Submitted photo Hope native Jenna Shoaf has a new country single.
Hope native and Nashville, Tennessee country singer-songwriter Jenna Shoaf is fighting to make a name for herself in Music City — beginning with a passionate first single about fighting.
The tune, titled “Civil War,” is slated to be released Friday, the day after her 25th birthday. The song deals with the less-than-civil end of a relationship.
“It’s an emotional song that doesn’t hold back,” Shoaf said. ” … You feel like you have to act like everything is OK even though it’s not.
“It’s hard to be civil around each other when there’s still a war. It’s one (song) I’m very proud of and something that I know so many can relate to.”
She recently performed at Hope Heritage Days.
“This song means so much to me and has been a way to help me through all the heartbreak, stress and anxiety this year has brought through writing words that I couldn’t say,” she wrote on Instagram, where she echoed her release plans.
Part of the song’s lyrics feature Shoaf questioning her strength with the vulnerable line “Why can’t I stand there tall like I did before?/This feels like civil war.”
Shoaf attended Utah State University and earned a degree in agribusiness. She moved to Nashville two years ago to pursue a music career.
“I didn’t do an awful lot of songwriting until college, because that’s when I seriously decided music was what I really wanted to do,” she said.
Recently, she has played at Nashville-area bars and at gatherings known as writers rounds in which a performer gets enough time to share maybe three songs with an audience.
“I’ve gotten a pretty good response,” she said. “And it has been a good way to get my music out there. Right now, I’m just trying to focus on my first couple of singles.”
