From campus to country: UK alumni find music success in Nashville

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 14, 2025) — For one University of Kentucky alum, having access to an on-campus recording studio allowed him to make professional quality music at no cost. Another noted his journalism coursework shared themes with songwriting and helped him strengthen his lyrics. And an advisor’s suggestion to pursue a flexible major encouraged another to think about the business side of her music career.

In Nashville, Tennessee, three UK College of Communication and Information (CI) alumni — J.D. Shelburne, Neil Medley and Hannah Ellis — have harnessed skills acquired during their undergraduate studies to turn heads in country music, not only by lending their writing chops to major label artists but also telling resonating stories across their own albums and singles.

The three singer-songwriters may not have chosen traditional paths for their majors, but their success is a testament to the boundless ways in which students at UK can merge their passions with academic pursuits, and in turn, find meaningful, standout careers.

J.D. Shelburne

As he stood on the historic Grand Ole Opry stage at the 10th annual Josie Music Awards last October, where he performed “All Night Kiss” and accepted the award for Modern Country Artist of the Year, J.D. Shelburne said he immediately thought of all the hall of famers who stood there before him.

“It’s always a blessing when you reach certain goals and bucket-list moments,” he said. “That was one of my favorite nights.”

The ceremony was a triumphant moment for Shelburne, who has been playing country music for more than 20 years.

The musician got his footing in the genre after his grandmother’s death in 2002. Shelburne inherited her guitar. He had been attending community college and started to spend his free time teaching himself how to play and sing. A few years later, when he decided to transfer to UK as a media arts and studies (formerly telecommunications) major, music became more than just a hobby. 

During his time at UK, Shelburne made invaluable connections with peers, professors and administrators that led to a life-changing journey as well as “how I got a foot in the door,” he said.

John Clark, a recently retired media arts and studies associate professor, helped stoke Shelburne’s interest by providing him free access to a recording studio. Shelburne made one of his first notable recordings on UK’s campus.

“In the recording studio, I could tell that he had the voice, and he had the look,” Clark said. “Then I could tell that he had the determination, so I’m not surprised at his success.”

Following his graduation from UK in 2007, Shelburne moved to Nashville and began building his brand and booking shows. Since then, the Taylorsville, Kentucky, native has performed more than 3,000 shows in his career; achieved two No. 1 videos on CMT; released six studio albums, including a top 10 album on iTunes “Straight from Kentucky” and 2023’s “Neon Hallelujah,” that featured Country Music Hall of Fame members The Oak Ridge Boys. He has opened for several national acts including Miranda Lambert, ZZ Top and Riley Green, and earned praise from notable figures like Randy Travis, Sugar Ray’s Mark McGrath and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Reflecting on his time at UK, Shelburne is reminded that if it weren’t for the skills he built while completing his degree — adaptability, effective communication strategies and creative marketing to build a personal brand — he would have never been able launch his career and find success in the way that he did.

“I owe all the success I have been able to reach to the University of Kentucky,” Shelburne said.

He encourages students to build on their connections with peers and faculty members and to never be afraid to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. You never know what they can teach you, he said.  

Neil Medley

Neil Medley describes songwriting as a mystical experience. For him, inspiration stems from the challenge of writing a great song that listeners will sing along to, spin at their weddings or attach special memories to — just as he has with his own favorite music.

During his career, Medley said he’s written nearly 2,000 songs, but he jokes that picking his best-loved track would be like picking a favorite child.

The singer-songwriter has lived in Nashville since 1998, and prior to his move, he attended UK as a journalism student, developing a knack for sports reporting. He accepted a job writing for a small paper in Bardstown, Kentucky, after graduation, but right before he was supposed to start, he left for Music City to chase songwriting.

Journalism likely isn’t where you’d expect a career songwriter to get his start, but Medley found that his reporting and courses laid solid groundwork for his music.

“I believe in both journalism and songwriting you have to immediately hook the audience, and everything has to support the main idea of what you’re writing,” he said. “There’s nothing better than a compelling opening line.”

