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SaraJane McDonald, the singing phenom who grew up on a Rockbridge Baths farm and wowed local audiences with her considerable music talent from a young age, is continuing to follow her dreams in Nashville.
Now going by her professional name of SJ McDonald, she just signed a songwriting contract with Major Bob Music, an established Nashville publisher of music.
In a phone interview last week, McDonald said she’s now getting paid for doing what she’s been doing most of her life – writing songs. “I have no set schedule,” she said. “I just write songs – I have to come up with a certain amount of music each year. It’s very easy to meet that requirement.”
McDonald and a number of other songwriters employed by Major Bob Music gather to ply their craft weekdays, Mondays through Thursdays. “A bunch of us get together each day at a publishing house in the middle of Nashville,” she explained. “It’s in an old building – a really cool building that probably dates to the 1960s, maybe older. Chairs are set up and there are snacks.
SJ McDONALD performs at Winner’s Bar in Nashville last month. (photo by Trey Bonner) “I’ll sit down with maybe two other people. I mainly write with a guitar. Others might use a piano. There will be a track person who records on a computer. He might come up with a computerized beat or a chord progression. We’ll try to write over that. It’s a very creative world.”
The publishing company’s job, she said, “is to figure out where the songs will go – whether to an established artist like Garth Brooks or to a new artist.”
It’s an ideal life for her, having pursued the dream of making music in Nashville since arriving there in 2017, shortly after graduating from Rockbridge County High School. She studied songwriting and music business at Belmont University in Nashville, from which she graduated in 2021. Since then, she’s been writing songs and performing concerts.
That’s also what she did growing up on her parents’ farm in Rockbridge Baths. The oldest of five children of Jon and Jane McDonald, SJ could sing before she could talk and began writing songs when she was about 10, according to a 2013 News-Gazette account of her budding singing career when she was 13. In her teens she was a local singing sensation, performing at numerous area fairs and festivals.
She sang at the Rockbridge Regional Fair, the Augusta Expo in Fishersville, the Buena Vista and Rockbridge Baths Labor Day festivals, and a Fridays in the Park concert in Lexington. Her first solo public performance came at a 4-H “Share the Fun” competition when she was 10. A 4-H stage seemed an appropriate venue for her, given her farming background and experience in exhibiting livestock in 4-H contests.
These days McDonald can be seen performing cover sets on a regular basis in downtown Nashville, in Lower Broadway. “It’s a wild madhouse but it’s been good to me,” she said. “It’s helped me to support myself since I’ve been here.”
She also takes her show on the road. “Last year I played in 22 different states. I play everything from bars to established venues to festivals and fairs. I’ll play everything.” She’s accompanied by a Nashville-based band, much like when she had a Rockbridge regional band, Sweet Fire, backing her up when she was a teenager.
“From May to September we’re on the road, traveling in a 12-person van. There are four people in the band, including me. I’d like to add a pedal steel player, when I can afford it. I play the acoustic guitar.”
She said she’s been playing the guitar since she was 13. She learned to play under Rockbridge area musicians Amanda Baxter and Steve Hoke. She also received vocal lessons back then from local jazz and blues singer Marla Palma.
McDonald has independently recorded a number of songs over the years. Her latest single, “Hummingbird,” about a family heirloom, a guitar, being passed down through generations, can be found on YouTube and various social media platforms.
As for how she got her recent contract to write songs for Major Bob Music, a press release from the company announcing the deal offers an explanation: “SJ’s name just kept coming up from great songwriters who we admire, and after we began booking cowrites with SJ we quickly discovered for ourselves why so many people love her,” said Andy Friday, the company’s head of publishing. “She keeps it country and she’s a perfect fit for Major Bob.”
Although settled in Nashville, McDonald is not staying away from her roots. This past weekend she could be found performing in Vinton. She says to look for an announcement shortly about a singing engagement she’ll be having in Lexington this summer.
