Can anyone still make it as a country singer in Nashville?

The City of Music has become unaffordable for musicians - and a magnet for partiers. Streaming services have only made things harder

In June 2016, Tiffany Gassette looked for a place to park her RV. She ended up in Lyles, Tennessee, an hour from Nashville. For the next six months, she and her three-year-old daughter, Calliope - named after the Greek muse of epic poetry and heroic song - lived off a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. For 20 miles, there was nothing but a Walmart.

Tiffany had never lived in an RV before. When winter came, the temperature dropped. The regulator on her propane tank froze. The space heaters blew out her breakers. One day, after she dropped Calliope off at daycare, she went into Nashville to busk. When she got home, her dog couldn't see her. The cold weather had triggered her acute glaucoma. It was the loneliest, saddest time of her life. What right do I have to be here with this child?" she asked herself. This is no life."