Sue Bonzell: Welcome to Cow Chair Country, where I find new up and coming artists and bring them directly to you. Today, I’m excited to introduce you to Haley Mae Campbell. She has opened up for, wait for the list, Luke Combs, Brothers Osborne, Dan and Shay, David Nail, Lauren Alaina, Carly Pierce, Thompson Square, and Tyler Farr. That is a heck of a list. I’m so excited to introduce you guys to Haley Mae Campbell. Hey, Haley.
Haley Mae Campbell: Hey, what’s going on?
Sue Bonzell: You look fabulous. Look at you, you’re a little sparkly.
Haley Mae Campbell: It’s my thing. I never show up without glitter.
Sue Bonzell: That’s a good motto. I like that. And as we were getting settled, we saw a little bit of your shoe display. Can you show us your shoe display?
Haley Mae Campbell: Yes. Well, my glamorous video studio here includes my endless shoe rack over here. Most of them get worn very often.
Sue Bonzell: I love that, I love that. So you’ve done all this opening for these incredible artists and everything. And I found you on TikTok. You’ve got a great new song.
Haley Mae Campbell: Who would have thought?
Sue Bonzell: I know, who would have thought? I found you on TikTok. I’m like, “This girl has got it going on.” And I was excited to see one of your most recent TikToks where you and I think it was your band members, you guys were all jumping around that you hit the billboard chart, is that correct?
Haley Mae Campbell: Yeah. So the new single, Never Been In Love, after going viral on TikTok, it debuted at Number one on the iTunes All Genre Chart and Country, which was insane. So, that’s the jumping around. And then a week later, we found out that I debuted for my very first time ever on the Billboard Chart on three of their different charts, including Emerging Artist, which was just so cool.
Sue Bonzell: Nice. Well, you absolutely are. I’m so excited for you.
Haley Mae Campbell: Thank you.
Sue Bonzell: I think I found out that you just did a video, a music video, for that song too. Where did you guys film that?
Haley Mae Campbell: Yes. We just shot a music video for Never Been In Love here in Nashville with my wonderful director, Randy Schaffer, who’s been doing my stuff for as long as I can remember now. And I’m so excited for this video to come out. It’s got an awesome band shot in it. And, really, I think the fans that came to the song from TikTok will especially enjoy it because, not to give too much away, but it gives you a little bit more insight and gives you a little bit of a prequel to the TikTok video that went viral. So I think the fans are really going to like it.
Sue Bonzell: So you’re bridging that gap between the two.
Haley Mae Campbell: Exactly.
Sue Bonzell: So when can we see that? When does it come out?
Haley Mae Campbell: I don’t have a date, but, of course, I’m hoping to work with one of my favorite country outlets, CMT. So we’re just figuring out when’s the best time to put that video out. But yeah, hopefully very, very soon. Definitely, definitely, this summer.
Sue Bonzell: Okay, good. I cannot wait to see it. So now did you grow up with country music? Was that something that was going on in your household when you were growing up?
Haley Mae Campbell: Funny enough, I didn’t really start listening to country until I was in high school. I grew up listening to a lot of more bluegrass and rockabilly. I listened to a lot of, my parents played a lot of old 97s and Alison Krauss and the Mavericks and that sort of thing around the house. But, of course, there were some country staples in there, but I didn’t really get into country until I was in high school. I was driving around in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, and I remember I had just gotten my driver’s license. I was driving around because there was nothing to do and my car didn’t have an ox cable yet so I was listening to the radio, and Somewhere With You by Kenny Chesney came on and I almost had to pull over. I was like, “What is this song? Country’s not supposed to be cool. What is this?”
And the rest was history. I just fell in love with that song. And then I learned about Nashville and Nashville songwriting and all that stuff. So that song really won me over to country. But a few of those acts that you named earlier I opened up for back when I was telling people I wasn’t even doing country. So it’s a very full circle journey.
Sue Bonzell: So when you started doing music, did you start with country or did you start somewhere else and then come into country?
Haley Mae Campbell: I started, I picked up my guitar when I was 13, so I was playing a lot of Taylor Swift and then alternative singer songwriters. The whole ukulele phase was very prevalent then, so that Never Shout Never ban. I was learning all those covers and that sort of thing. I was in seventh grade so the indie, emo phase was at its peak. I was playing all that stuff. I didn’t get into country until a little bit later. So I just basically started with whatever was three chords and I could play it, I would play that. And, of course, that turned out to be a lot of country music.
Sue Bonzell: A lot of country music, yes, exactly. Now, you have some great videos, by the way, on your website.
Haley Mae Campbell: Thank you.
Sue Bonzell: Yeah. I mean, you’ve done an incredible job. One of the videos I really, really liked was your Growing Up video. So those were a lot of pictures and clips and things of you as a baby, as a child. Tell me about that. That is so cool.
Haley Mae Campbell: Yeah, thank you. First of all, that was one of my favorite videos to make. Obviously, it was still during the heat of the pandemic and everything so we were trying to figure out, well, what direction can we go with this video that’s obviously going to be safe and a very small crew and that thing? So the only shot that was filmed live was, of course, just my performance shots.
Sue Bonzell: Right.
Haley Mae Campbell: That was just me and my videographer and just us in a room, and we pulled that off. And then I got my mom to mail me a box of those small VHS tapes, I’m sure you remember …
Sue Bonzell: Yep.
