Photo: Connie Britton as Rayna Jaymes in ‘Nashville.’ Credit: Katherine Bomboy-Thornton

For our Fall TV Preview issue, we spoke with the cast of ABC’s new drama Nashville about the question that’s on everyone’s minds: Can Connie Britton really sing?

When ABC first started casting for the show, its creator, Callie Khouri, knew she wanted Britton for the role of country superstar Rayna Jaymes, even before she knew whether or not Britton could carry a tune. “I said, if we can’t get Connie Britton, let’s just not do the show,” Khouri tells EW. “Everybody thought I was nuts!” But Khouri held out for her first choice. “She’s a woman that other women really relate to,” she explains, “and I felt that was exactly the right way to go with this character.”

There was only one problem: Britton’s real voice would be used on the show. And that made the actress very nervous. “I grew up singing,” Britton reveals. “My mother was a music teacher and I trained for [musicals] in drama school. But when I started pounding the pavement in New York, I realized that people there have these majestic voices. I’m a perfectionist, so I let that go by the wayside.”

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