Tissues & Vocal Tracks

Chloe Raye
May 21
2 min read

The Chloe Raye "Normal in a Country Song" Tour

May 21, 2026 - Nashville, TN

It began on the trip home from the CMO awards show in LaCrosse, WI - that scratch in my throat and gunk in my nose that transforms a country singer’s tool of the trade into a vocal train wreck.

I was sure I’d have this infection licked after a couple days of prednisone. The medicine carried me through a trip to my hometown and two songwriting classes for girls, but the next morning I knew there was no way I could sing my four-hour sets, two nights in a row, at the local saloon. It’s sure great to have friends in low places (the valleys of Minot, ND), though, because they quickly and skillfully filled my slots while I nursed my sore throat in my high school bed at my parents’ house.

Things were looking up when the next weekend rolled around, but those high notes at my Saturday night show in the Minnesota lakes area still came out, here and there, as silent puffs of air.

The next morning, I zipped my overflowing suitcase and headed to Hector Airport for my eighth trip to Nashville, this time to record vocals for two upcoming singles. “The Tennessee heat and humidity should burn the rest of this virus out of me,” I thought. But after a day in this place that feels like a second home, I stopped for the first time ever at a Trader Joe’s. My purchase? Two boxes of tissues.

I carried those tissues in with me to the production studio, where my patient producer helped me get through dozens of vocal tracks of lines and verses, between nose blowing and coughing, to create the sound we were looking for. We polished it off after four hours, and did the same with the second song the next day.

This morning, I’m packing my suitcase again while sipping an iced 7 Brew Blondie. I’ll be back in Fargo, ND, by late afternoon, where the temps are about 20 degrees cooler today and another lakes area show awaits.

It sure makes you question sometimes the joy of this country music career when the quality of your work depends on the amount of snot in your nose.

Thank goodness for Trader Joe’s tissues.