Country singer-songwriter Ella Langley can test a new song with one social media post, but she says that instant connection comes with a cost.
“No one should ever know that much about what people are saying about them, so it’s definitely challenging, but equally as gratifying,” Langley said.
ELLE released an episode of THREE GENERATIONS June 11 that brought Langley together with country singer-songwriter Miranda Lambert and country music icon Reba McEntire. Seated at Nashville’s Urban Cowboy Bar, the women compared notes on early gigs, creative risks, friendship and what it feels like to build a public life in three very different media eras. The format exposed the trade-offs hiding inside each era’s tools.
The timing gave the conversation a little extra electricity. Less than a month earlier, Langley led the 61st Academy of Country Music Awards with seven wins, including Female Artist of the Year and Artist-Songwriter of the Year.
Her second album, Dandelion, had also arrived in April. Langley, Lambert and producer Ben West executive produced it. For an artist in that kind of sprint, social media can serve as a focus group, a fan club and a running commentary track all at once.
Langley said she can post a song and quickly learn how listeners feel about it, a connection she called gratifying. Still, access to the crowd means the crowd also has constant access to her.
“I’m thankful for the time that I came out because I don’t think I could handle it,” Lambert said.
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McEntire saw the upside, too. She said a fan club served as her generation’s social media and admitted she might have experimented more if artists could have released music as freely then as they can now.
“When you make a mistake, laugh at yourself. Go on. Don’t take yourself so seriously,” McEntire said, explaining that fans enjoy seeing the person behind the polished stage image.
The conversation eventually moved from managing public reaction to choosing private counsel. McEntire urged Langley to keep a journal while her career moves at full gallop, advice from someone who told ELLE she has spent 50 years in the business.
“Write down everything you’re doing because as it is going so fast, you won’t remember it,” McEntire told her.
Lambert’s advice cut to an equally important distinction: Listen to people who care about the person, not merely the performer. That counsel has weight because Lambert’s mentorship is more than talk; she helped guide Dandelion as one of its executive producers.
“Surround yourself with truth tellers and good people,” Lambert said.
That is old wisdom aimed at a very modern pressure. Proverbs 13:20 reminds believers that the company they keep helps shape the people they become, a sharper measure than likes, views or a comment section that never closes.
Langley does not sound ready to abandon social media, nor does she need to. The better takeaway is balance: The internet can help carry the music, while trusted people help her hold on to herself when success arrives this fast.
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