A few years ago when I started Farm Girl With Curls, I got a follow on Twitter from the Steel Blossoms. With my love for country music and their creative name, I decided to check out their music. I was instantly inspired with their brand and my heart felt warmth and empowerment while listening to their music. Sara Zebley and Hayley Prosser have a traditional yet unique style. They have a personal touch and take every effort possible to make their dream in music come true. They use their talent to touch many lives and build lasting relationships. What meant the most to me was the time they took to write me a Happy Birthday song for my 26th birthday in 2015. From their I was Steel Blossom fan for life.
These Pennsylvania natives made the move to Nashville in 2014. They spend their time there and on tour doing personal house concerts for fans. I have been waiting a long time to see them and was so excited for them to come to the Ohio State Fair. I figured they had long forgot about Farm Girl With Curls, but as soon as I introduced myself their faces lit up with excitement. To know they remembered and cared about me personally meant so much. I watched their concert and sat down afterwards for a quick interview. I hope you enjoy their story, inspirational words and uplifting music.
Q. Can you tell me more about how the Steel Blossoms got their start and made the decision to move to Nashville?
A. We have been singing for a little over six years together. We used to be in a country rock band back in Pennsylvania. We weren’t called Steel Blossoms at first. We did about three years of singing without the Steel Blossoms name. We realized we were the two in the band that wanted this to be a career, not just a hobby. So we made the trip to Nashville and although it sounds easy, it wasn’t. It was a long process that took some convincing on our parts and we moved in 2014. We thought of the name Steel Blossoms because we wanted to represent Pittsburgh, ‘Steel City’, and that’s where both of us blossomed as people and musicians.
Q. Can you tell me more about your style and musical influences?
A. Right now we are into Ashley Monroe and Kacey Musgraves. We like the comedy aspects of our songs and it’s hard to pick a genre because we are not the country that’s on the radio right now. Haley tells me very often she aspires to be the country folk version of Bo Burnham, a comedian who plays music. We like to make people laugh and cry in the same show, feel all the emotions.
Q. How did you build a following on social media and decide to go on tour?
A. When we first moved to Nashville we played seven days a week, four hours a day. We played in a really crowed Nashville bar that was constantly packed with people so we were meeting volumes of people everyday. We used that to our benefit and asked people to sign up for our email list and gave them four free songs for signing up. We remind them over and over again to please follow us on social media. Also I think our show is really personal that might make it different from a lot of people’s. We make it more intimate and personal because we like to get to know our fans, so we even show that through social media by asking questions all the time to get to know people.
Q. What has been an impactful experience for you?
A. Being out on the road has been the most impactful experience. Doing home concerts, you get to be apart of somebody’s family for a night. They accept you and welcome you into their group and you feel cultured from that. You see all different walks of life and ways of doing things. We are able to see parts of the country we would never be able to see before. Getting to touch somebody through a song, and the experience of having somebody say that song relates to me because I feel this and went though this, that just makes it all worth it.
Q. What advice would you give to other aspiring artists that are struggling with taking the steps to get their voice heard or have confidence in their music?
A. I would say learn as much as you can about the music business. Social media is so huge right now and you can use it to your advantage. There is no one-way to get there. Everybody has a completely different path. What my strength might be, someone else has a completely different one I don’t have. So you need to get to know yourself and be aware of the things that are going to help you get ahead. Learn and be open to talking to people about your craft. Understand you can do it on your own; you don’t need record labels or booking agencies. There are many layers of the goal to peel back and you can pick which one you want.
Q. What goals or plans do you have for the future?
A. Our big goal with these house concerts is that we want to target certain areas so that we can then go back to that area and instead of doing five small shows, do one big show in a theater with three or four hundred people in the next few years. We always want to do the house concerts and of course we love fairs and festivals where we can meet families. We are realistic about our future as individuals to know we want to be married and have kids. So we want to take what we’re doing now and tailor it to be able to make the most of it when we do have families. So that we aren’t super far from them all the time, but can still make a living doing this. We want the best of both worlds.
Visit https://www.steelblossoms.com to learn more and sign up for their email list to get four free songs! Their new album ‘Country Enough’ is available. Be sure to check them on social media to see their music videos and find out what they are up to!
Photo credit to Steel Blossoms Social Media
Farm Girl With Curls 