Hunter Davis 1978

Hunter Davis ’78 didn’t set out to be a song writer and launch a career in the music business when she came to Sweet Briar College in the 1970s. But then a friend, Robin Cramer ’77, died in a horseback riding accident over the summer. Hunter wrote a song about the tragedy and performed it at a memorial service.

The College suggested recording the song for Robin’s grieving parents and supported Hunter in her January term spent preparing and recording an album, “The Horseshow at Midnight.” She sang in the quad to drive sales in advance of the album’s release and at the train station for fun; proceeds went to the Robin S. Cramer Memorial Endowment.

“That was my introduction to the music business,” says Hunter, who went on to write songs performed by the likes of Willie Nelson, Clay Aiken and Reba McIntyre. “That was a very pivotal time for me. It helped me realize what I wanted to do.”

Hunter didn’t study music at Sweet Briar. Instead, she majored in sociology and anthropology, working closely with long-time professor Catherine Seaman. She spent much of her time at the barn, taking classes and riding horse, but music was always part of her life.

At one point, Hunter and some friends decided to go to a music festival, the Union Grove Old Time Fiddlers’ Convention, in North Carolina. A faculty member suggested they use some of the camping gear that Sweet Briar had on-hand. “We had the best tent at the festival,” Hunter recalls. They built a campfire near their tent and drew a huge crowd with their lively performances. That led to Hunter being asked to perform on the main stage, where she sang “Amazing Grace” acapella.

After graduation, Hunter became a staff song writer at Famous Music/Paramount and Deston Songs in Nashville, Tenn., creating songs that include the #4 Billboard chart-debuting Clay Aiken single “On My Way Here.” In some cases, she co-wrote songs with such artists as Kim Carnes, Nancy Griffith, Eric Church and Ryan Tedder. In other instances, she didn’t meet the artists, but was delighted to hear her work set to Willie Nelson’s gut string guitar or delivered in Reba McIntyre’s country twang. She also recorded two albums of her own and wrote songs for films and television shows. “I was strongest as a lyricist, but I play rhythm guitar as well,” she says.

As a music supervisor at the Treehouse Music Group, she and her partner worked out of the famed Treehouse studio once owned by Grammy-winning fiddler Mark O’Connor and host to musicians ranging from James Taylor and YoYo Ma. Hunter helped find or write music for a number of films, including Once More With Feeling and I Really Hate My Job. “It’s a tough business,” she says. “You’ve got to be really tough and really lucky. The one thing about the music business here in Nashville, you have to live here and pay your dues.”