If I had to point to the one aspect of my job I enjoy the most, it would have to be the excitement of musical discovery.
When I was a kid, I was a huge history buff. Growing up in the ’90s, satellites had filled in almost all the blank spaces on the globe, but I was fascinated by the idea of a time when there were still a lot of unknowns over the horizon.
I suppose I never outgrew that, and while I don’t wake up, put my pants on and stride off to explore new lands every morning, there are times when discovery is part of my job.
Two weeks ago, for example, I received an email from a reader about his 14-year-old stepsister, Maddie Grace, whom he suggested I might want to write about.
Something about this message held my attention. Maybe it was the fact that, as a younger sibling, I appreciated an older brother looking out for his little sister, or maybe it was how passionately he pleaded his case.
“At only 14 years old, she shocks everyone that hears her,” he wrote. “Personally, when I hear her, cold chills rush over my body. [I] close my eyes, and I feel like I’m listening to a grown woman who has performed her whole life.”
I followed his suggestion and looked up her YouTube channel: MaddieGraceOfficial.
I don’t remember exactly how I responded to that first video, which was, I believe, a cover of Train’s “Marry Me,” but I’m pretty sure I was slack-jawed.
Maddie is unapologetically country, which is reflected in her many covers of Miranda Lambert, Sugarland and The Band Perry. Country music is definitely not my cup of tea, but good vocals are good vocals, and Maddie’s were stunning — bold and surprisingly mature.
In fact, I was so impressed that I didn’t trust my reaction, which could have been fueled by a desire to follow the path of least resistance to an easy story.
So I took my iPad around the office to let my co-workers voice their opinions, making them listen to her first before telling them how old she was. They were just as impressed, so I wrote about her in this week’s Talent Show.
Granted, Maddie’s vocals aren’t perfect, but she shows serious promise. I don’t consider it hyperbole to suggest she could be our next Lauren Alaina, if she’s allowed to grow slowly and avoid the reality-show vortex.
Regardless, hearing Maddie for the first time was a thrill, and even though her YouTube videos have more than 650,000 views, I still felt like I was discovering something brand new.
It might not be the same as circumnavigating the globe for the first time, but that experience was precisely the kind of unexpected surprise that makes my job so exciting. I can’t wait to see what comes next over the horizon.