Patti's After-Party: From One Tourist Town to Another - Meet Lexi Shroll

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I’m sure it’s happened before, but not lately. An artist that spent their entire life living in one tourist city, only to move to another one, although they’re vastly different tourist cities. From the land of Mickey Mouse to a world where everyone and their brother is a songwriter, Lexi Schroll has seen some extremes in how people vacation during her music journey. 

Shroll comes from the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area and is now based in Nashville. When asked to tell a little bit about herself, she said, “From a pretty young age I really liked singing. I sang all the time. My mom finally put me into voice lessons and it just really stuck. I fell in love with it. I did pop, then theater and classical voice, I did all that through high school and then I was recruited by a small liberal arts school in the Orlando area called Rollins College.” At Rollins College Shroll majored in vocal performance and ultimately earned both a music and writing degree.

“I love to write and I love to sing,” she shared, “they’re my favorite things in the world, so why not put ‘em together? I fell in love with songwriting when I was a teenager and I did it all the time. I studied it a little bit at my college and I just knew I had to make the jump, so I left Florida behind and I moved to Nashville in the fall of 2024. I’ve been here for two years and it’s awesome, I’m having so much fun. I think it’s a great city. It was really hard settling in the first year. It was my first time living anywhere else but Florida, so I was just kind of adjusting to that and also figuring out the music industry and who I was, plus a lot more.”

Moving from one tourist mecca directly to another, albeit night and day as far as demographics, must be interesting at the very least. I asked Shroll to describe how that’s been for her. “That’s a really great question. I’ve never been asked something like that before. In my area of Orlando, when I was young, it was sort of ‘rednecky.’ Our ‘downtown,’ and I say that very loosely, was literally a two dirt road intersection and we had chickens running around. Now that same area of Orlando, in Oviedo, it’s very popular. I watched my small town grow into somewhere that’s crazy, but as far as Orlando goes in general, I think I took it for granted a little bit.”

She continued, “I mean, I just assumed everyone in the world went to Disney all the time. I remember when I was about seven, we were visiting a friend in Colorado and there was an advertisement for a theme park. I looked at our family friend and was like, ‘Oh, you guys don’t have Disney here,’ and it just kind of dawned on me (that Disney wasn’t everywhere). Everyone looked at me and laughed. When people think of Orlando, the first thing they think of is Disney World. So, Nashville is almost like the flipside, I don’t take it for granted as much. I live in a place that’s so cool, a place that people save up all year to come and visit. People have the best weekends of their lives in this city and seeing that sort of joy is so infectious. So I’m definitely more aware of that and I’m grateful to be surrounded by it. Also it’s kind of funny now to tell people I’m from Nashville and have them say, ‘Oh, I love that. What’s that place you go to? Broadway? It’s so fun.’ So all my life I’ve been hearing people say they love that I live in such a fun place, it’s just a little different because now it’s a little more country than it was.”

While some artists arrive in Nashville almost completely set up with a job, housing, friends and even co-writes, for others, it’s quite the opposite, Lexi Shroll initially struggled a bit. “I moved up here at the end of August and I remember having all my stuff moved into my home. I moved in with two roommates who were my two best friends. They don’t do music stuff, but we all kind of picked this city, mostly because I wanted to move here. They found jobs and other things to do and they were my support system. I had no job, I had nothing. I was literally here on a hope and a prayer.”

I’ll be right back to Shroll’s story, but just for a moment, I’d like everyone to think about all the hopeful artists that come to Nashville every day, especially the ones that more or less “just show up.” They might be really talented, but they have no plan. How many of them actually get it together and successfully achieve everything that’s necessary to live a decent life? How many of them realize they’ve made a mistake and turn around and head back home? How many become superstars and how many end up in dismal situations? So many stories are just floating around dating back to the days when Nashville was first recognized as Music City. We’ll never hear them all, but I bet not one would be exactly the same. 

