|
During a family vacation in Nashville three years ago, a singer in a café offered 15 year old Amanda Pearce a microphone and asked if she'd like to sing a song. Amanda took the stage and sang Patsy Cline's "Crazy" and the Mariah Carey hit "Hero". When she sat back down, she knew she wanted a career as a country music singer. Three years later, 18 year old Amanda Pearce is living in Nashville, where she spends each day working toward making that dream come true. On Saturday, the Springfield native returns to her hometown for a party celebrating the release of her CD "Before I Fall," which she recorded this year in Nashville Though she acknowledges the long odds any newcomer faces in trying to make a name for herself in Nashville, Pearce excudes a strong but understated sense of self-confidence about her chances and the work ahead of her. "You come down here and there are a million of us all trying to do the same thing," she says. "You have to have enough confidence if you're going to come down here". The CD, recorded with studio musicians, is an entertaining blend of very traditional country, Western swing, country blues and, on the final track, an a capella take on "Amazing Grace" that puts Pearce's voice squarely in the spotlight. "I really wanted to do a lot of variety", says Pearce. "I like the different styles and being able to pull them off." Pearce, a 1998 graduate of Calvary Academy, had been thinking of moving to Nashville ever since she finished high school. She made the move four months ago, leaving her day job at the Springfield Menard's to pursue her goal full time. Since then, she's followed a steady and logical course in a business that is notorius for being anything but steady or logical. Pearce's CD came out early this year under the title "A Truckers Friend". The title came from a distribution deal with a Nashville company called Rolling High Dollar Distributors, which stocked the CD at truck stops around the south. Through her work with that company, Pearce came to the attention of Ray and Wendy Armendariz, who operate a management company, A Little Bit Of Nashville and More. The company is based in Redondo Beach, CA, but focuses on Nashville Talent. In June, the couple flew Pearce and her father, Tom to Las Vegas so Amanda could perform at a trucking convention there. In the tradition of Nashville's annual Fan Fair gathering, Amanda also had her own booth at the convention where she could greet attendees and , basically spread her name around. On June 26, she was back in Illinois, this time to sing at Taste Of Chicago on the Sears Family Village stage. (That appearance landed her an interview on country music video station CMT.) Saturday's appearance at the Knights Of Columbus Hall- an event that is being financed by Pearce's new management company- is meant both to announce the arrival of her CD and to kick off the next stage of her budding career. That stage will involve performing as a concert opener for established acts and a variety of events designed, again, to get her name out to country audiences. The Armendarizes' approach involves a series of appearances and tours focused on specific geographic regions, beginning with three weeks in California in September. Another trucking convention, this one in Sacramento, and a possible appearance at the California State Fair are on the agenda. (She will also perform on the Lincoln Stage at the Illinois State Fair on Aug. 18 at 6p.m. and Aug.19 at 3:30p.m.) But none of that would have been possible had Pearce not spent almost every weekend for nearly the last three years singing anywhere she could. Even after moving to Nashville in March, Pearce continues returning to Illinois every weekend to sing at festivals, parties and country opry shows. Her local singing career started when a family friend who had heard Amanda singing in church invited her to sing at the grand opening of Double L Western Wear in Springfield. Pearce set up in a corner of the store and began singing to tracks. A crowd gathered and a budding career was born. "That made me realize that there really was something there,: says Tom Pearce, who accompanied his daughter to Nashville a year ago so she could set up and perform on Music Row. Those performances outside the offices of people who run country music led to Amanda's deal with Rolling High Dollar, which led to her CD, which led to her impending management plan. Tom Pearce served as his daughter's manager for the last three years, but agreed to step aside when the recent management came about. "Now is the transition period", he says. "They asked me if I would step aside and I said sure". That does not mean Amanda's move to Nashville was easy for her father or her mother, Kim "I was very worried and her mother more so," says Tom Pearce. "But I knew if she was serious about this that's where she needed to be." At Amanda's request, however, Tom Pearce will serve as her road manager when the traveling and touring phase of her career begins in the fall. That will mean using his vacation time from his job as manager of Morgan Systems in Springfield, but it will also mean a measure of peace of mind for father and daughter. "You raise a kid for 18 years and I'm just not ready to throw her in with a bunch of wolves," Tom says. Unlike
some aspiring singers, Amanda is in no hurry to land a record deal or
throw herself into Nashville's star-making machinery. She says she's spent
three years establishing a fan base in Illinois as a springboard to her
move to Nashville, and wants to use the same strategy in her quest for
national attention. She believes country music's frenzy in recent years
to bring on new stars has led to a long line of short careers. "What's
happened now with country music, I think, is that there are a lot of new
names and eventually one-hit wonders,"she says. "I don't want
that to happen with me" |