My name is Laurelyn Carter and I am a 17-year old country music singer from Huntsville, Alabama. I used to live in Lickskillet, Alabama – close to Butter and Egg Lane – no joke! But don’t get the wrong idea; I’m not a backwoods hillbilly, even though I do come from a long line of rednecks and hicks. There is a big difference between a hillbilly and a redneck, you know.
Oh, and just to set the record straight right from the start; contrary to popular belief (i.e., the movie Sweet Home Alabama ) we don't eat bologna cake here - that's sick! I'd never even heard of it before that movie! We prefer cheeseburger pie or a fried Twinkie and, most importantly, chocolate gravy! Although that does remind me of the story my Momma told me about how my Uncle Seth, when he was little, snuck some bologna into church, stood on the front pew and......OK, I'm chasing a rabbit now, as my grandpa likes to say.
One thing you need to know – my great-grandma Patty Lou told me when I was just a little girl that I was gonna be a big singer one day - and all the family knows that her visions were surprisingly accurate. Of course she could have just meant that I would be a fat singer one day – who knows? We all miss her dearly.
I am also going to prove that my daddy did not really kill himself – no matter how long it takes.
Anyway, I won’t bore you with all the details of my life since my birth, which my Momma assures me was long and painful on that hot August day, so I’ll just update you on the last few years.
I have performed at places and events from the Wildhorse Saloon (no, I don't regularly hang out in saloons) in Nashville to the Goat Festival in Lewisburg, TN (yes, GOAT Festival with real-live goats! – you just haven’t lived until you’ve seen ‘fainting goats’!). I have had the pleasure of opening for artists such as Vince Gill, Blake Shelton, Jason Aldean, Heartland, Miranda Lambert, Diamond Rio, Cowboy Crush and even Percy Sledge (odd one to throw in but he was at the Goat Festival - go figure). My goal is to one day play the Toe-Jam Sandwich Festival! What is toe-jam? Well, it’s that stuff you get in between your toes – come on, don’t act like you don’t have it!
I actually started singing in my Grandpa’s church when I was old enough to stand up and hold the microphone. When I say ‘my Grandpa’s church’, it doesn’t mean he ‘owns’ the church – he is just the preacher – which meant that I always got a lot of singing time.
Anyway, the last few years in my life could have provided material for a hundred episodes of some bizarre reality show. A redneck version of The Osbornes or Hogan Knows Best – only we are poor - and nobody, except maybe Uncle Elroy and Aunt Mirtle, knows anything about wrestling….
There have been wonderful, magical moments - and some absolutely awful and painful ones. I’ve done a lot of growing up. Some of the stuff that’s happened, well, you just flat wouldn’t believe.
As I mentioned earlier, the death of my dad is one of the biggest things that has changed my life. Two years ago as I was getting ready to go to my high school homecoming game and waiting on him to pick me up, we got a call that he had been arrested that morning and had hung himself in the holding cell of a county jail in Tennessee. I was fifteen years old. There are still a lot of crazy unanswered questions about that and we are trying to figure it all out. He was always at my shows and really supported me. He took me to a ‘studio’ when I was nine years old - all I remember was that it was in someone’s garage – and I made my first CD – which we gave out as Christmas presents. I sounded like a chipmunk – but that’s ok.
Well, there’s a ton of other stuff to tell but I’ll save that for another day. I appreciate you visiting my page and hope you enjoy my songs. I’ve been writing more lately and will hopefully have some of those put on here soon!
