CYNTHIA ANDERSON shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Good morning CYNTHIA, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
I took over running the Texas State Songwriters Championship on Season 9. I have been picked on, torn apart, and slandered on my way through the first two years of this journey. I got down to 30+lbs underweight by the stress it brought and was nearly hospitalized. Recently we announced our winners for Season 10, Dec 21, 2024. I’m so beyond blessed and proud of the fact that I didn’t let the opinions of others keep me from doing what was laid on my heart! We helped a 17 year old kid, Tristan Roberson, who the industry was unaware of, find a promoter that took him to #1 and put him in the hall of fame for his first ever radio release. Celeste Marie Wilson, our 2nd Runner up went top 40 in NY and went on to compete against 2 other women at the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame contest in Washington, DC. I am proud I didn’t give up and my walk with God has given me the peace to be in a room of vultures and not be set off about it. I am so proud of these kids and the work they have put into making the most of their titles supporting the organization despite the adversity one has to endure to work with us. Being the advocate for the ones who have a voice to continue to work from their heart and what was laid on it instead of what the world expects or wants is not easy, but worth it! In a world that wants, wants… wants, these artists are here to GIVE!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Cynthia, I am a COVID TRANSPLANT, I had no intentions of moving to Texas, just happened to be here when the country shut down and God changed my life. I did two successful bar rescues, and my artists saw it was sucking the life out of me being in the pit of despair and asked me to “rescue songwriters” instead. It took a year of Ninja Cowboys (founder of Texas State Songwriters Championship) and Kim Hunter (founder of Texas Brew Radio & Champion of Season 8 TSSC) trying to convince me, for me to say i was READY!
Texas State Songwriters Championship was a Songwriters Showcase Competition that moved around the state.
In 2023 I took it over, and we started Networking. By Dec, 2024 we were accepted as a State Approved artist growth and development nonprofit. Dec 2024 we announced our winners. Within 2 weeks Tristan Roberson (1st Runner Up) got a notification from Spotify that he had made it to top 500 Country Music Songwriters in the USA, top 1k in the world and, top 20k for ALL GENRES! We helped him find a good radio promoter and he went #1 his first ever radio release! Celeste Marie Wilson (2nd Runner Up) went top 40 NY and later went to compete against two other women in the Women’s Songwriter Hall of Fame Contest in Washington, DC. We have made our marks in the history books for music in just two short years since taking over the organization.
We couldn’t do this without the support of our fans and community!
We recently got an office in the Big Blue, Downtown Wichita Falls.
This has enabled us to become the only Red Dirt Station in town!
We have free worldwide listening www.texasbrewradio.com
We host give back shows monthly at our local 50+Zone and at our broadcast room at EMP Studios in Forth Worth we have a monthly networking event where we host comedy & music by donation – its available worldwide online www.jokesandstrokes.com. We have 4 quarterly shows / qualifying rounds for the finale- where artists can win cash prizes and go on to the finale to find out who’s the best in Texas =)
We hope you see our track record and want to support the growth! We believe that our highways would be bumper lanes without music and our artists have the voice and platform to be a positive change the world needs if we can give them the power back, so they don’t have to sell their souls or be someone they are not to get their message heard!
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My man is absolutely amazing. I went though a whole life of trauma, alienation, misunderstanding before I met him. I trusted NOONE and still struggle with it. I thought knew what love was…. and it always turned out to be what it wasn’t before him. He truly taught me to not only trust but to love myself and after 40 years of experience of absolute trash humans, he stayed by my side. I have complex PTSD from the time i was 5 years old and emancipated at 16 due to abuse, moving 24 hours away from anyone I knew. I have truly been a lone wolf. Through my healing process he watched person after person use me until they got what they wanted from me and turned around and totally defecated on my name when they could no longer get what they wanted. “Friends” trying to turn him against me because I got sober and “was no fun anymore -he needed a different gf” It’s not been easy changing my life from the bar life to music as they still cross over a lot. I’m still sober, and together we are growing to a new level of happy. I couldn’t do what I do and wouldn’t be the woman I have become without him! Price Co Construction is the backbone of everything I do. When the whole world tried to convince me I was no good, He stood by my side and together we showed them I was just misunderstood.
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Aug 2023, I was ready to not only give up but end my life- I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. My whole life had been changed during covid. I had gotten sober and took over the station and songwriters organization. There was drama at every corner and I’m not a fan of that. My “friends” were setting up parties the night before we had big events in a park we rented (so all of our group was hungover and no-one came). I felt completely defeated like everything and everyone was against me. I decided to get back into church because I wanted to be surrounded by positive energy, something you don’t find much of in the bar scenes. I completely, for the first time, gave myself to God. I can tell you that the rebirthing experience is SOMETHING ELSE! I nearly died getting sober and saved! Doctors refused to give me meds to help because they didn’t want to ruin my “perfect health” but my pstd was so bad i couldn’t eat or sleep because my BP was too high. I finally found a woman at church who had a friend who was a nurse practitioner and they helped with meds for 6 months and I did the work I needed to in order to heal and get off of them. I was attacked by the devil through church so many times and still am. Being ‘saved” doesn’t make your life better or easier – quiet the opposite, but it does make it WORTH IT – and you begin to have a new level of understanding as to WHY the things happening in your life are happening. Knowing God is real, saved my LIFE!! Knowing people in the church are also sinners and HUMAN has kept me sane. Organized religion is a big issue in our society. Even science can no longer deny Gods existence. And, Einstein said, ‘Love multiplied by the speed of light squared equals God.” We just have to spread love instead of hate – it makes the world a better place. By not entertaining the things that are not of God, fear, anxiety, hate… my life has gotten so much better and its allowed me to further walk in my purpose! Hurt people hurt people and angry and bitter people are hurting. Knowing that most of the things said coming from those places are projections of what others are going through and not exactly something directed at you is a big help in keeping a solid mental and also a good inclination that the person who is projecting at you just needs love. Answer anger/hostility with kindness and lets change this world around =) Love is the only answer!
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes, I am the one who says that when people say “you shouldn’t say that”.
There is one thing that holds value after everything else has been lost and that’s your word.
People who talk to you about others will talk about you to others.
If I say something and someone gets mad about it, its not my fault if they wrote the narrative.
Things left unsaid go unfixed.
Honesty and Integrity hold more value than money, or at least they did when I was young.
We need to bring that back! Character is lacking –
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. CYNTHIA
Mental Health. I had to study it in order to understand it. I was struggling with it hard. After a childhood of abuse and 21 years in the bar scene, and having ran a corporate door to door sales team, I understand humans.
I have spent so much time in toxic environments that my body has learned to read energy instead of lips.
Reading the book The Body Keeps the Score was a big eyeopener to this. Knowing that all MENTAL is ENVIRONMENTAL helps tremendously in healing. Understanding is overcoming. Knowledge is power. Why they want us to have to pay for it.
Back in the day they thought once we reached a level of stress that we struggled, we were crazy/unfixable.
They now know that talking through the struggles helps fix them. Our brains can be rewired to not respond to threats the way it does, and we can have a normal way of life with the right support system.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.texasstatesongwriters.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasbrewradio
- Other: https://www.texasbrewradio.com
https://www.cynfuloutlaws.com
https://www.jokesandstrokes.com
https://www.officialtexasdirectory.com
Image Credits
www.reddirtproud.com
www.dancetimeintexas.com
www.tristanrobersonmusic.com
www.danireedmusic.com
www.howardcountymusic.com
