Rachael Hester is everything Augusta’s Classic Country Week is about. She has extensive country music background in her family AND her work at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, giving the tours at RCA Studio B and playing in the honky-tonks on Broadway in Nashville. The Culture Session with Rachael will be captivating. Beyond all that Rachael is a true country singer. She says, “a good sad country song makes my soul absolutely burn.” When she sings “I Still Love His Memory”, only a heart of stone is not moved. Rachael will be with us all day on Tuesday (July 12th) and will open the concert that evening. She will also sing at the staff honky-tonk in the pavilion that night. As Randy Vidrine says, “That’s a $50 ticket, right there!”
Instructor Bio
Rachael Hester grew up with a passion for traditional music as a second generation singer. songwriter, and musician. The most signicant infuences musically came from her father who played modern country for a living and more traditional country and western swing for fun and from her mother who sang bluegrass gospel in church. Rachael grew up in the studio and backstage of famous Nashville shows such as The Grand Ole Opry and the nightly TV show Nashville Now. In fact it was on Nashville Now that she got her ?rst taste of performing at age six when she sang Away In A Manger with her father and sister on the Christmas special.
Rachael’s love for performing seemed almost innate, and music was a major part of everyday family activities. Her father taught her and her sister to sing harmony and read the Nashville number system when they were small children. Long family road trips were filled with three-part harmony, and the hymn book was as important on those trips as the road map. Rachael’s junior year of high school she entered the school talent show and received first place. More than anything, this experience gave her a taste of the adrenaline rush that comes only from performing for a crowd. Later that year her ?rst real experience singing in the studio was on a two-song project with famous players Steve Warnier, John Gardner, Jeff Taylor, Andy Reiss, and Hoot Hester. Rachael began playing piano at age seven and has been playing guitar since 2008. She graduated from Belmont University in 2007 with a major in Music Business.