moved to Nashville that September. Now signed to Rock Ridge Music, he’s honing his warm, comforting Americana sound under the guidance of producer Ben Jackson (Josh Ross, Sister Hazel, Aaron Watson). The two friends met through their work with the country-pop-rock band Sister Hazel; in addition to his music, Haney works for the band’s merch company (he is also a voice actor for commercials and audiobooks.)

Haney’s songs “Fool’s Gold” and “Get That Far” highlight his strong but soothing voice. While they sound like lovelorn laments, they’re rooted in Haney’s experiences in the music business. Nashville veteran Kenny Foster, Haney’s co-writer on both songs, was instrumental in crafting lyrics that speak to both situations.

 "He’s one of the first people that I felt like, when we were writing, we were speaking the same language,” Haney says. “To find that commonality between love and this career was really cool, and I tip my cap to him for finding that lining in them both and helping craft them and move them in that direction.”

Like Jackson, Foster is a friend first and a collaborator second. Haney and Foster are both fans of the Tottenham Hotspur football club and met while watching the team’s matches at Belcourt Taps, a Nashville bar, years ago. They lost touch during the COVID-19 pandemic but reconnected in late 2023, spent hours catching up over lunch, and have been “fast friends” ever since.

“Having that rapport with somebody and being able to get those thoughts and ideas and feelings out with somebody who already kind of knows you definitely helps the process,” Haney says.

Since his career pivot, Haney has not only made a point of immersing himself in the Nashville songwriting community, but he’s also tried to bring the city’s talented writers to his home state. Since 2021, Haney has booked Nashville Nights, a weekly summertime songwriter series at Steel Hands Brewery in Cayce, S.C. The lineups are a mix of hit songwriters and up-and-comers: Leah Blevins, Chris Canterbury, Ben Chapman, Erin Enderlin, Bree Kennedy, Phillip Lammonds, Gabe Lee, Paul McDonald, Kylie Sackley, Brit Taylor, Channing Wilson and Lily Winwood are among the performers who have taken part. Sister Hazel has even popped by for a surprise set.

Haney has also expanded Nashville Nights to include local singer-songwriters — his way of giving back. He still remembers being shut out of what he hoped would be his first public performance due to an age restriction and sees the weekly series as a chance to create for someone else the opportunity he never got.

“Are you playing? Are you trying to do this damn thing?” Haney asks. “Then come up here and play with people who are living and writing songs in Nashville, make those connections and try to understand it. If that kind of stuff had been around and I had fully understood the world a little bit more earlier, then maybe I would have made the move sooner.”

Similarly, Haney sees his career as his chance to right past wrongs. He’s doing this not only for himself — he’s doing it for a cousin who moved to Nashville in the 1980s but signed a bad contract and grew jaded with the music industry. He’s also doing it for the uncle who gave Haney his guitar after an injury forced him to stop playing, and for his paternal grandfather, who was in a performing trio in the 1950s but had to give up his dream to raise his family.

“I’ve always thought about these moments and these things that didn’t quite happen for people in my family,” Haney says. “Me being pulled to move here is maybe closing some kind of cosmic circle, because there’s obviously been an effort from people in my family, and maybe I’m just the next in the line to try and do it.”

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