Tucson's own Billy Shaw Jr. is among 10 country singers nationwide to make it to the finals of the 2016 Nash Next contest.
The finalists were announced Monday. They will perform in Nashville on Oct. 25 before a panel of judges that includes Scott Borchetta, founder, president and CEO of Big Machine Label Group, Kix Brooks of Brooks & Dunn and Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts. The winner will get a Big Machine record deal.
Shaw beat out two other Tucson country singers to win the local contest that put him in the running for the finals.
He's up against Nashville's The Young Fables,Β Louisiana's Todd O'Neill, Brittany Pfantz of Louisiana, Murphy's Ford out of Missouri, Β Ashely Jordan from Massachusetts, Trey Teem out of Georgia, New York's Spinn, Ohio's Alexis GomezΒ and Jake Dodds from Indiana.
Shaw is the only contestant from the West Coast or the West for that matter.Β
