Q is going to the American Country Music Awards this year!
I am so psyched because I’m a HUGE country music fan!!
Many of you know I’ve been singing my whole life. In fact I was 19 when I landed my first professional gig at Opryland USA in Nashville, TN, no less. It was awesome!! At the time I wasn’t a huge country music fan because I was in the opera program at Indiana University. (Don’t worry I didn’t sing country favs with an operatic flair! The show I did was an old pop classics/big band review. )
“I Hear America Singing It’s Song” (Obviously, Chaz hadn't created WEN yet!)
During my down time between shows, I would go to listen to the young country music singers on the other stages. After the summer, I went back to school and jumped back into singing arias in Italian, German, French & English.
I was always performing for my family. I think this was at my Grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.
It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later that I discovered my love for country music.
In my late 20’s I went to NYC for a few months to audition for operas, musical theatre & dinner theatre shows. And one of the shows I was hired for was a country music review. It was weird because my audition song was “I Could Have Danced All Night” from “My Fair Lady”, which is anything, but country. But after I finished singing, the casting director asked me if I knew any country music. I told him I knew “When Will I Be Loved” & “Desperado”, but that I didn’t have the music. (How I knew these songs is a whole different story for another time.) He didn’t care & told me to sing it “a cappella”. And, I did. He offered me the contract. Because he knew I didn’t know much about country music, he gave me “homework”: to listen to country radio…all the time!
Being the ever-obedient student, I tuned my car radio to the country music station as soon as I got back to Memphis, TN (where I was living at the time). I have to admit that I was having a terrible time relating to it, but forged on! A few weeks later Tim McGraw’s “I’m an Indian Outlaw” came on the radio. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing:
They all gather 'round my teepee
Late at night tryin' to catch a peek at me
In nothin' but my buffalo briefs
I got 'em standin' in line
Cause I'm an Indian outlaw
Half Cherokee and Choctaw
My baby she's a Chippewa
She's one of a kind
Catch a peek? Buffalo briefs? It was some of the funniest lyrics I’d ever heard. It made me laugh until I cried. Once I dried my eyes & recovered from my “laugh attack”, I was hooked! After that I listened to country music in a whole new way. I found out the music was all about being “real”, loving life, family, heartache & fun. And the talent…amazing! It was that song that made me a fan for life! So, if you ever take a ride with me, rest assured, you’ll be listening to 95.5 WXTU – Philly’s country radio station!
This is why I’m so excited that QVC is going to the ACM Awards this Sunday!! I wish I was going; but, I’ll be with one of my fav peeps, Carolyn Pollack at 1am for an American West Jewelry show with pieces designed with the ACM’s in mind!
Hey, who do you think will takehome“Entertainer of the Year”: Jason Aldean, Garth Brooks, Luke Bryan, Miranda LambertorFlorida Georgia Line? (My vote: Miranda!)