Local singer-songwriter Danetta Mason's new song is picking up traction on local radio and beyond, heading into tailgating season.

"The Moonshine Song," after playing on Cape Girardeau radio stations and being placed online, now is being shopped around Nashville, Tennessee, stations on the new music forum Music Row, which DJs use to discover fresh tracks.

"The Moonshine Song," Mason explained, came serendipitously from an otherwise frustrating recording session. After a brainstorming session with her producer failed to bear fruit, they decided to take a break.

When he made a joke about the apple pie moonshine he found in the refrigerator, she conceded that, "Yeah, we like our moonshine."

"And then he stopped and thought about it and told me to go home and write that song," she recalled. "And so I went home that evening to my house and wrote the melody and the words in about 10 minutes, sang it into my iPad and then sent it to him."

And after corralling some local musician friends, that earnest little nugget of everyday life became a demo, recorded in a studio apartment on Themis Street.

"I just asked people I knew if they had time and wanted to get together and help make this song, and they did," she said.

Then, when trying to find venues to perform live, she took the demo with her to Nashville, where it caught the ear of a DJ.

"I took it to a radio station, and he said, 'Add some steel guitar and master it, and then I want to hear it again,'" she said. So she did, and the result was impressive enough to get uploaded to Music Row, where two stations in Atlanta have played it already.

She said even if it's not going to become the next "Red Solo Cup," she's pleased with the reception the song has garnered and thankful to the musicians who took the time to help her put music to her melody.

Local singer-songwriter Danetta Mason poses for a photo Modnay in downtown Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"It just worked out. As soon as I was like, 'Let's do this,' everybody's calendar flew open," she said.

The contacts she's made over the years while singing in half a dozen local bands didn't hurt, either. She credits her time spent in the Cape music scene with helping her find her voice.

"Everyone I've ever been in a band with, I've been like a sponge," she said. "You study the people who you're with. I give credit to everyone I've ever played music with. All I'd ever done was sing country karaoke before I started playing with bands, but I love it," she said. "I can't see myself not doing it."

She said singing is her way of helping others.

"Everybody's got their own stuff, a bad relationship, a bad day, whatever, but when [a musician] sings, it helps," she said. "You take them away from that. That's my job, to make them forget for a little bit. And if I like to sing, well, that's just a bonus."

But Mason herself still hasn't heard it on the radio, oddly enough. She lives only minutes away from where she works in Cape as a hairstylist, so her drive time doesn't give her much chance.

"My friends keep messaging me, though, and that's great," she said. "This is where your family and your fans are; I have a lot of love from them and a lot of loyalty. Without them, you don't have anything. They're the ones who watched you singing with your hairbrush, and now you're on the radio? That's a special feeling. Anything else that happens is just icing on the cake."

Check out the song on Amazon at amazon.com/The-Moonshine-Song/dp/B00WAKISHK.