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Renowned songwriter Natalie Hemby makes performance album debut with “Puxico”

Natalie Hemby

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RHIANNON GILBERT) -- For nearly ten years, Natalie Hemby’s lyrics have been in high-demand on Music Row, with songs by big names like Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town and Lady Antebellum. With the debut of her first solo album, “Puxico,” Hemby circles back to her original goal for her career -- to be a featured artist.

Named for a town in Missouri where this Nashville native made some of her fondest memories visiting for a homecoming celebration each year, “Puxico” is a nostalgic, 9-track look into Hemby’s past at not just a place, but a man who helped make her who she is today: her grandfather George.

Hemby remembers George as “a man who loved her so much he gave her a town.” The song “I’ll Remember How You Loved Me” and other tracks include lyrics that pay homage to both him and the town of Puxico, because to Hemby, the two will be forever intertwined.

Hemby’s Nashville roots also come out in “Puxico” with classic country and gospel influences that can be heard in several of the album’s songs, like “Time Honored Tradition.”

Unlike many inaugural albums, Hemby doesn’t only tell a story about herself. She uses this album and its accompanying documentary to tell a story about the kind of love that shapes you, and to remind faraway listeners of the joys of coming home.