CD Giveaway Contest: JT Spangler, "What's a Little Heartbreak"

Nashville-based soul-pop singer/songwriter JT Spangler celebrates the release of his album What’s A Little Heartbreak, which seamlessly blends in the influences of Motown, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and ’90s pop/soul stars Brian McKnight, Boyz II Men and Babyface.

The album was produced by Stephen Gause, a former top touring tech for Contemporary Christian greats like Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman who has produced, mixed, and engineered for hundreds of country artists and singer songwriters. Gause’s studio credits include Kathy Mattea, Nathan Angelo and Derek Stroker.

Spangler recorded What’s a Little Heartbreak with some of Nashville’s top session cats, including guitarist Gary Burnette (Etta James, Taylor Swift, Chris Tomlin) and keyboardist Tim Lauer (Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, Brooks & Dunn).

"Once I began writing songs that I felt were worth recording and performing," he says, "I began doing the typical guy with guitar singer-songwriter thing because it was the purest way to present them. It was easy to go on tour with no overhead and to play gigs and never lose money, and to make music for a living. As I began writing more soul oriented material, I realized that it would be hard to be a soul act with just an acoustic guitar. But this is where my interests lie and this has always been my favorite music. On some of the new songs, I would think, 'this chorus needs people singing behind it' or 'I can hear a killer horn section here' or I would hear obvious spaces between the chorus and verse for some other musical textures. Many of the tracks on What's A Little Heartbreak have layered vocals and interesting vocal harmonies that allow me to sing in a way I could never do in a stripped down setting. Doing these kinds of vocal embellishments, I could really let the Donny Hathaway [part of me] breathe."

This contest has ended.

The winner is LANCE S. of Warwick, RI.