Nashville singer-songwriter Rob Snyder will release his forthcoming debut album, The Way That I Am, via EMPIRE’s Big Plans Records this June. The lead single and title track–premiering today on American Songwriter with an accompanying video–is a hard-hitting country number that foregrounds Snyder’s heartfelt, husky vocals.
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“I know I wouldn’t be the way that I am / If I could do it all over again,” Snyder belts in the song’s chorus. The video, meanwhile, is a black and white animated short that follows an anonymous figure on an existential journey inward. He wades through water, plummets through the sky, and walks out of an illuminated doorway only to come upon his own reflection.
Snyder moved to Nashville from his native West Chester, Pennsylvania, almost a decade ago, and launched Revival–a showcase of Nashville’s rising talent–at the Tin Roof in 2013. He’s dubbed the weekly show “Tuesday Night Church,” since its stage is a church pew.
EMPIRE’s Eric Hurt has witnessed Snyder’s rise as a songwriter firsthand.
“I’ve been friends with Rob for a few years [and met him] when he was virtually unknown in town,” Hurt tells American Songwriter. “Even at that time he was writing some of the most real, heartfelt songs I heard but no one was cutting. I’ve seen Rob grind and work his way up to writing a 4-week #1 smash for Luke Combs.”
That smash is “She’s Got the Best of Me,” which Snyder co-wrote with Combs and Channing Wilson. The music video alone has racked up almost 100 million views, and it cemented Combs’ status as a breakout country star (“Where’d this guy even come from?” says a puzzled radio host at the start of the video). Snyder has also signed to 50 Egg Music, which is co-owned by Combs.
Hurt says he signed Snyder on a gut feeling.
“Through [Snyder’s] success as a songwriter I have always felt that he still needed to share his story in his own way,” explains Hurt. “There are some artists you sign because of the commercial potential and excitement but then there are fewer artists you sign just because you truly believe people need to hear what that artist has to say. It’s something in the gut that says ‘This is real. This is important. This needs to be heard.’ This is Rob Snyder.”
Snyder, for his part, sees his forthcoming album as a chance to be vulnerable.
“When I decided to make this record I knew I wanted to tell my story,” Snyder tells American Songwriter. “These songs show a side of me that most people would never get to see. It’s everything from why I moved here 8 years ago to who I have become. There’s hard times, struggles with anxiety, persistence, love, heartbreak, and a whole lot of looking back. It’s the good and the bad that made me who I am today.”
All of those sentiments come through on “The Way That I Am.” It’s a promising first single from a country songwriter whose name you’ll likely hear again soon.
The Way That I Am is out in June via Big Plans Records.
