Brittany Wells: There's No Stopping This Girl
Newcomer Brittany Wells made a splash on the Country music scene with her debut single "From Harm's Way." After winning the Miss Teen Texas pageant in 2002 and giving up a promising tennis career for her love of music, she released her debut album "Loving Every Minute of It" earlier this year and is making strides to becoming a household name.
"From Harm's Way" is the song that introduced the newcomer to the Country music world and is making an impact on country radio listeners everywhere (especially on those with a connection to the military). Brittany commented, "The reason I decided to sing that song is because right before I went in to record, I read about the Nicolas Berg beheading and I started bawling my eyes out. I usually never cry about anything. I am a really happy person. But I knew right then I had to do the song, for families back home, to kind of give them hope and inspiration from the families talking about it. And that is how I decided to perform 'From Harm's Way' and put that out for my first single."
Making her first video was a new and exciting experience for Brittany. "It was a blast. It was probably the most fun I have had so far in my music career. We did it on the beach down in Pensacola, FL at the naval base down there and I didn't realize how many people were involved. You have the stage crew, all of the camera people, makeup artists and it was a blast. It was a lot of hard work but it's all worth it in the end. And they make you look really good."
Brittany is a very dedicated, passionate person and wanted to have a lot of input on making the record. How involved was she in the process? "Totally involved. I decided every song I wanted to sing because I feel like you have to relate to the song and you have to have experienced that in your life. I really wanted songs I could relate to and have fun with and that other people could relate with too," Brittany recalled.
Many influences contribute to the sound on the stars album. Brittany says, "The first country artist I listened to was Garth Brooks and 'Friends In Low Places.' After that I started to go into the pop world and started listening to that as a young teenager and then I came back to the country world. And so now my influences are people like Martina McBride, Keith Urban and Shania Twain."
Brittany Wells might not be a name you know now but keep an ear out for this shining new talent. Her hard work and dedication has already paid off in the form of a record deal and she isn't stopping any time soon. She lives by the advice given to her by friends in the group Hilljack when they said, "It's a hard road to travel but if you love what you are doing and you work hard… it pays off in the end."
Check out more about Brittany in the 2nd Annual Country Music Edition of EnterTeenment News and make sure you visit her official site at BrittanyWells.com.
Glenn Cummings: Clubhouse Kid to Rising Star
Hearing the story of Glenn Cummings makes you believe that dreams really do come true. Growing up performing and striving for his goals to getting a record deal by chance all lead up to the release of his debut album "Big," which landed on shelves earlier this year.
Glenn's Mom was a single parent who did everything she could to provide for her two children. Seeing the kids potential while they played in the backyard clubhouse, she wrote a screenplay and formed a group called The Clubhouse Kids. She herself was a drama, dance and vocal coach and taught the kids everything they know. The Clubhouse Kids launched careers for many children including Backstreet Boys Nick Carter. While running the Clubhouse she decided to form a family trio called The Cummings Family Three that included herself, Glenn and Glenn's brother. The family performed all around Florida (they even had a gig in the hotel where they lived at the time). Glenn continued performing throughout his school days and appeared on Nationwide programs that aired on CBS, NBC and PBS.
Later in life, Glenn had a chance meeting with a man who would help make his dreams come true. Glenn recalls, "I had thought up an invention. I let my brother-in-law borrow my truck and trailer so he could move and he ended up jackknifing my trailer and it smashed the side of my truck. I was so upset, so I invented this thing called The Bumper Guard. I got a patent on it and I went to visit an investment group out of Orlando. I met with them, showed them the idea and on my way out of the meeting I said 'By the way, if you guys like Country Music here's my web site' and I walked out the door. The next day they called me and said they wanted to form a label. They said we love your music and think you are a great guy and nothing against your patent but we want to form a label to help you out with your career. So I was shocked." Glenn started working immediately with Gulf Coast Records and recorded his album in only four weeks.
Keeping his family close to his career, the rising star likes to get feedback on the decisions he is making. He values his moms opinion and she helped decide on a song that ended up on the record. He says, "My Mom is a very religious woman so I take that much into consideration on if she likes a song. As a matter of fact one of the songs on the record, 'If I Was an Angel,' talks about the ultimate exchange of your wings. If you were an angel you'd give up your wings in exchange for the love of your life. And I said, 'Well, Mom, is this something I should do?' It was one of my main concerns. So I pulled her into the car and I had the demo to the song and played it and she said, 'Honey, you have to cut this song.' And I said, 'Thank You Mom.' I didn't want to portray that you were giving up your love of God to go out with a girl. That you were taking that relationship over your belief in God and being an Angel in exchange for your love is how the song works."
