CONTRIBUTED PHOTO - Singer-songwriter and country musician Robert Deitch performed Saturday night at Tannin Wine Bar in Marshalltown. Deitch is an Iowa native and splits his time between his home state and Music Row in Nashville.

Robert Deitch took the long route to realizing his own dreams in music. On Saturday, the country singer-songwriter performed at the Tannin Wine Bar in Marshalltown to promote his new album “A Stone’s Throw,” which comes out March 1.

Deitch, a native of southeast Iowa who splits his time between Nashville and his home state, said his journey from not totally knowing his life path to performing in venues like Tannin and the Iowa Distilling Co. in Cumming for fans has been nothing if not unique.

“I always had music running through my head,” Deitch said. “I got to be pushing 40 years old and I thought, ‘I better figure out what’s going on here.'”

After picking up a guitar and heading to Nashville to try and find a spot as a songwriter, he went to two NSAI (National Songwriters Association International) seminars in an effort to get noticed and network with other professionals in the business. The first attempt was fruitless, but after his second trip, multiple songwriters took an interest in Deitch’s work — opening doors for him in the industry.

With a lot of competition in Nashville and on Music Row for songwriters and songwriting credits, Deitch said it was a slow burn to try and work his way up the ladder and get his songs noticed by publishers.

As he climbed up the ladder and began to work with more and more renowned songwriters, he learned what makes a song great and what makes a song a hit, honing his style along the way.

This included getting a “hold” on songs, which means an artist or producer hears a song and wants to get the first chance to cut, by artists such as Kenny Rogers and Kenny Chesney. Some of them didn’t pan out, but Deitch said the experience added to the excitement of his new profession. He has gotten more than 25 of his written songs recorded and published by country music artists.

Along the way, Royce Johns, a singer Deitch had collaborated with and written songs for, suggested that he perform songs on his own as well.

Most of his early gigs were in Nashville, meaning he didn’t have much of a foothold as an artist in Iowa at the beginning of his singing career. Before the pandemic, Deitch said he was beginning to make some headway in the Midwest, but COVID put his plans on hold.

With this most recent tour and his performance at Tannin on Saturday, Deitch said he’s beginning to make a name in his home state. Playing in intimate venues provides him a chance to connect with the audience, Deitch said.

“Hopefully, I’m connecting with them, and they’re connecting with me,” Deitch said. “Even between songs, to have a short conversation or tell a story, or sometimes now that people have started to hear my music, they’ll make requests or tell me how the songs have impacted them or their family.”

He’s also tried to find his own voice and figure out the difference between writing the best song for the song’s sake or for other artists and writing songs for himself.

“I feel like I’ve got one foot on the boat and one on the shore,” Deitch said. “I’ve got a few on there that are really like, ‘This is me, this is personal,’ and then there are other songs that are like, ‘This is just a good song that needs to be heard, so I’m going to put this on the CD.'”

“A Stone’s Throw” will be available on March 1.

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Contact Noah Rohlfing at 641-753-6611 or nrohlfing@timesrepublican.com.