Gracie Vandiver loves working with language and ideas. Her passion is fueled every time she creates something beautiful, whether it's a new website design, promotional materials, or the lyrics to a song.
As an independent artist herself, she offers her first-hand experience of product development, her obsession for quality control, and a sense of compassion that her clients appreciate. She can truly relate to the feeling of what do I do now that I have 1,000 CDs in boxes in my living room? It's Gracie's practical, small, do-able steps for marketing and promotion (combined with a lot of hand-holding and encouragement) that help her clients stay focused and achieve success. It's no wonder why they keep coming back.
Gracie believes that what we've done in the past has led us to where we are today, even if we weren't aware at the time that those were stepping stones on our journey. Her knowledge and skills have developed from her widely-diverse past experience. Upon closer examination, it becomes easier to connect the dots.
While living in Los Angeles, Gracie served as Director of Development at Mark Bryan and Company for author Mark Bryan, co-founder of the Artist's Way Workshops and a regular guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show.
After reaching year six of her five-year plan, she moved to Nashville in the spring of 2000, and was the Regional Workshops Director for the Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), which kept her on the front lines of publicizing and planning large-scale Music Row and regional events for over two years.
Gracie is the co-author of the popular book Your First Cut, A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting There, (co-written with hit songwriter Jerry Vandiver) released in the spring of 2002. Known as "the left-brain book for write-brain people," Your First Cut is a 224-page workbook designed to guide and inspire songwriters while keeping them organized and focused on the path to realizing their songwriting dreams.
Since the book's release, Gracie and Jerry have presented over 50 workshops throughout the United States sponsored by ASCAP, SGA, NSAI, TAXI, and other songwriting organizations, and colleges such as Berklee College of Music, MusicTech, Belmont University, MTSU, and Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music.
In 2006, Gracie founded Sunlight Of The Spirit Music. Sunlight of the Spirit Music's mission is to offer support from alcoholism and addiction in all its forms by making "12-step and recovery music" CDs widely available, to exclusively sell CDs from artists in recovery, and to raise awareness that great music can be created without the use of drugs or alcohol. Sunlight Of The Spirit Music has the largest selection of "Recovery Music" available anywhere on the planet.
Not long after launching the music store, she created the Sober Cafe Podcast (If the hat fits . . .). The Sober Café Podcast highlights music from CDs available in Sunlight of the Spirit Music's online store - - offering the chance to get to know artists in recovery during in-depth interviews about their creative process, and they share their experience, strength, and hope along with some of their great tunes.
"Trail of Light" by Gracie Vandiver & Friends, (Note to Self Recordings) was released on September 4, 2007. It is a compilation CD of music reflecting the journey from alcoholism and addiction to a new life in recovery. The first twelve songs lyrically address the emotional twists and turns on the path, capturing "What it was like," "What happened," and "What it's like now." The fifteen-song journey concludes with "A vision for you," offering songs of hope and inspiration to maintain solid footing in day-to-day recovery. In addition to six songs Gracie wrote, she's joined by a variety of talented artists and award-winning songwriters such as Paul Williams, Mary Gauthier, Jon Vezner, Jack Sundrud, and Sharon Vaughn.
This past summer, she had the joy of co-producing a spoken word & music CD with David Rivers and philosopher Noah benShea. Four of the tracks are beautifully written and narrated by Noah, with instrumental music created to support his insightful messages. The other four tracks are songs co-written by Gracie and Sonia Lee, Kathy Ashworth, and David Rivers. The CD is called Getting Better - Don't Let The Past Kidnap Your Future.
Gracie's songs have been recorded by several of her co-writers, including award-winning writers Jerry Vandiver (yes, we know he's her husband but he wasn't when he recorded his CD!) and Jon Vezner (who you may recognize if we tell you he wrote "Where've You Been" which was recorded by Kathy Mattea). Her songs are also included on the Sounds of Serenity CDs, Volumes One and Two, and are in heavy rotation on 12StepRadio.com.
In her free time, Gracie practices her guitar and fiddle, takes "Ringo" for romps at the dog park, knits really cozy sweaters, and canoes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) with her husband (they even got married there!). And she makes one heck of a bowl of chicken soup.
Gracie lives in East Nashville with her husband, Jerry, their two rescue dogs, two cats that homesteaded on their front porch, and her fabulous stash of yarn.
"I honestly couldn't imagine doing my career without Gracie. She does way more than marketing development. She helps me prioritize and set realistic goals. Mission Statement development and Time Management are also within her expertise. She helps shape my message into a form that presents me to the world in an honest and exciting way. Gracie is my career advisor and I trust her implicitly."
Jim Mayer,
Award-winning Children's Artist, "Uncle Jim"
#1 on XM KiDS Radio (Twice!)
"Thank you for holding up the vision of 12StepRadio.com and for guiding our website design every step of the way. Without "the Gracie touch," 12StepRadio.com would not exist (except in my mind)."
Bill Zimmerman,
Founder
12StepRadio.com
"Once I recorded my CD of Ukrainian folk songs, I had no idea how I was going to market it. Gracie created a gorgeous press kit and has walked me through everything from contacting festival promoters to getting a review and free ad in the largest Ukrainian newspaper in the United States! She guided me through contacting retailers, invoicing, tracking contacts and receivables. I am so grateful to have her expertise on my side."