Glenn has come a long way from performing in his backyard Clubhouse and is well on his way to climbing the charts. Pick up a copy of his album "Big" in stores now and click on over to his web site at gccountry.com to find out when he will make an appearance in your area. Also pick up a copy of the 2nd Annual Country Music Edition of EnterTeenment News to hear more about what it took to make Glenn a country music rising star.
Brittany Roe: Sharing Her Values Along with Her Voice
After getting her first taste of performing at the age of 5, Brittany Roe knew what she wanted to do with her life. She began performing in and around her home state of Oklahoma, and at the age of 15 the Oklahoma Country Music Association named Brittany Female Vocalist of the Year and Female Entertainer of the Year. “I couldn’t believe it…They’re really special to me,” she says of receiving the awards.
Now at age 23, Roe has released her debut CD “Is it Hot in Here?” on Labeless Nashville and has gained success on the Texas Music Chart with her single “Shoes” (which landed at #2 behind Pat Green) and “I Jumped”. When EnterTeenment News met with Brittany her label was just about to release “Somebody’s Somebody,” which Roe considers to be the best song on the CD. “It’s the most important song to me because of the meaning of it. This song urges people to be sensitive to the fact that anyone can lose someone they love. That everyone belongs to ‘Somebody’.” Although not mentioned by name, the song refers to Laci Peterson. The Carole Sund/Carrington Foundation, a non-profit organization which raises money to reward individuals with information on missing persons, invited Roe to perform at a vigil in March.
When asked about her influences, Roe spoke not only of the voices of Reba McEntire and Martina McBride but of their values. “I look at them as people, not just musicians and singers and stuff ….their music is wonderful but I like to see that they’re good people, they have families, they have great values, they’re never going to do anything to hurt themselves as far as their image and stuff like that… no matter what they won’t mess with that.” She goes on to say “I really want people to be able to look at my life and see what kind of person I really am and what I stand for because just like I said with Reba and Martina - look at what kind of woman Martina is. When people look at her they see a strong independent woman who has great values and I want that. But I also want them to see the fun side of me because I mean I’m only 23 years old!”
For more information on Brittany check out BrittanyRoe.com.
LoCash Cowboys:On the Verge of Rockin' The Country Music Scene
by: Susan J. Yeager
That high-energy vibration you feel pulsating from its Nashville epicenter could very well be stemming from a country music duo that is about to burst onto the country music scene. Preston Brust and Chris Lucas (better known as LoCash Cowboys) have spent the last several years preparing to entertain the masses. We sure hope the masses are ready because it is going to be a wild ride.
Chris, a Baltimore, MD native and Preston (Arkansas born but grew up in Indiana) first met at the Nashville hotspot, the Wildhorse Saloon, where Chris was a line-dance instructor and a DJ. Preston remembers the day they met vividly. "Dancing has always come easy for both of us. [We've] never had dance lessons in our life really or anything like that. It's just kind of a natural thing that we've always had," he says as a prelude to the story.
"I went to the Wildhorse to just go pick up some chicks," Preston continues jokingly (we think). "I had just moved to town and thought 'I'm just going to go meet some people.' I was on one side of the dance floor just kind of doing my thing. About that time I kind of looked over because I realized there were some girls congregating on the other side of the dance floor. I'm like 'wait a minute that's not cool.' So I kind of look over there and Chris is in the middle of that group and he's doing the running man!" "That was cool back in the day!" Chris chimes in.
"We kind of saw each other with our little posse's going on," Preston says. "How do you tell somebody 'Hey man… you're kind of cool man? You can dance pretty good.'" Putting his fears of looking "uncool" aside, Preston decided to introduce himself. "So I kind of walked by and was like 'Hey what's going on dude? You dance pretty good.' Chris… he wants to say the same thing but he's afraid. 'He's like uhhhh you too!'."
The mutual respect for talent ended up turning into a fast friendship and it was just in time too. Chris, who had previously dreamed of being an entertainer, was getting disillusioned. "I just got tired of the Nashville way," he says honestly. "People say 'it's hard!'! It's a very hard career. And I was just like I just don't know if I want to do it. Then I met Preston. We just hit it off like we're brothers." Preston's unjaded enthusiasm renewed Chris' interest in the music industry. "I just realized, you know? I'm going to stay," Chris concludes.
