Article By Greg Jaklewicz
Photos Courtesy of BrittanyBishop.com
“… and chasing that neon rainbow, living that honky-tonk dream
'Cause all I've ever wanted is to pick this guitar and sing.
Just trying to be somebody, just wanna be heard and seen
I'm chasing that neon rainbow, living that honky-tonk dream.”
— “Chasin’ That Neon Rainbow,” Alan Jackson
Growing Up Country
Brittany Bishop grew up listening to country music. Mom Shannon was a big fan, and Alan Jackson was one of the musical staples in the house.
Little did young Brittany Bishop know that one day, she also would be chasing the same dream that inspired Jackson.
“I’d say Alan Jackson was both of our favorite. I had the biggest crush on Alan Jackson,” she said, laughing. “She took me to my first concert … I think I was 6. It was the ‘Licensed to Chill Tour’ with Alan Jackson, George Strait and Jimmy Buffett at the old Dallas Cowboys stadium.”
Jackson by then had chased down his rainbow and was making a pot of gold.
During high school, Bishop already was performing publicly in and around Abilene.
“As soon as I started doing that, I was ‘I want to do this forever,’” she said.
Jackson likely once said the same thing.
Good to Be Back Home Again
(Coach Martin and Brittany)
A 2015 Wylie High graduate who was in the high school choir, Bishop was home briefly last week. She landed a Friday night gig performing with her band under the pavilion at the Taylor County Expo Center.
The annual West Texas Fair and Rodeo was underway, and the midway projected its own neon rainbow — colorful and flashing lights from the rides lit up the night and reflected in the puddles of the rain that had fallen earlier.
Bishop told her audience that she attended the fair growing up, and here she was performing for fairgoers.
Dressed in black, which contrasted with her blond hair and frequent smile, Bishop mixed her music with favorite covers. She transitioned easily from upbeat toe-tappers to songs that relied more on storytelling.
Bishop said her mother sang.
“She taught that to me,” Bishop said of her love for music. “We always had country records playing in the house. She taught me how to sing harmony along with those records.
“That instilled a super deep love of country music in me. I got that early passion from her.”
Now Shannon Bishop Martin, she for years was employed by the Wylie ISD. She is married to head football coach Clay Martin.
The coach was able to attend the Friday night show because the Bulldogs played in Lubbock the night before. Bishop, who said she gets home from Nashville maybe twice a year, was pleased to have him in the crowd.
“That worked out so well. I didn’t think he was going to be able to come but I was so glad he was there,” she said. “He has been so supportive.”
The show caused Bishop to reflect, for a moment, on the past 10 years.
“It was such a cool full-circle moment to come back and headline one of the nights,” she said. “I love a road gig. I love to travel.”
She couldn’t stay long, journeying back the next morning to Tennessee.
On to Nashville
Bishop auditioned for Belmont University during her senior year of high school and was accepted, moving to Nashville after graduation.
She was 18 and suddenly a resident of country music’s capital city.
“During that time I definitely learned a lot,” she said. Opportunities to perform included the Women in Music City Awards event. “After college, I started performing downtown in Nashville on Broadway full time for a few years.
“I’ve gotten to do my own thing the last couple of years, which is pretty awesome. I learned so much cutting my teeth doing covers and playing five nights a week, but an opportunity came up and I was able to make a record with some very special people.”
The album, titled Shadow of the Valley, was done with Bobby Holland, a two-time Grammy nominated producer, engineer and mixer.
The title song reflects Bishop’s music experience in Nashville, where so many talented performers are trying to make it big.
“I pretty much wrote that during that time. It’s a tough environment out there,” she said. “I was singing all the time but I never felt like I was using my voice … wanting to use my own words and be my own person.
“It was that finding-my-own-identity period.”
Her song Neon Nights, which she performed at the fair, also speaks to this era in her life. It was the first single release from the upcoming album.
“It encapsulates perfectly that struggle to sing my own songs,” she said. “And on a deeper level, being my own person. Make art the way I want to.”
Same Dream
Bishop is chasing her dream at the right time for female artists. While some of the best known artists in country music history have been women — Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Patsy Cline — it still was a cowboy’s world. And it still is.
“There still is an unspoken thing, especially in Nashville, where women don’t get the same play time as males,” she said. “There is more equality, but it’s just different for us. It is on the rise. But there still is more work to be done.”
When given the opportunity, female singers often sing more personally than male artists.
“You get a different look at society,” she said. The lasting inequality is “maybe why women write more personal stories. We just can’t get by on the beers, trucks and girls hanging on in the passenger seat … that's not cutting it for people anymore.
“There are pretty stressful times. (Fans) want more music that they can relate to.”
There will be nine songs on the album, which will be all original material. She expects to be on the road a lot to support the recording.
Meaning, she hopes, another stop back in Abilene.
About Those Tatts …
Brittany Bishop has a lot of tattoos.
“Yeah, I get asked about that a lot,” she said, ready to explain her ink again.
“I didn’t set out to be a person with a lot of tattoos. It just kinda happened,” she said good-naturedly.
When she turned 18, she got small ink on a wrist — an arrow inspired by the Kasey Musgrave song Follow Your Arrow.
“From there it just kinda started. I got one more, a big one. I thought, ‘Hey, this is kinda fun,’” she said. “For me, it just turned into a way to storytell. Kinda treat it like music. It’s another way to have that artistic outlet.”
What was mom’s reaction?
Bishop laughed.
“I remember coming home with my first tiny one and my aunt said, ‘Oh well, at least it’s not big.’ And mom went ‘yeah.’ But she has been surprisingly cool with it,” Bishop said.
Spoiler alert:
“She actually has a few on herself now,” daughter said. One is the Rockin’ N brand that represents her great-grandfather’s ranch.
“Yeah, she’s gotten a little tatted up, too,” Bishop said.
Advice to Wylie Students Who Are Chasin’
“No matter what it is, if you really, really want it, you can have it,” Bishop said. “But take little steps. Don’t think of Point A to Point Z. Take it little steps at a time and keep doing what you love.
“Make sure no matter how far you get down the road, if you want to pivot a little bit on that dream, do that.
“Make sure you love it, and remember the reasons why you started.”