Shroll went on, “I survived it somehow. I remember my one friend going to her 9 to 5 job and my other friend going to work for Vanderbilt where she’s getting her PhD. I was alone in our house. The first hour was fine, the second hour I was like, ‘This is cool, I’m good.’ By noon I was like, ‘What have I done?’ I called my mom crying, telling her I had nothing to do. I didn’t have a job, nobody responded to my emails or even texts to go for coffee or anything. I told her, ‘I have no idea what I’ve done.’”

Thankfully, Shroll’s parents encouraged her to keep the faith and give it time. She explained, “My parents are my biggest believers. Anytime I doubt something, they’re like, ‘Nah, stick it out, you’ve got this.’ So that’s always been very helpful. The same thing with my friends. Everyone around me has been super supportive, which is great, because the first month was really hard. I said ‘yes’ to literally anything I could, and a lot of it resulted in being in places I don’t frequent now, or writing with people that didn’t click with me. I was just so ready to say ‘yes,’ but I think it taught me a lot in that first month. I was faced with this really hard thing and the first day I got there I burst into tears, wondering what I had done, but I dug my heels in and decided I was going to figure it out and I did. I always look back on that time like, ‘Oh wow, if I had only known how much I was gonna love this city,' it’s just kind of funny looking back.’”

I'm giving credit where credit is due to both Shroll and her parents. It’s obvious she was brought up well and isn’t a quitter. She’s now beginning to see the results of sticking it out. So many others give up quickly. I mentioned that I think most people who come to Nashville to do music are actually a little bit shook when they realize just how many others moved there to do the same thing. I couldn’t even venture a guess at how many singer/songwriters there are around Nashville, whether they just arrived or if they’re a hitmaker, but there are so many, it’s mindblowing.

Shroll agreed, there are a lot of them. “I think that was something that was new and something I had to adjust to. It was exciting in so many ways and intimidating in a lot of ways too. I went to a small college and I didn’t know a lot of people who wrote music. The people I knew who were writing music, they weren’t writing country music. I was kind of a bigger fish in a small pond, and then the pond turned into an ocean and I was like, ‘Ooh, this is different.’”

How admirable is it when an artist can actually acknowledge that? It seems like so many never figure it out. No matter how big you get, there will always be someone climbing up right behind you. Artists with authentic, homegrown work ethics usually handle the necessary grind much better.It’s been two years since Shroll made Nashville home, and I knew she was now navigating the city and its songwriting community in a way that allowed her to co-write, record and even have some fun. She talked about her collaborators. “There are so many great people here that I love working with. When I first moved here and didn’t really know what I was doing, I had a great friend who really guided me in my first year. His name is Norm McDonald. He’s great. He’s very involved in a lot of different aspects of the community. I was really grateful that he took me under his wing a bit. A lot of my early connections were because of his kindness, so he’s awesome. One of my favorite co-writers is my friend Addy Prado. We connected at a round. I just love her musical voice and she’s really special. She’s a successful artist on her own and I’ll be releasing one of my favorite songs we wrote together soon.” The recently announced upcoming single is “Harry & Sally” and will be available on all platforms November 6, 2026.

She recalled another important connection. “I have a producer that I met, Jesse Savio. He and his wife run songwriter rounds around town. He produces people and if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have my new single that just came out, ‘Dead Man Walking,’ and that’s been the pinnacle of my career as an artist so far.” I wanted to know more about “Dead Man Walking,” but I wanted to find out more about Savio’s songwriter rounds first.

Shroll shared details about the rounds put on by Jesse Savio and his wife. “The series of rounds is called The Get Up, that’s his thing and they go all over the place. A lot of them are in Nashville and some of them are in bars kind of nearby in the greater Nashville area. A lot of the rounds I play are on Broadway, in Midtown or in one of the other neighborhoods in Nashville. There are a lot of bars and almost every one of them has a songwriter round. When Jesse was first putting The Get Up together, he said you quickly realize you need to know a lot of people to put these on. If you’re putting on a round with 10 people for one night and one of those people backs out, do you know another songwriter that can hopefully fill that spot?”

Wrangling people is a big job and running songwriter rounds amounts to exactly that, wrangling people. 

