Your Story: Andrew Chastain

Local recording artist Andrew Chastain has found a balance between branching out in new directions and honoring his roots. While he grew up in a musical family, the Brasstown native's path to the center of the stage took more twists than a mountain road.

Chastain is the grandson of Ray Wilson, who was part of the Wilson Brothers, a popular gospel/bluegrass group. At family get togethers, Chastain often found himself on the fringe of jam sessions. He described those scenes, saying, "I had a little miniature guitar and I would be in the background just trying to pick out single notes and just desperately hoping that somebody would be like, 'Hey, come over here and let me teach you how to do this,' you know."

Eventually his grandpa did show him the basic chords, but Chastain found a passion elsewhere. In elementary school, he convinced his mom to let him play football. "Football became my life and it had been since first grade," said Chastain. "Music was still there and I still loved music, but I had not discovered the deep love that was ingrained in me." 

After a severe injury derailed his hopes of playing college football, Chastain set his sights on a new goal, the military. Unfortunately, just days before he was to begin his military career, another twist devastated Chastain. "I was playing a pick-up game of basketball and tore my ACL which set me back," Chastain said.

Now a young man who had seen plans A and B fall through, Chastain found himself in limbo. "I wasn't in a good place. My relationship with God was not in a good place. I felt desperate. I felt hopeless. I felt very depressed." Even though those hardships seemed devastating at the time, they ended up being the first steps towards finding a new passion.

While he had dabbled in song writing along the way, during a stay with a friend in Charlotte, Chastain found himself thinking of the mountains of western North Carolina. He started to jot down scenes that was a part of daily life in the mountains. A song that was inspired by homesickness was finished when Chastain returned to the mountains he was longing for. Titled "Carolina Hills," the song became a breakthrough for him. 

He found himself appearing on more and more stages and was blown away by responses. "There were people coming to shows from different towns. I realized the human connection in just talking to different people and that was really cool." 

Chastain now finds himself with more than 22 thousand followers on Instagram, but he doesn't focus on that. Like many other people, he has found that social media has its place, but also doesn't let it control who he is or his music.

New music is on the way from Chastain and his band in the coming weeks. For those who can't wait, his full list of gigs can be found at www.andrewchastain.com.

To hear the full interview, click the link: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/47485174