'The end is never the end:' former Voice contestant plans new album
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - Music City’s most famous street is home to several famous Honky Tonks. Dozens of singers, songwriters and musicians play every day inside the bars on Broadway, hoping to make a career in music.
“The Broadway Honky Tonks are unlike anything else,” says says singer/songwriter Jordan Rainer. “It has its own culture, it has its own vocabulary, it has its own dress code, it’s its own place!”
Rainer began playing gigs within the Honky Tonks in 2020 at the height of COVID. After moving to Nashville in 2015, Rainer scored a songwriting publishing deal that paid her bills. The money stopped coming at the start of the pandemic and Jordan turned to the bars for income.
“As a patron, you may not feel how different Nashville is,” says Rainer. “As a musician, you know you’re on a different planet.”
Jordan consistently posted videos of her performances in Nashville bars, which eventually gained the attention of a very popular show, NBC’s The Voice, which asked her audition in 2023.
“I did not expect that to change my life.”
Rainer chose to perform the song “Fancy,” for her blind audition, which has 1.3 million views online. At the time she selected the song, it was only rumored that Reba McEntire would serve as one of the coaches on The Voice, but not confirmed. Jordan’s performance resulted in a coveted four-chair turn.
“The Honky Tonks were hard, but that was the scariest thing I’ve ever done,” says Rainer.
"Making It"
When Gwen Stefani asked her why she chose “Fancy” as her audition song, Rainer responded saying, “I am a woman who has done what I’ve had to do to survive so I feel that song in every bone of my body.”
That response garnered a hearty “way to go” from McEntire, who would eventually become her coach on the show.
Rainer’s on-stage persona has been named “Woman in Black” by her fans.
“For women [I represent] confidence and resilience. I come from a background of abuse, so the woman you see here - the woman in the shades, the woman in the black hat, this here is my inner warrior. I dress up my inner warrior when I need to feel strong and when I need to put forth a strong presence.”
It’s a powerful representation for a woman who was homeless, carless and jobless in 2014. She was living in her hometown of Atoka, Oklahoma, when a friend offered her a job washing dishes overnight at a donut shop. After a year, she earned enough money to pack up a car and move to Nashville.
“[I learned] the end is never the end. You have to appreciate and know the worth of your art at such a heart level that you insist on putting it out In the world.”
Jordan is now traveling the country, playing festivals and shows, all while saving money to record an album.
“I’ve just got a spirit in me that won’t quit. There’s somethin’ in me that bubbles back up and says ‘we’re not done here.’ The corner is right there. We are about to turn that corner. I can feel it. It’s imminent.”
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