Story

My name is Austin Barrett.

I was raised in Bristol, Tennessee, and got my start on the Guitar when I was just 5 years old. One of my youngest memories is of bringing my guitar to “show and tell” and playing a few chords for the class. I guess you could call that my first performance.

I began taking lessons immediately, and my first real performance came at the age of 8, when I was asked to play the Star Spangled Banner for the school Christmas play.

After about 5 full years of lesson-taking I remember having this feeling like I didn’t want to do it anymore, so I put it down for almost a year before I met a new group of friends - one of whom played Electric Guitar, and the other played the Drums. We fell into a band and quickly came the onset of my fascination of Classic Rock groups like AC/DC and Metallica. We played “Highway to Hell” for the talent show at a very conservative school and received 3rd place out of 3. It’s one of my fondest memories - so yes, I have plenty of experience failing.

I played Electric Guitar for years in multiple bands and projects, and it carried me all the way into my final years of High School, where I discovered The Avett Brothers. The way their songs touched my soul changed me as a musician, and I felt I had to learn how to better perform on the Acoustic Guitar, and how to write songs with that level of feeling. I met new writing partners and before you knew it, I had a 6 piece touring folk rock band called “The Rickshaw Roadshow”. We traveled all over the southeast and even signed to a record label for a short period of time. We recorded 2 full length albums of original music over 3 years, and released a couple singles and short EPs as well. We had it all - a manager, a booking agent, a producer, the whole thing.

Fueled by the want to produce more meaningful music, I enrolled in East Tennessee State University where I would later earn a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music with an emphasis on Acoustic Guitar Performance in Flatpicking and Fingerstyle. I use the skills I learned at ETSU every day in my teaching and in my own performance and writing. Most notably - Music Theory.

It was like my eyes had been opened. I had already been playing my instrument for 20 years, and now somebody showed me what I’d been really doing all this time!

After I had a grasp on the language of music, I was able to teach myself the Piano, Mandolin, Banjo, Ukulele, and more. I became a better singer, writer, and producer. I formed another band called “The Green Fingers” and we recorded an EP, as well as toured regionally, and made appearances on live local radio.

Just about a year or so out of college I became a Semi-Finalist in the International Songwriting Competition for my original song, "The Bitter End”, and again some years later for my original song, "Southbound Now".

In 2017, I moved to Asheville, North Carolina in hopes that I’d find more musical opportunities. After about a year or so of struggling to get my footing in a new town, I enrolled in Berklee College of Music’s Masters Program for Music Business online. I finished my Masters in the shortest time possible of 1 year and graduated top of my class with a 4.0 GPA Summa Cum Laude.

Following the completion of my Masters, I started a company called CrowdBay which would offer the stage to struggling artists and give venues a chance to guarantee income from musical performances. 3 new partners and 2 years later, the company is now a bit of a conglomerate between the NFT Ticketing Arm (Musy), and StageHound (a local ticketing retailer).

Now in 2022, I have over a decade of teaching experience and over 25 years on the Guitar. My most advanced styles are: Acoustic Guitar Flatpicking and Fingerstyle, Electric Guitar Soloing and Blues, Music Theory and Understanding the Science and Language of Music, and Recording Engineering where you learn to make music on your computer either with an instrument or without.

My most recent accomplishment is that I got married in October 2022 to a wonderful woman. We enjoy hiking the Blue Ridge Mountains with our Golden Doodle named Eddie, going to the movies, and discovering new restaurants together. We are expecting our first baby, a boy named Jaxon, to be born in August of 2023.