After listening to Lexi Shroll’s music, I concluded she fits right into the pop country lane. Her sound reminded me of a few artists. I told her she was like a mad mix of Miranda Lambert, Megan Moroney and Meghan Trainor. Shroll’s songs are brimming with attitude, spunk and a playful sense of fun. Growing up, Shroll said she listened to whatever music her parents liked. Her dad was into rock and other 80s music and her mom listened to a lot of pop, but they had a shared love for acoustic, singer/songwriter, folk and Americana. She recollected, “I listened to so much of that growing up and it just became some of my favorite music. Still to this day I love anything that tells a story. That’s my favorite kind of song. Early into my teenage years I listened to country music and I knew the big hits. But when I heard ‘Church Bells’ by Carrie Underwood, and I believe Hillary Lindsey was a writer on that (Lindsey was a co-writer, along with Zach Crowell and the late Brett James) and I became obsessed with that song. It’s a song about murdering your husband because he was a bad guy.”

“Church Bells” led us into a brief discussion of another Carrie Underwood hit, “Two Black Cadillacs,” also written by Hillary Lindsey, along with Underwood and Josh Kear. Both songs are the ultimate story songs. They might be fictional, but they’re expert level tales of revenge and murder, crafted by highly-talented writers. Shroll commented that “Two Black Cadillacs” is a “fantastic song” that she also became obsessed with. “I thought it was such a well-written song. It’s so big and catchy and so dynamic. If I can write anything similar to that song, that would be amazing. I would feel like I’d made it. From there I became a huge country music fan and started listening to all sorts of country musicians. I listened to a lot of Keith Urban and some of Blake Shelton’s newer music. I love Miranda Lambert and now I love all these new artists that are coming out. We’ve got Ella Langley, Megan Moroney, Carter Faith, Zach John King and Vincent Mason. I think they’re all creating a really interesting sound in the country pop sphere.”

She added that as much as she loves country music, she’s a pop fan as well. “I think pop music is so fun. I love all the pop girlies out right now, so if I could find the perfect blend between the two, that’s my happy place.”

That was the perfect intro to talk about “Dead Man Walking.” I gave Shroll the floor and asked her to tell me about it. “I was the sole writer. It’s a story about murdering your boyfriend because he cheated on you, which is fun because it’s not a true story, it’s a piece of fiction. I wrote it just randomly in my room one day. I write all the time and I challenge myself here and there, so I thought this one was good, but I don’t know, it was just another song I wrote at the time.” She continued, “I ended up playing it out and I had all these women come up to me and say ‘That’s a good one, I love it.’ Then my parents really liked it too, so it sparked the idea that maybe I should put it out.” 

“I ended up working with Jesse Savio through Savio Productions. He helped me bring the song to life. Now it’s just so much fun. It’s big and lively and a little bit cheeky. The more I listened to it, the more I had this idea. I love the color pink and because there are a lot of artists in Nashville, finding a way to stand out can be difficult. So I thought, ‘I’ll be pink.’ I had this very sparkly motif just running through the song, but I murdered someone, so it’s kind of a contradiction. I also love the cover art because it’s me in a hot pink dress holding an axe. The song has done really well. I think it just hit 17,000 streams and it’s the best any song has ever done for me, so I’m very grateful to anyone who stops to listen to it.”

Listen to “Dead Man Walking” and watch the supporting music video HERE.

I asked Shroll to tell me about someone not related to her who was a major influence on her as a person and an artist. She said there were so many, but she was able to narrow it down to two who made a lasting impact. 

“My voice teacher, Morgan Davis Peckels. She was my teacher from the time I was 10 to 21. She taught me everything I know. She pushed me and believed in me with anything I wanted to do. Any path I wanted to take, she was there to help me get there. She was my therapist. I remember she said to me, ‘Lexi, I can see you one day singing with a symphony behind you if you wanted.’ Having somebody like her from a young age all the way through the formative years of my life, she just had that belief that I was talented enough, and if I worked hard enough, I could achieve anything. It was very important to me. I always say the reason I sound half as good as I do is because of her.”

