New Artist Spotlight: Becky Schlegel
Robert L. Doerschuk
January 12, 2009
Aside from a whisper of electric guitar on the title track and a bit of steel guitar now and then, the instrumentation is acoustic throughout Becky Schlegel's debut album, For All the World to See. Even on the faster bluegrass tracks, her songs are filled nearly as much with light as with sound.
That quality flows through the first single, "Bound for Tennessee," evokes Celtic folk and Appalachian harmonies in "Jenny," hangs like an evening mist on the cello-caressed "Why Maybe" and ambles to the rhythm of some very gentle drumming on "I Need Your Love." The spaciousness on these 11 tracks, each written by Schlegel, may have something to do with her upbringing in Kimball, a tiny town on the South Dakota prairie. Piano lessons began there at age 5 and pointed Schlegel toward her first gigs with her mother's band, The Country Benders.
After high school, she found summer work as singer and keyboardist on "The Mountain Music Show," staged seven nights a week at Custer in the Black Hills. This revue piqued her interest in more traditional Country; after moving to Minnesota she switched to guitar and founded True Blue, honored by the Minnesota Music Academy in 2000 as Bluegrass/Old-Time Group of the Year. Then, after winning the MMA's Artist of the Year award in 2001, Schlegel began her journey as a solo artist.
Produced by Schlegel and Brian Fesler and released on Lilly Ray / IGO Records, For All the World to See introduces an artist who's ready for all the world to hear.
2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
That quality flows through the first single, "Bound for Tennessee," evokes Celtic folk and Appalachian harmonies in "Jenny," hangs like an evening mist on the cello-caressed "Why Maybe" and ambles to the rhythm of some very gentle drumming on "I Need Your Love." The spaciousness on these 11 tracks, each written by Schlegel, may have something to do with her upbringing in Kimball, a tiny town on the South Dakota prairie. Piano lessons began there at age 5 and pointed Schlegel toward her first gigs with her mother's band, The Country Benders.
After high school, she found summer work as singer and keyboardist on "The Mountain Music Show," staged seven nights a week at Custer in the Black Hills. This revue piqued her interest in more traditional Country; after moving to Minnesota she switched to guitar and founded True Blue, honored by the Minnesota Music Academy in 2000 as Bluegrass/Old-Time Group of the Year. Then, after winning the MMA's Artist of the Year award in 2001, Schlegel began her journey as a solo artist.
Produced by Schlegel and Brian Fesler and released on Lilly Ray / IGO Records, For All the World to See introduces an artist who's ready for all the world to hear.
2009 CMA Close Up® News Service / Country Music Association®, Inc.
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