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There’s an idea: the way you do anything is the way you do everything. In other words, the way you approach scrubbing your kitchen sink is the same way you approach writing a college essay. For versatile-voiced singer and songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff, that saying holds true, at least when it comes to the hard work he pours into whatever task is at hand.

For Rateliff, hard work is a major reason for his success both locally in the Denver, Colorado music scene and now nationally, having recently played Saturday Night Live and penned the lead song (“Redemption”) to the Justin Timberlake-led movie, Palmer. Yet, hard work begets more hard work. This, too, Rateliff is learning as he continues to release albums and rise to the top of charts. It’s the result of the world seeing great offerings like the latest LP from Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The Future, which the band unveiled in November.

What does the holiday season really mean? To answer that question requires a personal investigation. Certainly, the meaning of a time of year is largely dependent upon its observer. For many, Christmas is delightful; a season of twinkling lights and presents. For others, however, the time can remind them of the harshest of days, the most nightmarish of experiences. So, then what? How do folks move forward? By forging their own ways—that’s the only way. And that’s exactly what Americana songwriter Allison Russell knows as well as any.

Russell, who recently garnered three Grammy nominations for her 2021 LP, Outside Child, has endured unspeakable harms; physical and mental abuses. Yet, today, the artist has much to cherish, from professional success to the family she’s started with her husband (musician, JT Nero), which includes their young daughter, to whom Russell has recently begun teaching the joys of music, movies, and the holiday season.

Confidence is an important thing when one is creating something new. To (metaphorically) birth something into the world requires strength and a sense of assuredness that what you’re bringing deserves to be there. But how one achieves confidence can be a touch-and-go situation. And confidence itself is precarious; it’s easily broken. Any artist will tell you that. But one who can also speak eloquently about the idea from myriad vantage points is the 42-year-old Nashville, Tennessee-born Shooter Jennings.

If you ask the Grammy Award-winning artist about when he began feeling proud about the songs he’s written, he’ll hesitate. “It’s a learning process,” he’ll say. But that’s the funny thing about confidence. If you express too much of it or believe too much of it regarding yourself, you can be crushed. Instead, it’s best to leave it up to others to talk about your great work. Like Jennings’ latest single, “Gene’s Song,” which Americans Songwriter is premiering today (December 15).

When generations in the future look back on the 21st century and earlier, there will likely be several things to cause heads to shake. One of those that will assuredly make some cringe will be the general treatment of children during early development. For many years, the prevailing thought was that children will get over whatever affects them or ails them in their primary years. Adulthood, the thought is, will rectify those wounds. But that’s not actually the case. The reality is that our earliest experiences set the trajectory for our lives in adulthood. And acclaimed songwriter and performer Raffi Cavoukian knows this perhaps better than any other artist.

Raffi has made a career writing music that both entertains and elucidates the notion that when we are about five or six years old, our understanding of what it means to be human is shaped forever, for better or worse. Today, Raffi continues to highlight this idea, through his many works, including his recent collaboration with fellow children’s songwriter Lindsay Munroe.

When it comes to the holidays, Hayley Orrantia says that she’s a bit more Grinch than Chris Kringle. On the other hand, though, she loves winter. So, while maybe the pomp and circumstance traditionally associated with the season isn’t necessarily her cup of tea, the coziness that can come with December has its delights. Orrantia, who is an accomplished country songwriter and recent presenter at the Country Music Awards, is also known for her achievements as an actor, especially so on the ABC comedy The Goldbergs.

Fans can next see Orrantia in the upcoming festive film Christmas is Cancelled. The movie, which also stars Dermot Mulroney and Janel Parrish, is out Thursday (December 16). For the Amazon release, which she calls “a really funny, raunchy, oddball comedy,” Orrantia wrote a heartfelt track, “The Same Way,” which displays her writing touch and affinity for love songs.

Journey is back in Las Vegas. While the Bay Area-born rock band, which is known for songs like “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Faithfully,” has been playing Sin City since the Millenium, the group is back again after a pandemic-induced hiatus. (Now three shows in with two more to go in December.) And, says keyboardist Jon Cain, they’re already seeing people tear up. “I saw a couple of ladies in tears in the front row,” Cain says of the band’s recent shows in the desert.

For Cain, to be back is a real achievement. He and the band missed the stage, their time away was “devastating.” But in the meantime, the group wrote and recorded a new album, long-distance, which Journey is set to release in spring 2022 and will feature bassist Randy Jackson.

Growing up in southeast Ohio, future award-winning songwriter, Jimmy Yeary, wasn’t allowed to listen to country music. In the early years, his was a life of school, family, and church. It was during the worship hours where Yeary would sing gospel. He was raised religiously. His upbringing was strict and hard. For instance, Yeary’s mother was a fan of singer Barbara Mandrell until she heard Mandrell’s 1980 song, “Crackers,” which went: You can eat crackers in my bed anytime, baby. That was it.

Yeary also says he endured some physical abuse, as a kid. But as he got a little older, he began sneaking music he loved into his house and listening to it surreptitiously. When his mom heard the song, “So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed,” in her house she blew her lid. Still, Yeary was undeterred. Once he heard you could move to Nashville to write, he had a plan. Ever since then, that plan to get where he belonged has worked out and Yeary has become one of the most popular songwriters in Music City.

His latest single, “Angeline,” released in October, showcases his love for his wife (famed singer, Sonya Isaacs,) his knack for storytelling and his natural ability to catch an ear hook, line and sinker.