We recently connected with Ryann McGhee and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ryann , thanks for joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I wish I had started sooner! I started my creative career around 2018. I had been playing shows before then more as a hobby and an extra stream of income but it was around late 2018 that I truly got serious about playing music as a career. I got a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Entrepreneurship but sometimes I wish I would have gone with my gut and gotten a degree in music. As a child I always felt a strong pull to be a musician but never had people around me that could help me get to that point. Not to say that my parents weren’t supportive, I just think living in a rural town in South Mississippi proved difficult in finding resources or even examples of people who had successfully become a musician. In the spirit of job security and fear of taking the risk, I applied to pre-med classes straight out of high school. My parents (and two step-parents) are all in the medical field so at the time, it seemed like the safest move for me. Once I was accepted into the physical therapy program at The University of Southern Mississippi, I soon realized that pursuing a career in medicine meant saying goodbye to my free time and weekends. At that time I was starting to play a lot of local shows on the weekends so I made the choice to change my major to Business to allow myself more time to pursue music on the side. Looking back it was like something was always pushing me towards music I just hadn’t accepted it fully yet. After graduating college I got married and moved across the country to Colorado with my husband and the lead guitar player for Grits & Greens, Jesse McGhee. While in Colorado we both grew more and more fond of the idea of playing music seriously and earning a living doing that so we spent our time out there practicing and honing our craft before eventually moving back to Mississippi and forming Grits & Greens. While I appreciate my business degree and do feel it has helped me in my career path, I do sometimes wish that I would have gotten a degree in music. I think now I spend a lot of time back tracking and teaching myself the fundamentals to what I’m doing and I think if I had just gone with what I knew I wanted to do even as a child, I would have pursued a degree in music and started young. Although, I do feel my business degree is valuable to us as essentially small business owners. I think I just want to know more about music and feel that a degree in it could have really given me the structure and ability to learn more. But truthfully I think all musicians want to know more about music so I guess it’s just a part of the journey!

Ryann , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Ryann McGhee and I am a songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist for Grits & Greens. We are best described as rock and roll with a soulful and jam-heavy delivery. I have been playing music since I was in high school and the band has been together since 2021. I’m very proud of the music we have released and the group of people I am in a band with and the main thing I want our potential followers/fans to know is that we have a lot more music to share with you and we hope to see you at a show soon!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is being able to pursue our passion for music and performing while building a sustainable business around it.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

There was a point in time, where I had to choose between a traditional career, and pursuing my passion. I made a decision to give pursing my passion a true effort, abandoning my job, and focusing all my energy on my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.gritsandgreensband.com
• Instagram: @gritsandgreensband
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/gritsandgreensband
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@GritsandGreensband
• Other: Links to our music: https://linktr.ee/gritsandgreens

Image Credits
MCE Photography Dead Rabbit Photography