White Lake Man Mixing it Up with Tim McGraw, The Fray, Other Stars in Nashville

Tanner Peters of White Lake is mixing it up with some of the most famous names in country music.

He’s a member of the inaugural class at The Blackbird Academy, a Nashville, TN school owned and operated by John McBride and his wife, legendary country music star Martina McBride, according to a news release.

The state-of-the-art professional school for audio is operated in conjunction with Blackbird Studio, one of the country’s most successful recording studios also owned and led by the McBrides.

The inaugural six-month class just launched the end of September, and its members have already been in the studio to record their first band. They’ve received mentoring visits from Dave Stewart, Nick Raskulinecz, Tim McGraw and Ben Wysocki from The Fray.

Additionally, he and his classmates are currently featured on the November cover of Mix Magazine alongside such greats as Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), Nathan Chapman (Taylor Swfit) , Dan Huff (Faith Hill/Keith Urban), Vance Powell (The Raconteurs), Jaquire King (Kings of Leon) and many, many others.

This is the first cover of Mix where any non-celebrity is included.

According to a news release,  class sizes are kept small so students can receive an intimate, hands-on education. Peters is one of 20 in the inaugural class.

John McBride’s love for audio and audio education led him to create a post-secondary program where students could learn using the best equipment from the best teachers and best lecturers in an incredibly short period of time, according to the release.

The Blackbird Academy offers two programs, studio engineering and live sound engineering. Students have the option of taking one or both of the programs.

Peters is enrolled in the studio engineering program, which launched in September. The live sound engineering program will launch in January.

Additionally, The Blackbird Academy will be presenting a number of professional seminars throughout the year that will give new insight and education to students and professionals.