News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters High School junior Kristin Lamoreaux experienced Nashville from an insider's perspective this summer.
Not only did she tour the city with Nashville songwriters Tim and Angela Lauer, she spent several hours recording songs with Tim in his studio.
"I got to know Tim and Angela when I worked with them at one of the Starry Nights concerts last winter," said Lamoreaux, who dazzled the crowd with her own performance during Leann Womack's concert. "We really hit it off and Tim encouraged me to come and visit them in Nashville and check out Belmont College. He told me that he and Angela would show me around."
Kristin took the Lauers up on their offer. On August 21, Kristin, her parents and grandparents flew to Nashville. For the next several days, the Lauers acted as their tour guides, giving them a one-of-a-kind look at the town.
"The first night, they took us to a local taco place for dinner, then drove us around a place they called 'Music Row,'" Lamoreaux said. "There are two main streets where all the music-related businesses and recording studios are located. If Tim hadn't pointed them out, we wouldn't have known anything was there. Most of the studios were in houses or old buildings, it looked more like a residential area."
The next day, Kristin and her family met up with the Lauers once again and did the more traditional tourist activities. They visited the Country Music Hall of Fame and then ate at Arnolds, a favorite Nashville eatery. That evening, they went to The Bluebird Cafª where Greg Barnhill (who performed at Starry Nights last year) and Paul Williams were performing.
On the third day of their trip, Kristin visited Belmont College, where both Tim and Angela graduated.
"A counselor met us and gave us a tour of the school," said Lamoreaux. "I was impressed that the school actually has a Music Business degree. They have lots of connections in the music community -- there are lots of opportunities there. It's a really nice campus, too."
After Belmont, Kristin met Tim Lauer and went to his studio for a recording session. When she'd first arrived in Nashville, Tim had given her a CD with several songs on it that he or Angela had written.
"I'd been listening to a few of them, hoping to learn them for our recording session," explained Lamoreaux. "Tim wanted me to have some experience in the recording studio. We worked for several hours in our first session that day. If I learned anything on my trip, it was that recording is a lot of work! We worked on one line of a song over 30 times! My brain just kind of melted after that ..."
The next day, Kristin met with the Lauers again and worked on two more songs. After that session, she visited the O'More School of Design in Franklin.
"Angela knew about my interest in interior design," said Lamoreaux, "so she suggested O'More. I liked it, the school was small with only about 180 students. I'm glad I don't have to choose where I want to go to college yet -- I liked both Belmont and O'More.
"They are both very different, but very neat."
On the last day of their journey, the Lamoreaux family stopped at the Lauers' house to say good-bye and pick up a copy of the CD Kristin had made with Tim.
"It was my first trip to the South," said Lamoreaux. "Everyone is so friendly there. If you asked someone for directions, instead of telling you, they'd just take you there! I hope to visit Nashville again."
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