Medley said that he lives by the phrase “Good songs are written, great songs are rewritten.” When it came to his journalism courses, the same advice was given for stories.

Writing for two publishing companies in Nashville — River House Artists and Sony Music Publishing — Medley said his calendar is full of sessions four to five days a week with other songwriters and artists.

“On some weekends, I will travel with artists on their bus and write before they play a show at night,” he said. “For the most part, every day looks the same: a couple of songwriters with guitars and a few ideas trying to write a song. Some days I’m the lyric guy and other days I might have to focus more on the melodies. Whatever it takes to get a great song.”

And Medley’s no stranger to great songs. His tracks have been recorded by country titans like Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Jason Aldean and Jon Pardi. In 2021, Medley earned his first No. 1 with Jake Owen’s “Made For You,” which he co-wrote with Benjy Davis and Joey Hyde.

Over the course of his career, Nashville has gotten to know Medley as “just a name attached to certain songs,” he said. But in 2023, after feeling stuck creatively and lacking purpose in his writing, Medley decided to tell stories in his own voice, releasing his debut album “South End Kid.”

“I wanted to shake things up and step outside of my comfort zone,” Medley said. “I had spent the last 13 years writing other people’s songs and telling someone else’s stories. With ‘South End Kid,’ listeners could connect my name with my face, my voice and some really great songs.”

Since the album’s release, Medley said he’s had the most activity of his entire career as a songwriter.

Hannah Ellis

If you’ve never heard Hannah Ellis’ music, she describes it as “Shania Twain meets Sabrina Carpenter” — uplifting, relatable and chock-full of the same kind of personality the two stars are known for.

Whether she’s lamenting a breakup through the lens of genre classics on “90s Country” or putting “the boujee in the back roads” on the fiery “Wine Country,” Ellis approaches all of her writing sessions by prioritizing authentic stories about her own life that she feels others could relate to. After all, one of Ellis’ first brushes with songwriting came when she heard Taylor Swift’s mega-hit “You Belong With Me” and felt “so seen,” she said.

Ellis said singing has always been a part of her life. Her parents are singers who performed at weddings when she was growing up in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and Ellis’ sister sang, too.

As she got older, Ellis began singing in church and at contests and, soon enough, realized she wanted to make music for a living.

During her undergraduate studies at UK, Ellis developed her performing and songwriting at local bars while also traveling to Nashville twice a week to immerse herself in the city’s musical community.

She said her advisor in CI recommended she choose integrated strategic communication as her major in order to better present herself and her music as a brand to listeners.

“Being an artist is being a business, so we really leaned into that,” Ellis said. “Of course, the internet landscape has changed over the years, but good communication skills apply in every format.”

Following her commencement in 2012, Ellis moved to Nashville, where she said “the community is everything.” Just a few years later, in 2015, Ellis auditioned for NBC’s “The Voice.”

Ellis did not move past the show’s auditions, but this proved to be a good thing for the singer-songwriter. While she was in Los Angeles auditioning for “The Voice,” she received an offer for a publishing deal back in Nashville, which she signed shortly after. Ellis wrote for the publishing company until it was bought by Curb Records, whose label reps signed Ellis in 2020 after hearing the songs she was writing in their shared building.

“The support I get from my label is unmatched,” she said. “They are truly my biggest champions and have made so many of my dreams come true through their belief in me.”

Ellis has been named one of Rolling Stone’s “Artists to Watch,” performed on the CMT Next Women of Country Tour with Cassadee Pope and Claire Dunn, and worked with RaeLynn, Chris Tomlin and Ellis’ husband, fellow singer-songwriter Nick Wayne. Her debut album “That Girl” was released in 2024, and Ellis said there’s still “tons of new music” coming down the pipeline, like her latest single “Waiting to Die,” a duet with Wayne.

Though Ellis’ journey is singular, her work ethic and pursuit of music offer a universal lesson to young artists.

“The one thing that applies to any career path is hard work,” she said. “Someone else may have more natural abilities or more opportunities readily available to them, but I am such a believer in working hard and keeping your eyes on your own goals. Don’t be distracted by what is happening for other people, forge your own path.”