Our Story
This is the story of Annette Barkley, Max Hutchinson, Howie Moscovitch, Joe First and Bob Nobles who move to Nashville, Tennessee at different times to pursue their music careers. They eventually meet, become friends and collaborate. Each having their own style of music that collectively becomes a retro/twangy-country-punk/hillbilly sound they refer to as "Stonesy & Jonesy". They formed The Nashville PieHoles in 2013 and have been playing shows in and around Nashville and Dickson, TN ever since. On their agenda is: Writing cool songs, performing, recording their original material and having fun! They also bake wonderful homemade pies!!
Annette Barkley grew up in Southern Ontario, Canada on country and bluegrass music. In 1992 Annette moved out West to Calgary, Alberta Canada. After playing the guitar and writing songs for many years she knew she wanted to be a professional songwriter. In 2001 she drove her 1979 Ford Fairmont Futura three thousand miles to Nashville, TN.
It wasn't until meeting Amanda Williams in 2012, a music professional, artist and mentor who suggested Annette branch out and become an artist herself. Amanda's company SMB (Songwriting and Music Business formerly Hillbilly Culture) educated Annette on how to utilize her platform, brand and work her songs.
Some of the songs Annette has written have been recorded by Universal Artists Steff Nevers and Vanessa Marie Carter as well as independent artists Brooklyn Roebuck, Kristi Warner, Angela Christie, Joyce Grennan, Dale Allen Pommer, Valerie Shearman, Jennifer Noble, Toni Lynn Cousineau, Alan Curtis, and Bob Nobles .
Howie Moscovitch played in and wrote for an extensive list of bands in Canada. He was a pivotal part of Toronto's Queen Street scene. He has worked with many of Canada's top musicians and recorded and co-produced with Grammy and Juno award winners.
Howie is a skilled and versatile guitarist who is dedicated to his craft and the recipient of several international songwriting awards. Howie made many trips to Nashville, TN before moving there in 2012 and started his own production, mixing and remixing company H2M Sound, specializing in R&B, Pop, Hip-Hop and Dance music.
Howie has worked with Paul Scholten at County Q Studio in Nashville and with highly talented Grammy award winner producer Chris Trevett.
Max Hutchinson grew up in the heart of downtown Toronto, Ontario Canada. He played drums for punk bands in his early years and has an extensive knowledge of all music. After a few years of engineering and producing he held an A&R position for major record label A&M Canada.
He moved to Nashville, TN in 1992 with Canadian icon Anne Murray's company Balmur Music and then plugged songs for legendary hit songwriter Kim Williams. Max started his own company, Valhalla Music Group over two decades ago which is still operating today in Nashville, TN.
Max has had some of the songs he's written recorded by Universal Artists Steff Nevers and Vanessa Marie Carter, as well as Valerie Shearman and Joyce Grennan.
Joe First a.k.a "Jose’ Primero", was born in Washington, D.C., but grew up in Miami, Florida.
Through his teen years, Joe also lived in Barnesville, GA, Staunton, VA and Baltimore, MD. It was in Baltimore where he played in his first band in 1969.
He composed his first music the next year and had his heart set on instrumental composition, but in 1972 he heard John Prine and song writing became his new love.
“I was brought up to believe it’s wrong to lie, but I have an affection for making up
stuff. Song writing is a way of legitimizing that urge”.
Joe earned a degree in Music Education from The University of Florida in Gainesville and then taught Elementary Music in Gainesville and St. Petersburg, FL for the next 30 years.
Upon retirement in 2007, he moved to Nashville, where he has met many kindred spirits and has found contentment playing in local original bands and continues to make up more stuff.
Besides playing in several bands, in 2020 - 2022 Joe worked with Howie Moscovitch (see above) on an album called "Pandemic Productions." You can check out their progress on the ‘Music’ page at www.joefirst.com .
Bob Nobles grew up in Denton, Texas. Influenced by Michael Martin Murphy and other songwriters who were students at North Texas State University. He moved to Austin. TX in the early 70's to be part of the Country Rock scene, where he played in several bands.
In 1981, Bob made a pilgrimage to Nashville to check out the songwriter community and never left. Bob plays upright bass, guitar, and mandolin and early in 2017 he released a new CD of his own original country/Americana songs titled "Windmills and Wheatfields"
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