Growing Up Filipina and Finding Country Music
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Cat Rian wearing traditional Filipino gold earrings from Pampanga, gifted to her by her grandmother. (Photo by Lisabeth Jo)
If Thanksgiving was the warm-up, Christmas was the headliner. My mom, Grandma, and the whole family would all take a turn at the mic, and my pick was always Merry Christmas, Darling by the Carpenters. In my house, at least, nothing is more Filipino than Christmas karaoke.
But the song I remember most is The Keeper of the Stars by Tracy Byrd. It's the song my parents danced to at their wedding, and a family gathering never ended without my mom singing it at least once, while dancing with my dad. Looking back, that's where country music found me.
For readers who didn’t grow up with it: country music is a style born in the rural American South, built on storytelling. Think guitars, fiddles and steel guitars and songs about everyday life: family, home, love, heartbreak and getting through it. Nashville, Tennessee, is its hometown, which is why so many of us end up there. At its heart, it’s just people telling true stories.
My grandparents immigrated from Pampanga to Las Vegas, where I was born and raised. I sang anywhere anyone would let me, from church to family parties, and eventually in residencies on the Las Vegas Strip. My family always encouraged me to go after everything I loved, and that took me to Stanford University, then to Berklee College of Music in New York City, and finally to Nashville. And once I landed in Nashville, my family decided to make Tennessee home too.
Cover art for "Family Tree," Cat Rian’s new single out November 13, 2026 and available for presave here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/catrian1/family-tree?ref=release (Photo by Lisabeth Jo)
In Nashville, if you're a woman in music, you're often the only woman in the room. I noticed pretty early that in a lot of rooms, I was also going to be the only person of color, woman or man. I've come to see that as a strength. I get to bring a new perspective to every room I walk into and every song I write, and the writers I've worked with here have embraced that in a way I'm really grateful for.
Filipino family values and country family values are really similar, and, since moving South, I've loved exploring that overlap. Both are built on the same foundation: family comes first. The people you come into the world with, the people who raise you up and support you, are the most important people you'll ever have.
So it's only fitting that my new single, Family Tree, is all about my family. It’s a twangy, stompy, front-porch jam about every Filipina eldest daughter's most dreaded rite of passage.
I could gush about my family all day, so getting to share them with my new neighbors and friends here, and hearing how much they relate, has been really special. Some of my favorite days now are spent driving out to the middle of nowhere, Tennessee, to my family's new home in the country, and eating chicken adobo outside by the river while the leaves change. It's a beautiful melding of cultures, and I've been enjoying every bit of it.
So it's only fitting that my new single, Family Tree, is all about my family. It’s a twangy, stompy, front-porch jam about every Filipina eldest daughter's most dreaded rite of passage: bringing someone home to meet the parents.
Family Tree comes out November 13, just in time for the holidays. If you need me, I'll be singing karaoke with Mama.
Cat Rian is a Filipina American country-pop singer-songwriter in Nashville. Find her at catrianmusic.com and @meowimcatrian. Pre-save “Family Tree” here: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/catrian1/family-tree?ref=release