Correna Ann

Most parents would be concerned to find their 14-year-old daughter hanging out in honkytonks. But if the honkytonk is Nashville’s World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, and the 14-year-old girl isn’t bellied up to the bar but belting it out on one of country music’s most famous stages, what’s a parent to do? If you’re Correna Ann's parents, you cheer your girl on with the rest of the crowd.
“It was so exciting just to be there,” says Correna Ann, remembering the day she was invited by the house band’s guitarist to grab the mike and sing a number. “He was playing on my record, and after we finished in the studio one day he invited us down to Tootsie’s to see him play. When we got there he asked me if I wanted to do a song, and I just said, ‘Yes, please!’ I sang Broken Wing, and people came down from the second floor to listen. I was so thrilled!”
Compared to LeAnn Rimes, who had her first hit Blue when she was just 13, Correna Ann started at a young age and has every intention of following in her inspiration’s foot steps. “She is amazing. She has really grown up in the public eye. She has always moved from one phase of her career to the next with such grace. And even though she has been doing it forever, she always comes out with something new. If I was going to model my career on someone, it would be LeAnn.”
Correna Ann’s home town in Avon, a suburb of Rochester in northern New York, is a long way from Pearl, Mississippi where Rimes was born and raised. But like her role model, Correna was still a toddler when she started entertaining, though her early passion was dance and not singing. “I started dancing when I was two, all kinds----ballet, tap, modern, jazz, even hip-hop. I loved it all. Dancing was my life until I was about ten.”
In fourth grade, a four-line solo during a choir performance was a revelation, to young Correna and to the audience. “Afterwards, people were coming up to me and telling me that I was really good, that I could really sing. That was such a big moment.”
So much so, that she began taking vocal lessons, joined the Bach Children’s Choir in Rochester, and started entering competitions. One of her first took her from the county fair, to a state contest, then to regional, and ultimately to the finals in New York City, wowing judges all the way with her rendition of Martina McBride’s arrangement of the classic Over The Rainbow. She was one of the youngest competing in the 10-14 year-old Junior Division, and came in third. It was affirmation that she was on the right path.
Back home, she recorded a karaoke disc of cover songs, then a few months later a three-song demo with her first producer, Kim Bullard (Poco). In middle school, she immersed herself in school plays and community theatre, creating an impressive resume for any age that includes roles in nearly 20 plays and musicals. Her work was recognized by the Rochester Broadway Theatre League who named her one of their “2007 Young Stars of Tomorrow.”
She knew she loved being on stage, but at an age when most girls are thinking of which club to join or school sport to participate in, she found herself at a professional crossroads. “I needed to decide if I wanted to pursue a career on Broadway or singing. I decided to focus on singing.”
She left public school for home schooling to allow herself the time and flexibility she knew she would need to achieve her goals. In 2007, she came to Nashville, met with producer Terry Wendt (The Wendt Brothers, Peggy and Patsy Lynn, Shania Twain) and began the process of finding material. “He gave me a huge stack of CDs with songs to listen to and choose what I wanted to record.”
The challenge was in finding material that was appropriate for her, but wasn’t overwhelmed by her voice. “I have a very big voice. I don’t sing like a 14-year-old. I don’t sing young or cutesy. But I also can’t sing songs with lyrics that are beyond my years and experience. I think that’s why country suits me so well. There are stories that reach everyone.”
Within that stack of songs, Correna found nine that, as she says, “speak to me. I love every one of them. I can’t sing something unless I can feel it, and I felt all of these songs.”
Though she has no plans now to leave her parents, younger brother Cameron, dog Jasmine and her many friends in Avon, she says she would like to move to Nashville eventually, knowing that it is the creative center of the country music world. “It is so inspirational to be in that community, there are incredible artists and singers and writers everywhere you turn and it’s an honor to be among them. I am just now starting to write, I really love it. I know it will help me develop as a complete artist, to be able to sing the songs that I have written.”