Without even really having the authority to do so, Chris offered Preston a job right then and there. He started the next day. "It wasn't like Chris ever told me what to do," Preston recalls. "I walked in my first night and he literally reached into a drawer and pulled out a microphone and is like 'Go out there.' And I was like 'and say anything I want?'"
"Well, fortunately, I was a choreographer before coming to TN so I kind of knew what was going on," Preston says. "We were flip flopping at first. I would go do a lesson and he would DJ then flip flop… I would go DJ and he would do a lesson. About two weeks into it we were both like, 'let's do something new. Let's go out at the same time.' So we walked out with the mics at the same time… didn't know what we were going to say. We were like 'Hey ladies and gentleman I'm Preston and this is my brother Chris' and the next thing you know everybody just embraced the whole duo thing. The banter we used out on the floor was just really clickin'. It was unrehearsed. It was smooth. It was funny. People were just really enjoying themselves."
Realizing that they might be on to something really good, the guys decided to try to add singing together to their dancing and hosting repertoire. Their first rehearsal space was familiar territory… backstage at the Wildhorse. "Forever we would just sneak into the dressing rooms. We'd be on for 45 minutes out on stage, and then we would go straight to the dressing room backstage. Whoever was performing, they would be out on-stage… we would take their dressing room. Instead of looking through all their stuff, we would just sit in there and just practice and just sing," Preston says laughing at the memory.
The joint venture seemed successful right away. Within six months, the newly formed singing duo had a management deal, a booking agency and a record deal with a major label. The guys thought they were on their way. The music industry had other plans though. "As things started to develop we realized that we were already in the Nashville waiting game," Preston tells us. "Hurry up and wait. We were sitting still, waiting on our turn to get on the runway. [We] kept hearing it's coming, it's coming. It's April! No it will be June. Finally, the Universal merger happened and we lost our deal because we hadn't even been in the studio yet."
Somehow the guys have managed to turn such a negative into a major positive. "It really taught us a lot," Preston reasons. "During that time we were able to write a lot of songs, really develop who Chris and Preston really were. We wrote almost all of our material within that time period." With hours and hours of additional writing and live shows under their belt now, the guys realize that it was actually a blessing in disguise. "We weren't ready. We were not ready at all," Chris concludes.
For the past couple of years, LoCash has been writing and performing to perfect an energetic live show and have recently begun hitting the road to play clubs, fairs and just about any other space that a crowd will gather and listen to the group's usually up- tempo, make you want to get out of your seat and dance, country music songs. For the most part, LoCash will keep the crowd moving with fast, fun songs like "A Night
Like That" and "Something to Look At." "In a ninety minute set you're probably going to get maybe two slow songs from us," Chris says.
If these two energetic entertainers are going to slow it down at all, you'd better pay attention and listen up ladies, because they are probably talking to you. Of not writing so many fast, fun loving songs, Preston says "I have to be tamed down from time to time and realize that we have to write some other stuff too." So when the guys do put pen to paper to conjure up a ballad, chances are it's going to be a romantic one.
"I'm a huge Vince Gill fan," Preston states during the discussion on ballads. "But I have trouble slow dancing to 'Go Rest High on That Mountain.' And you can get a good slow dance out of it believe me, I've had them. But when you're like 'Baby, listen to these words.' Go rest high baby cause I'm in love wich' you! It's so hard to get romantic in that moment," he reasons. So how do they remedy the situation? "We're hopeless romantics. Always writing to the ladies. Always trying to reach out and tug on someone's heart strings that way."
Okay, so two romantic ballads… check. But what else should country music fans expect from a LoCash show? Well, even Chris and Preston aren't quite sure because no two shows are the same. "Nothing is planned with us," Preston confesses. "The length of a song is never planned. We put no rules on the band. Everyone can do anything they want on stage. If we point to somebody on stage, they'd better break dance or something cause everybody's watching them."
About the only thing that fans can count on at a LoCash live show is that they will have a good time. The LoCash Cowboys are about to add their shot of adrenaline to the country music scene. We just hope it has a strong heart.
LoCash Photos:
Since the LoCash guys are such great subjects, our crew couldn't resist taking photos during the interview.
Only every time it was Chris' turn to talk and Preston noticed the camera... this is what would happen.
This was going to be our "Paparazzi" shot. Note that Preston's first reaction is to shy away while Chris waves! Hmmm?
Here's another fan who thinks LoCash is out of this world!!
It's true... you just never know where LoCash will be lurking, we mean appearing next!
For more on Locash, visit our Photo Gallery and stop by their Web site
LoCashCowboys.com. Be sure to check the events section for when they might be headed to your area. You really don't want to miss it!
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