Meet Rene Russell

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rene Russell. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Rene, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
It’s an ongoing effort to keep the balance between my heart and my head I guess. My heart has no doubts, never second guesses, always knows I can achieve my goals. My head, on the other hand, is always questioning, throwing up excuses or reasons why I shouldn’t be able to succeed. My heart is fearless, my head is terrified. It’s funny, I never heard the term “imposter syndrome” till I read some of your articles, turns out that my head is almost always in that mode. Overcoming it, well, I learned at an early age to look at what I was afraid of, evaluate it in terms of; how bad could it be? what if I fail? What would the consequences be? I look at the answers to those questions and ask myself if I’m willing to experience that, How does the negative stack up against the positive? Almost always the negative is fear-based and I refuse to let fear control my life. Am I afraid to walk out on that stage? Yes, always, but I just do it anyway, it’s like a habit- in this case I trained myself to ignore the fear and move ahead. It sounds pretty silly, but after all these years it is just a “good habit” I’ve developed and I just go into autopilot mode and move through it.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a 12 String Americana-Rock, Singer-Songwriter who moved to Western North Carolina in June of 2022 and I’ve been performing, writing, recording and collaborating with other musicians like a mad earth wizard since I got here.
There’s lots of great creative energy brewing up in these mountains and I have tapped into that vibe while still maintaining my unique style. My new single,“The Key” marks the first collaboration with Producer Michael Hynes of Nomatic Studio and Purple Ridge Recording and is a precursor for the next vibrationally rhythmic Single and EP to come in later this year.
I’m also collaborating with two beautiful and talented fellow mystics on this journey;  Bridget Gossett (smoky soulful alto vocal with a country rock vibe)  and Heidi Holton (Delta slide Blues player, soprano-esque vocal) on a new project/trio called “The HiHearts”- (more about them- https://thehihearts.com)
With my bourbon-colored alto vocals and 12 string percussive stylings added in the mix, I think we have stumbled on a trio that will surely capture your heart and soul, and though our styles are vastly different our songwriting and vocal harmonies will be the nugget that crystalizes us in your memory.
The next single, “Stand” (for the Ocean) will drop around Earth Day this year.
“The Key” drops on 2/23/24 with a pre-save date on 2/14/24, quite appropriate for this song about love through lifetimes.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Honesty with yourself and others- that’s sometimes harder to do than you think… Follow through, finish what you start, I have to work on this all the time, I get a lot of momentum at the beginning of a project but then if it takes too long, it slowly gets away from me and I have to really focus to finish.
My skill with the 12 string guitar- Practice all the time, always learn new things, always look for new ways to do the old things. Same thing for songwriting.

I think the most important thing you can do, especially as a young person is remember to look back every year at what you’ve accomplished, take stock of what worked, what didn’t work, praise yourself, forgive yourself and move on.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
Patience! I have been able to learn to let go more let the universe guide me when I hit that “proverbial wall”. I am notorious for wanting results asap, but sometimes, in fact most of the time, the creative process doesn’t work that way. Sometimes you just have to walk away from it, forget about it for awhile, and then out of nowhere you get the answer or the idea becomes more clear and you know what to do.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Wayne Ebinger

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