The other mentor in Shroll’s life is a songwriting professor she had in college named Dan Flick. She said, “He was great. He had such faith in me as a writer and a storyteller. He gave me so many opportunities and pushed me to expand my talents and made me work harder for things. I really value both relationships a lot. I think they shaped me into a confident young musician.”

If Shroll was to write a song about both of these special people, she said she would probably call it “Hope.” She elaborated, “I think they gave me a lot of hope. I’m a very big worrier and a self-doubter. I think having people around you who not only believe in you, but have full careers in their respective fields really helps. Dan wrote musicals and he was a violinist who performed at all sorts of things. Morgan performed in operas and theater and was so talented. She has a full, thriving vocal studio. To have those people around me, who are not only guiding my way and helping me, but they are successful in their own right, is definitely a symbol of hope.”

Being a young artist in Nashville has its challenges. Lexi Shroll explained what she’s found to be difficult to endure as she makes her way through the music industry machine. “I honestly think moving to Nashville was a large culture shock for me. I think that’s something that was eye-opening and difficult for me to endure as an artist, but when you’re in Florida, they pay you to play. In Nashville, you’re lucky if you get paid to play, so that was different. I’m now a voice teacher to supplement my income because I thought when I came up here I was going to play a bunch of gigs every night of the week. I thought I’d get paid buckets of money, but that’s not how it worked out. Another thing that’s been challenging as an artist is this is a networking town. It’s a town based on connections, so you have to figure out a way to get yourself invited to things and get your foot in the door. It falls on you, especially as an independent artist you have to be your own promoter, your own manager and your own social media manager. You have to be your loudest supporter. You can also be creative, but you have to do all of it. Moving to Nashville and having all of that fully realized for me, that was definitely a big fat pill to swallow and I learned a lot.”

Networking. It’s a key component in almost every industry, but in Nashville, it’s just about everything.
The good news is, it’s pretty easy to do if you can drag yourself out and find the courage to start talking to people. Not everyone will be receptive, but most people are. Find that one person who’s willing to converse and it might be the ticket to a new friendship. If it pans out, it’s only a matter of time before you’re introduced to that person’s friends and associates and it usually happens fast. If you’re friendly and can maintain your sense of self without putting on airs, it’s quite fascinating how many people you can meet.

In contrast with all the obstacles, there can be pleasant surprises, times when good things happen and they’re often when you least expect them. Shroll related, “For me, the best thing is the friends I’ve made. I honestly think I’ve grown so much as a musician because there are so many people I’ve worked with that I’m inspired by. I met an artist named Emily Raff at a round in Nashville and she’s fantastic. I love her. She and I are literally opposites of each other in a lot of ways, yet we get on stage together and we have the best time. I love writing and working with her. I also love seeing her go after her career so fearlessly, it’s so inspiring. I have other friends who are writing with all sorts of people, and some others that are just starting out. Maybe some are focusing on the business side or they have a photography business, it just goes on and on, but they’re all doing whatever it takes to keep going. It was a great surprise to see how many amazing young people are in this city. They’re hungry and they’re excited for you and it makes you want to be even more excited for them.”

It was time for a little make-believe. If I was a genie and could grant Shroll three co-writes with people she’s never written with before, who would she choose? She got the first one right away. “Hillary Lindsey, to me, is everything. I think she’s just so fantastic. I don’t know that I’ve heard a song of hers that I don’t like.” She also blurted out the second one with a quickness. “Liz Rose, who writes with Taylor Swift, would be another one. Taylor Swift is one of my favorite artists ever because she’s so talented and cool. I would love to write with Liz Rose one day.” Her last pick took a minute, because she said there were so many choices. Finally she had it. “There’s a writer I really like and she’s kind of coming up. Her name is Lauren Hungate (Vincent Mason, Carly Pearce, Anne Wilson) and I think she’s super talented and she’s got some really great stuff. She’s collaborated with Carter Faith and Bailey Zimmerman, so she’d be my third pick.”