Sonia Lee,
Songwriter & Recording Artist
Hippy Chick Twang Records
"As part of Sandman Records' Dream Team, Gracie redesigned our website content, created fundraising and promotional campaigns that increased Sandman's visibility in the children's music market, and maintained our high quality standards at Sandman Records' world headquarters. And we could always count on her impeccable behind-the-scenes editing of our world-famous Snoozeletters!"
Lanny Sherwin,
President
Sandman Records
"Thank you for taking my "Twelve Songs" CD to the next level. Until now, I only dreamed of my songs being heard worldwide. Your awesome marketing ideas and never-ending support have made it all so real. Thanks for having so much passion for your work!"
Mary Lyn B.,
Singer/Songwriter/Recording Artist
"What a great concept you came up with for my one-sheet. Thanks so much!"
Steve Dan Mills,
Singer/Songwriter/Recording Artist
"There are two excellent reasons we would want to retain Gracie Hollombe's consulting services again: her focus and results. She kept our non-profit on track to make sure our efforts were promoted through the public relations campaign she helped us strategize. Later, as we juggled other tasks to coordinate a promotional music festival, she made sure we were still completing the goals we had outlined with her in our marketing plan.
Sometimes we did the legwork, and sometimes Gracie did it. She always asked how she could be most useful to help us achieve our plan. When we were overwhelmed with the legwork we were supposed to do, she stepped in. Gracie helped in the predictable ways of copy-editing press releases and tightening up our writing, or recommending specific media contacts from her own experience. But she also helped us in ways I couldn't have anticipated.
Our music festival launched into cyberspace this year because of a connection Gracie made between our organization and a new Internet radio station. She looked beyond our own expectations and seized opportunities we didn't know were possible. She did this without allowing us to lose sight of our original marketing plan.
As our music festival deadline grew closer during the summer and my multi-tasking role intensified, I especially valued Gracie's ability to filter the most critical information for me in her clear and concise communications. She quickly perceived where the internal strengths were in our organization and she worked to supplement the areas where we were weaker. For example, we had some good media relations, but we knew very little about websites, or the music world. Then our concert promoter became so busy with other events he forgot to follow up with the musicians and Gracie saved the day.
Her website expertise was invaluable. Not only did she coach us into a nice graphic look for our website, she knew what content we should include. She helped us create a style and template of information for future concerts.
I would highly recommend Gracie Hollombe's consulting service to anyone who wants to accomplish their goals. We successfully hit every publicity target we aimed for in our campaign. I'm sure some of it was luck. But a great deal was due to Gracie coaching us through the legwork."
Terri Dorsey,
Program Director
Nashville Area Recovery Alliance
"I just finished doing a little dance! Gracie did all the footwork and now we are the proud recipients of three awards!
Gracie was highly-recommended by two musician colleagues. When we met to discuss my project, I was struck by her organization, clarity, and "can-do" attitude. She signed on to my project, and we fell into a comfortable dialogue about the needs of the project, her letting me lead with my vision and the needs of my CD project, while backing me up with the facts of the business of marketing and ideas that she had - based on her experience as well as her imagination.
Gracie is a great collaborator - - sensitive to the needs of each project, while insightful enough to offer her points of view. She offers practical advice as well as strong support for wading through un-chartered territories of the marketing world, allowing me to achieve goals I would have been unable to complete on my own. We created a new bio, a great looking press kit and web site, and mapped out a strategy to get the best affordable exposure for my project.
Approaching the release of my CD, Gracie got us announcements in all the local papers and websites, a great review in the Nashville Scene, an enthusiastic venue, promotional flyers and poster. Her skills allowed me to be 'the artist' so I could concentrate on my music and my band and show up to give my all at the performance. I don't think I could have given my best performance if I had had to concern myself with all those promotional details.
The other thing I appreciate about Gracie is that she is willing to do as much or as little as the project needs; she doesn't bring a big agenda of her own.
I will continue to recommend her and happily work with her further on this and other Rab Record projects."
Patience Moore,
Singer/Songwriter/Producer
"Buckaroos Sleep Too!" on Rab Records
"Gracie Hollombe is a very gifted, media-savvy publicist. More importantly, she's a wonderful human being and great fun to work with. Put those two together and she's this singer/songwriter/storyteller's dream. I've been in Nashville as a professional songwriter/recording artist for 25 years. I've been blessed to be able to make a living at it, but have lacked the skills of promoting to the max what I do. In fact, to some degree I've been operating by the proverbial 'seat of my pants.' No more. Since adding Gracie to my team (now there's two of us!) a few months ago, I anticipate 2005 being a banner year. She has done a super job of guiding me in the development of my new website, immeasurably improved my bio and press kit, and is hard at work on finding avenues for the distribution of my new CD. Thank you, Gracie, for your hard work and for giving me a new level of hope."
Lee Domann
Singer / Songwriter / Storyteller
"It is invaluable to have someone like Gracie that I can count on to focus on the details, which frees me up to run my business more effectively. Besides, Gracie is a pleasure to work with."
Suzie Faver, Owner
FaverWebs.com