Haley Mae Campbell: … from all their camcorders and everything back from when we were growing up, me and my sister. And I just had her send me, “Mom, send me anything that is of me singing or performing or doing something funny. Just send me all those tapes.” And I went to Goodwill and I found a VHS player and I went through them one by one with a digital converter. And I just recorded all the tapes, went through all the footage. It was so fun, super emotional, obviously. There’s some clips in there that I really just watched it and I was like, “Wow, I really just have always been doing this, and even before I consciously knew I was doing this, I was doing it.” So it’s crazy to watch back, but it was such a fun video to make. It’s definitely still emotional to watch it. My parents obviously lost it when they saw it.
Sue Bonzell: Right.
Haley Mae Campbell: It was a really fun one to put out there and I think it’s just such a unique video and the perfect song to put it to.
Sue Bonzell: What a gift for your parents, you know what I mean?
Haley Mae Campbell: For sure.
Sue Bonzell: It’s a really cool keepsake and it’s not just this really cool compilation of your stuff, it’s you singing this song and it’s like, “Oh man.” I’d love it if my daughter did that for me.
Haley Mae Campbell: Exactly. And he’d hate for me to say it, but my dad is the real cry baby out of the two of them.
Sue Bonzell: Aw.
Haley Mae Campbell: He was loving it. He was loving it.
Sue Bonzell: You’re telling stories on him now, he’s going to be like, “Come on, don’t tell anybody.”
Haley Mae Campbell: I know. He’s going to be like, “Don’t tell people that.”
Sue Bonzell: So you’re in Nashville, we’re out here in wine country in California. So I ask all of my guests, do you drink wine? And if you do, what do you like?
Haley Mae Campbell: It’s perfect timing for that question. I just had the pleasure of playing a live stream show with Jam Sellers, who is based out there, and they sent me a couple bottles of their wine. And I had never tried it before and I fell in love with their white that’s called Butter.
Sue Bonzell: Oh, there you go.
Haley Mae Campbell: It’s so delicious.
Sue Bonzell: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Haley Mae Campbell: It was the most fun live stream show probably I’ve ever done, just going back and forth just like this. But yeah, we talked about getting out there once things are lifted and playing in the tasting room out there. So, hopefully, I’ll have more than one stop to make when I finally get out there to wine country.
Sue Bonzell: Absolutely. We need to keep in contact. I can probably get you set up at a few places. I know a couple of a couple of them.
Haley Mae Campbell: Absolutely. Well, there you go. Yeah, so I love wine. I’m a big, big wine fan. I was never a red drinker until I got out on my own and then started hanging out with my mom as an adult person. And she was like, “It’s good. You should try it.” I never liked it until recently, but yeah, I’m a big fan of any red blend or a Chardonnay. Those are probably my favorites.
Sue Bonzell: Okay.
Haley Mae Campbell: A big red blend fan.
Sue Bonzell: Okay. I love it. We got all of that out here. We’re going to have to get you some good stuff, get you some good stuff.
Haley Mae Campbell: Hey, the reasons to come out there just keep tacking on, so I’m ready.
Sue Bonzell: Believe me, I literally should work for the tourism bureau because I’m telling everybody, “You need to come out to wine country. It’s amazing. We’ll tour you. It’ll be so much fun.”
Haley Mae Campbell: Yes, absolutely.
Sue Bonzell: So do you have any performances coming up, any touring, anything that you’re doing where folks might be able to catch you?
Haley Mae Campbell: Absolutely. So, especially, if you’re here in Nashville or coming to visit or passing through, my band and I perform at Wild Horse Saloon, which is a really fun spot downtown. Great energy great, stage production, all that thing. So that’s our home base, and then now that things are getting a little closer to normalcy, thank God, we’re getting back out on the road, which is truly my passion. So I’m really excited. I’m from South Carolina, like I mentioned, so a lot of the time we spend in the Carolina region or the Southeast. But we’re working on getting out there a little bit more. We’re branching out from Nashville. We’re heading up to Indiana later this summer, Chicago for the first time. So yeah, you can check out my website. It’s just haleymaecampbell.com/tour and all the dates will be on there.
Sue Bonzell: I love it. This is so great. So I do know that you have a guitar there. Would you be willing to sing a little song for us? Look it, she’s all prepared and everything.
Haley Mae Campbell: I’d love to.
Sue Bonzell: Okay. That would be fabulous. What are you going to sing for us?
Haley Mae Campbell: Well, it just wouldn’t be right if I didn’t play y’all my brand new single, which you guys have been so kind to support. So I’ll just give you a little acoustic version of Never Been In Love.
Sue Bonzell: Perfect. I love it.
Haley Mae Campbell: (singing)
Sue Bonzell: Yeah. Thank you so much. That was amazing.
Haley Mae Campbell: Thank you.
Sue Bonzell: I love the pink guitar. It’s pink, right? Is it pink?
Haley Mae Campbell: It is. Funny story, I bought this guitar for that music video and then I got it and I was like, “Yeah, I’m keeping this.”
Sue Bonzell: I love that. That’s so perfect. Well, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me and play a song and we’re going to be playing your song on the radio too out here in Santa Rosa, California. So good times.
Haley Mae Campbell: That is so cool. Thank you so much, Sue.
Sue Bonzell: Absolutely. And we’re going to get you out here. I think we need to get you out here in California too.
Haley Mae Campbell: Yes. Mark my words. We’ll make it happen, I promise.
Sue Bonzell: I love it. Thank you so much.
Haley Mae Campbell: Thank you so much, Sue. Y’all take care.
Sue Bonzell: Thanks for watching Cow Chair Country. I’m Sue Bonzell. Make sure you follow me on TikTok and like and subscribe. And, of course, if you have an up and coming country artist that you would love for me to interview, please let me know in the comments.
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