BRIAN GOYETTE

Saturday May 13, 2023

The Get Up - Writers Round @ Phat Bites in Nashville, TN

(Review by: Jeffrey Kurtis)

Wherever you can fit a stage, Nashville will give you live music for it!

In the small pocket of Donelson, located 8 miles east of downtown, local eateries have recently earned very high acclaim, as much for their food as for the great live music that they’re welcoming night in and night out.

Phat Bites, a hub known for their bohemian atmosphere, healthy food options, and their 2014 appearance on Guy Fieri’s Diner’s, Drive-In’s, and Dives, has become a hidden gem for catching some of the most solid talent that’s navigating the vast songwriting community.

The Get Up, a unique to Nashville songwriter round hosted by Alyson Yogi and Jesse Savio, delivered 11 fresh songwriters to the stage at Phat Bites this past weekend, including such names as Casi Joy, Jared Ming, and Dalton Elliott.

However, during the very strong final round of the night, Brian Goyette captured the attention of the late-night crowd with his ultra-modern style and engaging lyrical aura.

The Milwaukee area native, who calls Nashville home, caught a quick bit of buzz when his song “10 On Tennessee” earned over 10K Spotify streams late last year, but as the old saying goes, timing is everything! Unfortunately for Brian, though his is uniquely different in its overall approach, several songs lifting the Big Orange impacted radio last year, including Megan Moroney’s breakout hit, “Tennessee Orange.”

However, the level of acclaim that he received from that song is exactly what propelled his latest single, “Radio Made Us,” to highly anticipated status ahead of its release, before earning him 14K Spotify streams in just the two months since it hit the streaming platform.

“Yesterday was a really big moment for me…I had my first songwriter cut come out,” humbly shared Goyette to a healthy applause from the crowd. After plugging Brady Luke for believing in the song enough to release it, he then slid into the mid-tempo drive of “Malibu Sunrise,” pulling touches of raspy grit into his otherwise clean vocal to hit the punch of emotions, lifting his voice into the imagery of the chorus to embrace the struggles of the broken-hearted memories of leaving behind a summer lust.

“This next song is going to be my second cut as a writer,” gratefully exclaimed Brian. “It was the first co-write that I ever did…And usually when you’re writing, the first idea you throw out there isn’t the one you end up with, but we got lucky. This was our first idea that day and it’s coming out June 2^nd by way of Jordan Blanchard,” he enthusiastically plugged as he popped into the toe-tapping, mid-tempo flare of the happily moving on “Cooler Than You,” instantly pulling the crowd into the feel-good vibe and sway along melody of the chorus.

“One of the co-writers on this song really didn’t know his dad growing up and was struggling with it, so we just let him talk through it the day of this write,” Goyette transparently shared as he softened the pace with the heartstring tugging “Goodbye Young,” expertly painting the pictures of an absent father and the deep-seated wounds that it leaves on you as you navigate through the tangled emotions of growing up and trying to make sense of an unfair situation you didn’t deserve.

“This is actually the next one that I’m going to be putting out,” said Brian with a smile, capping the night with “Always Stay the Same” as he journeyed us through reminiscing memories of what used to be between him and an ex, holding tightly to the good stuff no matter how much things between them, including her, have changed since they separated.

2022 was a turning point for Brian Goyette with both of his singles earning solid attention. However, as he builds upon that momentum, it’s plain to see that 2023 is off to an even hotter start for the Wisconsin native.

By having already landed two cuts as a songwriter in the first half of the year, and having a third on the way, Goyette has stamped down the first few bricks to his next chapter’s path, earning strong recognition for his songwriting abilities while skillfully continuing to forge his own artist path through higher profiled songwriter rounds and the tease of his next single, “Always Stay The Same” (tentatively due out in late summer).

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