While we were throwing around some pretend scenarios, I asked her another question just for fun. I asked her to imagine she was given an assignment to create a signature drink for a big event in Nashville. What would go into the drink and what would she call it? She replied, “Well, I love gin and I love a good French 75 (a French 75 is a cocktail made with gin or cognac, fresh lemon juice and simple syrup). So I feel like we could do something like that and add something reminiscent of whiskey or something a little smoky. Maybe we could use caramel syrup. Gin is my favorite, but also when I think of Nashville, I think of whiskey, and I think of champagne because of how bubbly, bright and vibrant the city is. So yeah, I’d try to do something like that, a smoky caramel or maple, a splash of gin and champagne and a sprig of something or an orange. I’d call it the Cowgirl Kicker.”

It’s true, Nashville is vibrant and alive with so many things to do. When Shroll has some time to herself you might find her exploring the area with her friends, who she describes as “very adventurous,” or staying in and indulging in board games. “We’re big game people,” she revealed, “we love board games. Monopoly Go! has been fun lately, so has Codenames. We love all sorts of silly games. If you go to Target and you’re wondering, ‘Who could possibly be keeping all these games in stock?’ We’re those people. If you’re thinking, ‘This is the weirdest card game I’ve ever seen,’ we’re the people buying it. We think they’re great. I also read a ton and I get super excited if I have no plans because I get to read a book.”

The randomness continued. I read a card from a box of random questions that said, “If you could experience a sailing adventure/cruise on any river, lake or ocean in the world, what body of water would you choose for your trip?” Shroll answered, “Probably the Gulf of Mexico because it’s so nice. I’m a Florida girl so I know my beaches there. The Atlantic is fine and I hear the Pacific is pretty cold, so anything in the Caribbean would be great, but I love the west coast of Florida because those beaches are so nice! They have that white, powdery sand and blue, blue water. I’d love to be on a cruise ship in the Gulf of Mexico and we’d stop at some beaches on the way.”

We reached the last question. Since we are Center Stage Magazine, I asked Lexi Shroll to talk about a memory she had where she truly felt she was “center stage.” After a moment she spoke. “In college I was a part of this ensemble that was put on by my professor Dan Flick. We had a big performance where everyone was split off into little bands, it was called an acoustic ensemble. I was in a small group of people and we were going to close the show. We were wrapping up and did our last song and everyone started to leave. Dan Flick stopped me and said, ‘You need to perform a song.’ It was a song I’d written that semester called ‘I Feel God.’ It was this five minute song and I wrote it based on a prompt he had given our songwriting class, it had to be any kind of take on religion. I’m a Christian and I’m religious, but I’m friends with so many people of different backgrounds and beliefs. So when I sat down to think about this song, I kind of just wrote it from my perspective and my take on religion and people around me.”

At the event she mentioned, the show was ending and people were leaving the stage when Flick approached her to sing her song. A bit confused, she asked him, “Do you want me to perform it with my bass player?” She asked because the bassist knew the song. Flick responded, “No, just you.” Shroll went on with her story. “We had a crowd of 50 to 80 people and I just played that song on an acoustic guitar. It was the last song of the show and I got a standing ovation. I had people coming over and crying and telling me it was such a beautiful piece. I think that was one of the first moments that I realized the things I wrote held weight. It was also, once again, having a mentor that had faith in me to finish the final show that semester, the big show, our graduation finale. I think that was a moment where I definitely felt like I was ‘center stage.’ That was a very pivotal moment for me as a growing artist in a music show.”

Normally I would have ended the interview right there, but I was curious to know if she ever thought of recording “I Feel God.” “I submitted it for a music and film festival and I won Best Songwriter from it, and whenever I play it for someone they love it. The opening lines to the song are, ‘My friends don’t believe in God, but they believe in kindness,’ and I think about that a lot. So it’s definitely a little more controversial to have it in a completely Christian faith. It talks about non-believers, but it also talks about me and I am a believer. I don’t know, I would love to one day have that song have its moment.” I simply told her I hope it does because it sounds like it should.

Keep up with Lexi Shroll on social media and maybe even let her know what you think - should she record and release “I Feel God?” Also, don’t forget to tell her Center Stage Magazine sent you. We’d appreciate it.