Rickards is heading off to Nashville

With just over a month until her high school career is over, senior Jena Rickards has a plan. It isn't the plan she started with, but she's sure it's the right one for her. She's heading off to Nashville to take a chance at a career in music.

Jena recently returned from a one-week tour of Nashville with some new "old friends" from the Starry Nights concert series - Big Al Anderson and Vince Gill. Rickards performed with Anderson and Gill at last year's benefit concert - and it proved to be a life-shaping experience.

"(Starry Nights concert Series founder) Jeri Fouts was an angel in this entire process. She became like my agent," Rickards recalled. "On the night of the concert Vince asked me for a demo CD. The CD was completed right before the end of my junior year, and I sent it off to him. Vince thought I had something and that making the demo might help me decide if I really wanted to do music."

During a concert last year in Jacksonville, Oregon, Rickards was offered backstage passes to catch up with Vince and meet his wife, Amy Grant.

"That's where I first heard of Belmont University in Nashville. Vince and Amy highly recommended I apply there," Rickards said.

Rickards credits Brad Tisdel, executive director of the Sisters Folk Festival's Americana Project, with launching her onto a path about which she dared not dream.

After taking the Americana Project class, which is offered at the high school as an elective, "I started getting more comfortable with my own style," Rickards said. "That's when I started understanding what the program is all about. One of the reasons I've found some success is Mr. Tisdel teaches it as a lifestyle format program. It's a mutual respect thing between teachers and students. It's a lifestyle and not really a class."

She notes that: "I've had some mentors too: Travis Ehrenstrom, Benji Nagel and Monica Offield. I felt like I owed them and the program respect, appreciation and recognition. I learned about humility and respect in general."

After her second time taking the class Rickards said: "In my senior year I took another step up, was given a lot of responsibility and had some healthy expectations put on me. One of the first things Big Al Anderson and Vince Gill looked at when I met up with them to sing with them at the Starry Nights concert last year was my ability to converse with, work with and appreciate professionals. I owe this directly to Brad Tisdel."

Rickards decided to apply to Belmont University and she won acceptance. She initially was looking at pre-med, not music, but "the closer it got to visiting the school I started considering Music Business as a declared major," said Rickards.

Enter Jeri Fouts the angel-agent.

"Jeri worked it out so that my mom and I could stay with (singer/songwriter) Leslie Satcher and her husband David Allen in their Nashville home. Then, when Vince heard from Jeri that I was coming to visit Belmont, he called my home to make arrangements to show us Nashville and invite us to one of his concerts that week," said Rickards.

Rickards and her mom Julia took in the Ryman Auditorium (the original Grand Ole Opry building), got a crash course on the music industry in Nashville, saw many historical sites, had dinner and a private concert with Larry Gatlin of the Gatlin Brothers, played two songs for producer and singer/songwriter Gary Cirinelli, whose done production work with Mariah Carey and Celine Dion, looked around some very cool shops and met many other wonderful people.

A treasured highlight of her trip was when she was given a brand new "Baby Taylor" guitar by Gill.

"He handed it to me after dinner and said: 'Here pal. Now you have a guitar,' and then I completely forgot how to play and just cried. So Amy played three songs that she hasn't released yet, Leslie played some of her songs and then Vince. Leslie said to me: 'This guitar has songs in it now; go home and write songs,'" said Rickards.