Nashville songwriter James Maltese weaves a personal thread of influences into his writing style. From Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt to Ernest Hemmingway and John Steinbeck, James has always been drawn to the writer’s writers – those crafters of stories that say it like it is with honest grit and realism. 

With a thirst for the nostalgic, James developed a love for the lore of the American west. Through music and literature, he became inspired by the stories and struggles of the men and women who pioneered those hard lived days. From this came “The Painted Lady Of The Plains”, an original concept album that tells a story unearthed from the dust that still covers those times – when the core human qualities of love and hope were the textures and brush strokes that defined a world now framed in a poetic past.

James has been recognized in American Songwriter Magazine, is a semi-finalist in both the 2022 and 2023 International Songwriting Competition and won the 22nd Annual Nashville Songwriters Association International Song Contest Lyric-Only Contest.