About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2022)
Wednesday, June 15,2022 dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 5A Dawsonville native writes debut country music project Amicalola EMC awards funding to local groups Photo courtesy of Peytan Porter for the Dawson County News DCHS graduate and country musician Peytan Porter is releasing her first EP "In My Head" on June 24. By Staff Reports In April, Amicalola EMC’s Operation RoundUp program awarded $25,821 to local organizations. Organizations receiving funds include the Lloyd Harben Memorial Scholarship Fund, Act Last Friday, the RLN Grocery Store, also known as Real Love Now, held a community outreach event as part of its ‘Serve Days’ to help further its presence in Dawsonville. Led by The Church at War Hill pastors Don Allen and Sam Nissen, RLN offers significantly discounted items such as bread, canned goods and toiletries to help local people in need. At Friday’s event, the two pastors and fellow church volunteers helped organize an open house event that displayed the wide array of discounted goods for sale. The open house includ ed many of the basic day- to-day household needs as well as other products such as gardening sup plies. Outside the store, the volunteers set up a boun cy house for kids and pro- Together Ministries, Angels on Horseback, Burnt Mountain Center, Ferst Readers of Pickens County, Gilmer Learning Center, Goshen Valley Foundation, MUST Ministries, Operation Appreciation, Pickens 4H, Ruth House Ministries and Tiny Stitches. Nissen, who runs the daily operations of RLN, described the outreach event as an important part of the grocery store’s overall aim to help those in difficult financial situa tions. He also mentioned that the store seeks to serve as many people as possible so that the proceeds can go toward the church’s continuing mission of providing for the commu nity. For Allen, he shared similar thoughts with Nissen while also empha sizing the importance that dignity plays in the pur pose of RLN. While the store focuses mainly on the necessities, it also offers snacks and other products that can bring a sense of normalcy to anyone who is in need. RLN can be found just outside downtown Dawsonville at 169 Hwy. 9 South in the Heritage Square shopping center. By Julia Fechter jfechter@dawsonnews.com Dawson County High School alumna and coun try music artist Peytan Porter has stayed busy in 2022. The 24-year-old Dawsonville native will play at the Country Music Association’s CMA Fest in Nashville this weekend, and she will release her debut EP “In My Head” June 24 via major digital music retailers. Porter was born and raised in Dawsonville as the second of three sisters. A 2019 DCN article detailed how, as a child, she developed a passion for writing and perform ing music. After graduating from DCHS in 2016, Porter moved to Nashville, Tennessee to attend Lipscomb University and study communications and music. She interned at a music publisher before graduating early from college in 2020. Then last year, she signed a joint-venture deal with Jody Williams Songs and Warner Chappell Music. Over the past year or so, Porter has built a steady following on social media, made up of hun dreds of thousands of fol lowers and subscribers between Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. “In My Head” features the seven songs “Why We Broke Up,” “Champagne Problems,” “First Stone,” “You Go Girl,” “Therapy,” “Someone’s Love Song” and the title track. Porter said her songs cover the gamut in terms of emotions. The words are all drawn from authentic personal experi ences, from relationship troubles to hoping for the right person or dreaming of more prosperous cir cumstances. She explained that she took a bit of that moun tain town-type sound with her to Nashville for when she wrote the songs. “It’s not the southern Georgia, red dirt [type of style]. It’s breezy and airy...that’s where the ethereal part comes from,” she said. “Coming from a northern Georgia moun tain town, that’s definitely something I wanted to capture.” She called “Someone’s Love Song” her most challenging to write. “It was a little more vulnerable than the oth ers... and I’m not great at being vulnerable, but I’m good at being open,” said Porter, “so I wrote it with two people who pulled it (the inspiration) out of me.” Like many other song writers, Porter described the difficulty of narrowing down thousands of songs she’d written since 2013 down to the seven final candidates that ended up on the EP. She’s happy with how the project culminated, though. Based on the responses she’s gotten so far, her listeners seem to feel the same way, such as with her first single, “Therapy.” “People have started sharing stories relating it to stories about drugs or alcohol abuse or problems with parents...things that are a lot bigger than just my break up,” Porter said. Such is the subjective nature of music, she added, commenting that it’s hard to predict which songs will captivate peo ple. The EP’s song, “First Stone,” takes more of a worldview lens than a personal focus with the emphasis on treating oth ers kindly, she said. “One of my former bas ketball coaches, Steve Sweat, called me, and told me that all of his grand- kids knew all the words to it,” she said of the tune. “It’s cool to see a bigger message clicking with the younger kids.” In that respect, being nominated for the “TikTok Songwriter of the Year” award at the “I Heart Radio Music Awards” caught her by surprise, but it was a wel come surprise. Likewise, Porter’s one- weekend tour with Willie Nelson this April was only her second time playing with a full band. “Because performing and releasing music is all I’ve ever wanted to do, I felt prepared to take it on and not fall flat on my face. I was not as scared as I should have been,” she said, laughing. “I still have a lot to learn, and I’m excited and eager to learn.” Porter thanked all the people that have support ed her during her creative journey, from her family and other loved ones back home to a wealth of sup port in the Nashville area, too. Porter will perform at Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater on Friday, June 10 starting at 7 p.m. as part of the Country Music Association’s annual CMA Fest, a four- day country music festi val held in the Tennessee city. Also as part of the fes tival, she’ll play on the Spotify Fresh Finds Rooftop stage on June 11 at 6 p.m. For more touring and music details, people can check out peytanporter- music.com. 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