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Photos by Matt Brock.
Trussville native Brett Rutledge with musical partner Hillary McBride.
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Trussville native Brett Rutledge now calls Nashville home and has been making a name for himself in the music world for eight years.
Rutledge has come a long way since his beginnings as a tennis player at HTHS and a worship leader at First Baptist Church Trussville. He comes from a long line of football players, and playing tennis was just the first way he began to forge a path different from those before him.
“My dad and uncle both played on national championship teams at Alabama; my dad was quarterback in 1973, and my uncle played in 1978,” Rutledge said. “I played sports in high school, but not football. Now having a full-time career in music was kind of difficult for my dad to hear, but having a little bit of success was kind of eye-opening for my dad.”
Rutledge got a scholarship to play tennis at Wallace State Community College, and completed his freshman year there before transferring to the University of Alabama. After graduating, he decided to move to Nashville to pursue his music career.
Rutledge said he had a family friend who’d managed Christian acts such as Building 429 and Jason Ingram, and he had the opportunity to do an internship in Nashville after showing her some of his music.
Initially he signed a publishing deal with a label to produce contemporary Christian music, but six months in, there was some turnover in leadership, leading Rutledge to pursue different types of music.
“I had all these relationship girl songs that I didn’t know what to do with,” he said.
Rutledge said he started writing with current musical partner Hillary McBride, and after encouragement from McBride’s husband, the pair decided to form their own duo and try out for The Voice, almost making it on the show.
Now Rutledge and McBride have released a five song EP and won numerous writing competitions, and one of their songs is set to be featured in a national TruBiotics commercial soon.
Of all of the music Rutledge and McBride have written together, Rutledge said the song featured in the commercial, “Talking to a Stone,” is possibly his favorite.
“It’s about Hillary’s aunt and how her husband died, and all of these people were telling her to date again,” Rutledge said. “There were still so many doors and keys they never got to try. The chorus is talking about, from the road, she may look like she’s crazy, but it’s so much more than that. That song’s special to me because it’s real, it’s very Civil Wars meets country.”
Perhaps the most exciting accolade in Rutledge and McBride’s careers so far is having one of their songs featured on the midseason finale of the hit television show “Nashville.” Jessica Campbell also co-wrote the song.
“We wrote the song for Scarlett and Deacon; they recorded it, and we got to go in and listen to them track the song and be in there with the musicians and meet them and see them play it live,” Rutledge said. “It was being part of something bigger and was really cool and humbling. Makes you want to get up and crank it out; it’s a grind.”
Although Rutledge said he’s enjoyed his life in Nashville, there have been a fair amount of trials associated with the transition from small-town Trussville to the Music City.
“Trying to make it as a band is tough in Nashville because everyone here is talented,” he said.
Next on the agenda for Rutledge is a new record, which is set to be finished in the next few months, and regardless of any current or future success, Rutledge said he always remembers where he came from.
“You’re always told in Trussville that you’re going to amount to something and that you’re so great,” he said. “Not that there’s any success in what I’m doing there, but actually have a little bit of success, and people behind me in Nashville, makes me feel like I’m created to do this. When you get people behind you and people that believe in you, you think, ‘Maybe I am meant for more than just a small town.’”
