Chace Saunders
Chace Saunders was born to sing country music: it's practically written into his family tree. On his mom's side, his Papaw made banjos and his Mamaw wrote gospel songs and ballads. On his dad's side, his great-grandfather played the honky-tonk circuit and hosted his own country and western radio show. Music runs generations deep in the Saunders family, and Chace grew up right in the middle of it: bluegrass and gospel on Sundays, his own first guitar (a Christmas gift from Santa) in his hands by age eight.
He put that guitar to work early. In grade school he formed a band with classmates called the Messed Up Monkeys. By junior high, he was leading the worship team most Sundays. At the University of Kentucky, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in International Studies, he fronted a fraternity band that won the campus battle of the bands, then kept the momentum going as frontman of The Heydays, playing regularly at Lexington staples like Two Keys and the Stagger Inn.
In October 2021, Chace moved to Nashville to chase it for real. He spent about a year building stages by day while working dive-bar shifts by night, logging the hours-long sets that build a voice like his: rustic, wide-ranged, and full of raw emotion. After that first year, he was able to give up building stages and pursue music full-time. His first single, "Bourbon Whiskey," came out in December 2022, released on his father's birthday.
Since then, the momentum has only picked up. Touring as direct support for rising folk band Sons of Habit across 17 shows nationwide, including an 11-city West Coast run in October 2025, introduced Chace's music to new crowds across the Midwest, South, and West Coast, and his country reimagining of Kid Cudi's "Erase Me" has drawn the attention of hundreds of thousands of listeners online, proof that a great song can find new life across genre lines. He's twice opened for rising country star Drake Milligan (the first slot earned outright by winning a Lori's Roadhouse acoustic competition), opened for independent Kentucky artist JD Shelburne, and played the legendary Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas, calling it "a dream come true."
His songwriting has drawn national attention, too. In June 2026, American Songwriter named his song "She Left Memphis" the grand prize promotion winner of its Spring Breakup contest, and Chace sat down with the publication for a feature Q&A. That same year, he performed his new original "Animal" for major-label country artist Cole Swindell and hit Nashville songwriter Jeffrey Steele on Austin Burke's Playlisted podcast, real, face-to-face validation from artists who've helped shape the sound of modern country.
These days, you can catch Chace holding down a weekly Broadway residency in Nashville with daytime sets at Whiskey River, Tootsies, and Honky Tonk Central, and weekend gigs at other venues around town on top of that. It's the same stage presence, set after set, that's carried him from junior-high worship leader to a stage beside some of country music's biggest names. His new single, "One More Season," is out now on all streaming platforms, and if his story so far is any indication, it won't be his last.