Samoan country artist looking to make a name in Nashville

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Taulia Lave is not your typical country music artist. He’s 47 years old and Samoan.

There’s not a lot of Polynesian country stars out there, but he’s also at a crossroads: Play the music he loves full-time in Nashville or possibly live with regrets.

WSM4’s cameras were there as he took advice from some folks who have already made it.

It’s the self-deprecating laugh that gets your attention. He laughed from deep within when I mentioned there were no country artists who looked like him. He then said, “There’s nobody, not even close.”

Then the voice, described as smooth and soaked in bourbon, grabs you from there.

Lave is intimidating figure. He is a former college football player and cop, and now at 47 years old, he’s a country artist on a mission to be the genre’s next rising star.

“My love for country music came from my parents. Both of my parents are from Samoa, so when they moved to Hawaii, all we listened to was Samoan music, Motown music and country music.” Lave said.

His favorites growing up were Randy Travis, Reba McEntire and George Strait, who started their careers much younger. But for Taulia, chasing the Nashville dream could be a huge risk, so he needed advice.

“To change course like that at that stage in life. You got kids and stuff. It’s scarier,” said songwriter Cameron Bedell who has a number one song on his resume and early in his career made the move from Kansas to Nashville.

“I tell every artist that I work with and every artist that I come across that at the end of the day, the bottom line is to find your fans and feed them.” Bedell added.

Lave’s next words of wisdom came from Mike Easterlin, co- president of Severance Records, and James Marsh with Warner Music Nashville.

Lave wanted to know if he should make the move to Nashville, and their advice wasn’t sugarcoated.

“You’re gonna wake up in the morning. You’re gonna write by yourself. In the afternoon, you’re gonna go to a writing session. Then at night, you’re gonna go play a listening lounge and you’re gonna wake up the next day and do the same thing. If you’re committed to that concept, then this is a great town for you,” said Easterlin.

Marsh added, “If you want to stay where you are and it doesn’t work out; don’t have regrets like, ‘Man, I should have moved there.’ If you move here and it doesn’t work out, at least in your mind you did what it took to try to make it.”

Lave’s decision is based on family, and his family runs deep. He sings for his wife, seven kids, his brothers and sisters, and his mom, but it’s his father who encouraged him to sing.

He passed away three years ago.

“My dad plays a huge role in not just my life but my siblings. I still get emotional,” Lave said as tears began to fall down his face. “It’s still tough for me to talk about it. I always say this man, people that lose their parents. I tell my friends all the time if they’ve lost their parents, I tell them people that tell you that it gets easier are lying to you.”

It’s that emotion, the truth behind the pain and his story. It defines country music. So, whenever he straps on a six-string and steps behind a mic, his decision is crystal clear.

“Knowing why you do what you do is a lot easier to manage than knowing the hows. I mean I don’t know how I am gonna make it. I don’t know what it looks like, I just know why I want to do it,” he said.

Lave’s first album, “Modern Day Cowboy,” was released October 4. He plans on recording another 20 songs in Nashville in April, and he starts touring next year as well, with stops in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Austin.

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