Sarah Hardwig is not unlike many of the females I interview. She moved to Nashville to attend Belmont University and study songwriting and music business.
And she sings at local venues when she can. Her voice is strong and clear, and she credits Patsy Cline and Carrie Underwood as singing inspirations. However, the difference is that Hardwig is blind, which has been the case for her entire life.
When she was five months old, Hardwig was diagnosed with a condition called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis. The condition resulted in the impairment of her vision.
However, she has not let her disability dissuade her from pursuing her dreams. I wanted to hear the whole story of how she got from Naples, Florida, to Nashville.
Singing comes naturally for the songstress and has become even more important since she is limited by the number of extra-curricular activities she can pursue.
She clearly remembers standing in front of the television listening to a Drum Corp Competition at age three or four.
“I just listened to it, and I was just in absolute awe of the musicality that was going on,” she recalled.
Hardwig soon figured out she could sing, which came naturally. Initially, her parents put her on the piano, but she didn’t practice much, so she quit. Then, she joined the Naples Philharmonic Youth Choir, where she received some vocal training. Later, she started guitar lessons. She continued her choir and guitar lessons until the pandemic hit.
Her love for country music came from her mother because her dad hated it.
“Dad loved rock artists like Foreigner and Journey and Foo Fighters. I used to roll my eyes when his music would come on,” she said playfully.
But Hardwig’s mother played country music in the car and the house, and she often sang along.
Another blind acquaintance informed Hardwig about Belmont’s College of Music. However, she also learned that MTSU had a notable music program, so she checked out both campuses.
She toured both campuses. However, MTSU’s large and flat campus was harder to navigate than Belmont’s hilly campus, and MTSU didn’t have many landmarks available for a blind person.
She explained, “At Belmont, if there a hill there, then I’m probably going know where I’m going to some extent.”
Hardwig, now a senior in college, lives on campus in a dorm. Before each semester begins, she practices her routes with a trainer until she can navigate them solo.
I learned about Hardwig because Heart Song Music Group’s owner, Jill Pavel, submitted her client to Dream Machine USA to help make her dream of playing the Grand Ole Opry stage come true. When Dream Machine USA‘s Charlie Rocket was in town, he worked his magic and got Hardwig to do a show for her family and a bevy of friends and supporters at the Grand Ole Opry on June 27th, 2024
To say that I was blown away is an understatement. Her cover of Pam Tillis’ “Maybe It Was Memphis” is as good as any I have heard. Then she bravely sang her original song about a former college crush, “I Know You Won’t,” and you could have picked me off the floor. If any country singer ever felt more at home or sounded better, I don’t know who that would be.
But singing on big stages is nothing new for Hardwig. When she was 16, she sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart” with Storm Large at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida.
Not only that, Hardwig is a well-known National Anthem singer, having performed it over 250 times. Most notably, she sang the Anthem at the 2022 Music City Bowl at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium and again in 2024 at the Nashville Sounds game.
Hardwig has shared the stage with country stars such as Lauren Alaina, Lady A’s Charles Kelley, and LOCASH. On one occasion, she sang Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man” with Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.
She has also performed on stages such as The Bluebird Cafe, the Listening Room Cafe, Tin Roof (Broadway & Music Row), The Local (Nashville), Live Oak (Nashville), and The Island Hopper Songwriting Festival in Florida.
Before releasing her latest single, “I Know You Won’t,” in April of this year, she released “Who I Am” in 2022.
Last year, Hardwig won a Danny Award for musicians with disabilities for her song “Lacy On My Lips,” a song she wrote about an imaginary person during her first semester at Belmont. It’s a personal song about cheating, and “I don’t deal with cheating,” she confirmed.
Hardwig will graduate college this coming May, and obviously, she wants to work as a singer/songwriter. But as she knows, “You have to do something to sustain your life.”
She would be happy to land a job working for a record label or even a publishing company. I know that anyone lucky enough to get such a capable artist/singer/songwriter on their team will be fortunate because Hardwig’s disability has never held her back. Her blindness has never stopped her from displaying pure greatness and natural-born talent. If anything, it has made her more focused and determined to succeed.
You can follow Hardwig on her website, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and all streaming platforms.
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Bethany Bowman is a freelance entertainment writer. You can follow her blog, Facebook, Instagram, and X.
