Elijah Golden: Embracing storytelling from the Grand Ole Opry stage to Brown’s classrooms

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - Like many fellow undergraduates at Brown, Elijah Golden studied for final exams during reading period in mid-December. What's less typical is that he did so while on his way to Alabama, where he performed a Christmas concert with his family's three-generation country music band before heading back to Providence for an exam.

Since arriving on the Brown University campus in 2022 from Hendersonville, Tennessee, Golden has balanced his passion for musical performance with his dedication to his coursework as a comparative literature concentrator.

Brown's wide range of arts-focused opportunities in classrooms and on campus have enabled him to explore and discover newfound commonalities between music and literature while advancing his craft as a musician and nurturing a love of performance he developed as a child. He sings and plays piano, guitar, drums, bass and mandolin.

"Being on the road is definitely a lifestyle shift from being a student at Brown, but I'm motivated to continue pursuing music because of what it means to me to be able to be in a conversation with other artists during the moment of musical performance on stage," Golden said. "It's always exciting, and it's always new. It's an energizing force rather than a depleting one."

Along with Elijah, the family's band, named William Lee Golden and the Goldens, consists of his grandfather - Grammy Award-winning country and gospel musician William Lee Golden, a longtime member of the Oak Ridge Boys - Elijah's father, Chris Golden, and sister, Elizabeth Golden.

"I usually fly out of town about once or twice a month to do gigs with the family band," Golden said. "Most of us are involved with other musical projects, so this band is sort of everybody's side hustle."

The band formed during the COVID-19 pandemic and has released three albums. Earlier this year, the group performed on the Trinity Broadcasting Network television program "Huckabee" and at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where Elijah received a standing ovation after singing "Stand by Me."

"It was just a surreal experience to be on the performance side of the Grand Ole Opry - to be looking out at the seats and balconies and all of the people," Golden said. "I was sort of lost in the song, but my head was also reeling."

On campus, Golden often performs at student-led Underground Thursdays open mic events, and he has been a member of the Brown University Chorus. One of his favorite on-campus experiences is the Brown Arts Institute's songwriting workshop, a weekly gathering that brings together students and community members to hone their songs.

"One of the best songs I've ever written was created in that workshop in about 40 minutes in some random hallway," Golden said. "And I love how the workshop includes an eclectic mix of people of different ages and walks of life. It has helped me a lot musically to maintain a personal music writing practice while at Brown."

While on campus, he likes to unwind from a long day of classes by going to the Department of Music's Steinert Hall Practice Center, which is home to 13 rooms, each containing a piano, that are available nearly any time of day or night for students to play.

Some of his classmates know about the other side of his life as a touring artist, but it's not something he goes out of his way to bring up. "I don't usually lead with it or use it as an icebreaker on the first day of class," he said.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.