By the time he was twelve years old, Charlie Worsham had already won a junior national banjo championship and played on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. By high school, though, the Mississippian realized he wanted to be more than a backing musician, and he began to focus on developing his vocal skills and learning how to write songs. Today, he is among Nashville’s most respected artists, a true triple threat: singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

Yet he knows successful music-making begins with the song itself. “I think of myself first as a student of songwriting,” he says. “That’s what I spend the most time practicing.”

Charlie attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied musical production and engineering. He arrived in Nashville in 2006, just before his twenty-first birthday, and joined the band KingBilly as a vocalist and mandolinist. Six years later, he leapt into a solo career and signed a recording contract with Warner Music Nashville. Since then, he has released two albums and an EP, earning a Top Twenty song, “Could It Be,” in 2013.

Charlie is among the most sought-after Nashville instrumentalists—on guitar, banjo, mandolin, and fiddle—performing or recording with such stars as Eric Church, Luke Combs, Carrie Underwood, and Country Music Hall of Fame member Vince Gill. But Charlie’s solo work is his passion, and he continues to pursue his ambition to become a major artist.

He is a disciplined songwriter who has long kept a daily journal, often drawing on these musings and reflections for song ideas. For many years, he says, he embraced a common belief that lyrics with less specific language are more universal. But he eventually discovered that “it’s actually the opposite, and so for a while now, I’ve been aware that detail is key. And that’s why I write a page a day, because as long as it’s true, and as long as it’s detailed to me, it’s going to be good fertilizer.”

With his most recent music, he says his songwriting has been especially inspired by the new happiness in his personal life. He and his wife, Kristen, have been married since 2018, and they welcomed a son in 2021. “Kristen changed the details,” Charlie says of his life at home, “and it just brought some depth into all of these songs.”

SONGS TO CHECK OUT:
“Believe in Love”
“Could It Be”
“Cut Your Groove”
“Hang on to That”
“Tools of the Trade”
“Young to See”