Our Song of the Day is the heartbreaking ballad, How To Live by SJ McDonald, off her newly release EP of the same name, which includes five tracks including previous singles One More Night In Des Moines, Hot Damn and Stop Sending Me Love Songs.
She also released a powerful track about domestic abuse called Rouge with Brittany Moore, and featured on Gary Frost’s single World Without You.
Born and raised on a small-town turkey and cattle farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, SJ has always held the values of country music as a core foundation in her life. She started writing songs at a nine-years-old and at just 14 years old, the singer-songwriter formed SaraJane McDonald and SweetFIRE. The country-rock band performed across Virginia and North Carolina at festivals and other venues, headlining and opening for country stars Jon Pardi, Runaway June and more.
In 2017, SJ moved to Nashville and fully committed to writing and performing music. Within the first week of living in town, she had already landed herself weekly gigs on some of Lower Broadway’s most notable stages. SJ was honoured with the 2018 ‘John Lennon Scholarship’ for Songwriters and Composers with her song, Working Class Woman. She is also a member of the Song Suffragettes, a writer’s round that highlights and empowers female songwriters in Nashville.
SJ appeared on American Idol in 2019, auditioning in Idaho with her scholarship winning original song and a cover by LeAnn Rimes. She also performs a variety of country and rock cover songs as well as originals both on her YouTube page and TikTok page, where she boasts over 34k followers. SJ recently graduated from Belmont University with a major in Songwriting.
Keep up to date with SJ McDonald on her Facebook page here.
For more Song Of The Days from CountryTown, check out here.
Image: via Facebook
