Most people don't exactly plan to drop out of college, become a parent before the age of 21, and move to a new city in the middle of a pandemic - but Amanda McCarthy has always been pretty good at tackling the unexpected head on.

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In a situation where most would have given up and settled for a traditional 9-5, she has gone on to make a full time living out of her music playing on every kind of stage you can imagine - starting out with cover gigs in smokey bar corners and coffee shops, to opening for national headliners, winning awards with her original music, and playing iconic venues across the country like The Listening Room, Live Oak, 3rd and Lindsley (Nashville), The Bitter End, Mercury Lounge, Piano's (NYC), Hard Rock Cafe locations in Boston and Connecticut, and hundreds more.

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After developing the first ten years of her career in her home base of New England, she credits coming face to face with Steven Tyler in a local bar and singing an Aerosmith song for him as the catalyst that convinced her it was time to move to Nashville. "I knew that if I could get through that, I have the nerve to do almost anything", she recalls. Less than a year after relocating, she'd already quit her short-term "day job" and had successfully made music her full time career in Music City.

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With both main stage and side stage appearances, she'd had the opportunity to share stages and bills with Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith), Hunter Hayes, Hawthorne Heights, Jason Lancaster (of Mayday Parade), Train, Natasha Bedingfield, Hall & Oates, REO Speedwagon, Imagine Dragons, Styx, Rob Thomas, and more. She's also performed for NASCAR at the NH Motor Speedway, and a national anthem performance in 2014 televised live on ESPN. The acoustic versions of her songs "Elephant in the Room" and "Bad News" made the Grammy Nomination Ballot in 2016.

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Writing songs both for her own artistry and for other artists' projects, McCarthy was described by one of her earliest mentors as "a storyteller compelled to speak the truth" and she has held that promise true ever since. Blending the pop/rock spirit of Michelle Branch with the country-but-not-COUNTRY cadence of Kacey Musgraves, her debut full-length album "Road Trip" was released in 2019 to high acclaim. She has released four new singles since relocating to Nashville.

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With a promise to take the honesty of her songwriting up a notch, her current single "Normal", expresses her happiness in living an atypical life on her own terms, and she hopes to shine light on the often under-represented group of young parents pursuing the music industry. Her upcoming single "fine." tackles the sensitive but important topic of battling seasonal depression.

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