This weekend, you can catch local singer-songwriter Drew Hale performing at area venues like Rove Estate and Encore 101. Later this year, though, Hale could be standing in the spotlight on the stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry – and rubbing elbows with country music superstars.

Thanks to a first-of-its-kind contest sponsored by Tractor Supply Company, 10 “emerging artists” from across the nation are currently waiting to find out whether they’re about to get their big break. Hale is one of those 10 artists, and he’ll learn Monday whether he should set aside time this summer for a potentially star-making trip to Music City, U.S.A.

This past February, Tractor Supply Company announced the launch of its inaugural “Emerging Artists Program,” a contest intended to “help launch the careers of rising artists and their songs.” Through a deadline of March 15, artists had an opportunity to enter the competition by submitting an original song via the social network TikTok. Once submissions closed, Tractor Supply and five major partner artists from the Nashville country music community – Lainey Wilson, Jimmie Allen, Dustin Lynch, Ashley McBryde, and the duo Kat & Alex – reviewed the entries, with each artist selecting two finalists. Hale’s name was among that final 10.

This Monday (May 8), Tractor Supply is set to name five of those finalists as its Emerging Artists of 2023.

If Hale is one of the five winners, he’ll get a trip to Nashville in June and a chance to record and collaborate with one of the five mentors. “The idea is that you get to work with a major Nashville artist, and they would produce your song, record it, and put it out there,” Hale explains. “So, you would have a recording that they produced and possibly even played or sang on.” Winners will also get to meet with music industry executives and “open for Wilson at an exclusive event” scheduled for the week of CMA Fest, a major country music festival held in Nashville every June.

“And then this fall, you get invited to play the Grand Ole Opry with the rest of the emerging artists, which is a huge bucket list item for me,” Hale adds. “I’ve always wanted to play the Opry.”

So, with a slew of potentially career-making opportunities within his reach, how is Hale feeling about his chances? Not bad, especially considering how many fellow singers and songwriters he had to beat out to get to this point. Based on how many videos on TikTok bear the #TSCEmergingArtists hashtag, Hale estimates that “thousands and thousands” of people “from all over the country” threw their hat in the ring for the contest.

One reason for Hale’s confidence is his song choice. When the local songwriter selected which of his songs he would use to enter the Emerging Artists competition, he not only picked a song he’s extremely proud of, but he also took a strategic approach. Hale hopes the song and the strategy will net him both a top-five finish and a chance to collaborate with one mentor in particular.

“Ashley McBryde is a huge hero of mine,” Hale says. “So when I saw that she was one of the mentors and that I could possibly work with her, I knew immediately which song of mine I was going to pick [to enter the competition], and that’s a song called ‘River Jordan,’ from my latest full-length album.”

Known for songs like “A Little Dive Bar in Dahlonega,” “One Night Standards,” and the Grammy-winning “Never Wanted to Be That Girl,” a duet with fellow country artist Carly Pearce, McBryde cut her teeth playing biker bars and writing songs that combined elements of country music and rock ‘n’ roll. Hale feels a lot of kinship with those experiences, and thinks the style and lyrical storytelling of his song align with the music McBryde herself makes.

Describing “River Jordan,” Hale calls the song “a murder ballad” and “one of those songs that took me six or seven years to write.”

“It chronicles my lifelong struggle up and down with faith and church,” Hale says of the song. “In all those old songs, the River Jordan was always a place where people would go to pray and to lay their burdens down. So in the song, a guy with all these struggles and burdens goes down to the river to get baptized. But instead of getting baptized, the preacher holds his head under the water, and instead of saving him, ends up killing him. It’s a very pointed story, and the style of it is very Ashley McBryde, so I picked it intentionally to try to get her attention.”

Based on listening to submissions from the other nine finalists, Hale has an inkling that he was indeed one of McBryde’s picks. Now, he’s just keeping his fingers crossed that he ends up being her top pick.

Even if he doesn’t finish as one of the winners, though, Hale’s already grateful for the experience, the exposure, and the connections he’s gotten from the contest.

“The finalists, we’ve all followed each other now and started communicating and commenting on each other's videos, which is pretty cool,” Hale says. “Anytime I do a contest like this, the connections that I make with other artists are really my favorite part. Getting to know other people that are in a similar stage as I am in my career is super rewarding. And something I really appreciate about this contest in particular is the diversity. At least half of the artists picked are multiracial. There are plus-size people, which almost never happens in Nashville. The ‘Nashville look’ is usually ‘tall, skinny, blonde, and pretty in makeup.’ But here, the mentors have picked some really unique up-and-coming artists that are not the typical fare you would see coming out of pop-country Nashville. I just love that.”