Nashville School of Traditional Country Music Community
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Meet the Board Members
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Singer, songwriter, entrepreneur, and longtime champion of independent country music, Nikki Lane has spent more than a decade carving out a place in Nashville on her own terms.
Originally from Greenville, South Carolina, Nikki found her way to country music after stints in Los Angeles and New York before ultimately making Nashville home. Since then, she has released four critically acclaimed albums—including All or Nothin’, Highway Queen, and Denim & Diamonds—toured extensively across the U.S. and abroad, and collaborated with artists and producers ranging from Dan Auerbach and Joshua Homme to Lana Del Rey.
But Nikki’s connection to country music extends well beyond the stage. As the founder of Nashville’s High Class Hillbilly, she has built a business around her love of vintage clothing, Western wear, and the artifacts and traditions that surround American roots music. Over the years, she has also become an integral part of Nashville’s community of musicians, songwriters, collectors, craftspeople, and independent businesses keeping those traditions alive.
As President of the Board of the Nashville School of Traditional Country Music, Nikki brings the perspective of a working artist along with a deep belief in preserving the knowledge that gets passed from one musician to another. Her commitment to the School is rooted in the idea that traditional country music isn’t something to put behind glass—it’s a living language, and the best way to preserve it is to teach people how to play it.
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Entertainment attorney Carla Ham has spent her career helping artists understand the business behind the art—but she came to that work from the other side of the stage.
Before becoming an attorney, Carla was a professional dancer and performer, working alongside musicians in clubs and venues and seeing firsthand how difficult it could be for artists to navigate contracts, copyrights, and the business of making a living from their work. After watching friends and fellow performers struggle under agreements they didn’t always understand, she decided to go to law school and do something about it.
Today, Carla is a Nashville-based entertainment attorney and co-founder of Ham Law, where she works with musicians, performers, and other creative professionals on contracts, licensing, intellectual property, and the countless practical questions that come with building a life in the arts. She has also volunteered her legal expertise through Lawyers for the Creative Arts, helping provide legal support to artists who might otherwise be unable to afford it.
Carla’s connection to the music itself runs deep. A lifelong piano player and former professional dancer, she’s equally at home in the worlds of rockabilly, traditional country, punk, and good old-fashioned rock & roll—and is a familiar face at honky-tonks and live shows.
As a member of the Board of the Nashville School of Traditional Country Music, Carla brings both a lawyer’s understanding of the music business and an artist’s understanding of why the music matters in the first place. She believes that musicians deserve not only the skills to make
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Lili McGrady is a playwright, entrepreneur, music advocate, and co-founder and President of Humanable, a Nashville-based company working to protect human-made music in the age of generative AI.
After moving to Nashville in 2023, Lili quickly found her way into the city’s dive bars, honky-tonks, and songwriter community. Again and again, she heard musicians voicing the same concern: after spending years learning their craft and fighting to make a living from it, what would happen when they had to compete with music generated by machines?
Lili decided to do something about it. Drawing on her background in trademarks, she co-founded Humanable in 2024 to create a way for artists to certify their work as genuinely human-made. Today, Humanable is working across the music industry to protect human creativity, artist livelihoods, and the value of music made by real people.
Long before Humanable, Lili was a creative herself. She is a playwright who studied at the University of London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, and that combination of artist, entrepreneur, and advocate gives her a unique perspective on what’s at stake as technology changes the way music is made and consumed.
She’s also an enthusiastic supporter of Nashville’s working musicians. On any given week, you’re likely to find her out several nights listening to friends play, discovering new artists, and generally participating in the messy, wonderful human ecosystem that makes Nashville a music town.
As a member of the Board of the Nashville School of Traditional Country Music, Lili brings a fierce belief that human creativity is worth protecting. Traditional country music has always been passed from person to person—through listening, watching, playing together, and learning from the musicians who came before us. Lili’s work is rooted in making sure there’s still room for that very human tradition in whatever comes next.
Meet the Community
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Volunteer
Help out at one of our upcoming events!
Volunteer with the Nashville School of Traditional Country Music to help preserve classic country traditions and gain hands-on experience in music education and event production. Tasks include student outreach, front-of-house at concerts, instrument maintenance, and classroom support in a mentorship-focused environment. Musicians, administrators, and community members all help sustain workshops, scholarships, and public performances that connect students to Nashville’s musical heritage and seasoned instructors.
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Donate
There are a lot of worthy causes to consider these days, and we are well aware of the amount of important fundraising going on around us. That being said, we believe that the continued ability to teach students of all ages without regard to financial ability is vitally important to the future of our culture. We also believe that teaching musicians deserve to be paid a fair wage which reflects the thousands of hours it takes to not only learn how to play an instrument, but how best to pass that learning along. Any amount of help you are willing to offer will be spent making sure that both of these things, as well as instrument and space rentals, are made possible.
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