Grace Pettis & Zach Willdee

A Double Bill of GREAT Music!

Grace is the winner of many of the nation’s most prestigious songwriting contests, grants, and residencies, including NPR’s Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, the Buddy Holly Educational Foundation. Grace’s songs have been recorded by other esteemed artists, including Sara Hickman and Ruthie Foster, with 3 co-writes on Foster’s latest, Grammy-nominated album, Healing Time (2024).

Grace Pettis’ much-anticipated sophomore MPress Records release, Down To The Letter, captures the Nashville-based (formerly Austin-based) singer-songwriter at the peak of her songwriting powers. Chronicling the end of a marriage and the reclamation of self after betrayal, codependency, and loss with heartbreaking detail, the lyrics deftly toe the line between personal pain and universal catharsis.

Inspired by writers like Steve Earle, John Prine, and Merle Haggard, Zach began writing his own songs at the age of 16. Willdee later apprenticed under Darrell Scott (songwriter for The Dixie Chicks, Travis Tritt, Beyoncé, Zac Brown Band, and others) in 2016, which ultimately sparked him to move to Nashville to pursue his own career singing and writing country music. 

Influenced heavily by the depth and honesty of the greats, Willdee conveys simple truths through dynamics in his music and writing. His voice and lyrics, echoing from the golden age of country music, are often compared to Johnny Paycheck and Waylon Jennings, writing from the depths of his soul about life’s trials and tribulations––bearing the good, bad, and ugly through stories and songs that gain deeper meaning with each listen.