Lauren Lucas

Lauren Lucas was featured in NASHVILLE SCENE’S list of “Five Women Threatening To Give Mainstream Music A Good Name,” along with Lori McKenna, Sarah Buxton, Carrie Underwood, and Miranda Lambert. She is also among the very few people who can say they’ve both appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and received a Tony award nomination.

In her hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, Lauren worked in community theater, casting in her first production at age three. She later took guitar and piano lessons in pursuit of a country career, and first sang on the Grand Ole Opry at age eleven. By the time she was a teenager, she had formed a band called Farther South, which played at several local venues. She also recorded a demo tape, which helped her to land a songwriting contract with Sony ATV/Tree Publishing, a development deal with RCA Nashville when she was 16, and later a record contract with Warner Bros. Records. A single was released in 2005, but no album. She later went on to record an independent EP titled, “If I Was Your Girl.” Lucas also contributed to the Broadway adaptation of the film Urban Cowboy, and one of her cuts for the play was nominated for a Tony award.[2][3] She was signed to a development deal on RCA Nashville, but it did not escalate into a full recording contract because Lucas decided to take a roll in an off-Broadway theater production instead called, “Take This Show and Shove It.” Lucas later moved to Nashville and attended Belmont University’s school of music, and eventually befriended session guitarist and producer Biff Watson, who then helped her sign to Warner Bros. Records in 2003. She was signed to the label for two years, releasing two singles in 2005 (“What You Ain’t Gonna Get” and “The Carolina Kind”), but her debut album, The Carolina Kind, was never released. She later released an independent EP in 2007 called, “If I Was Your Girl.”

These days, Lauren is concentrating on country, and generating plenty of praise and attention for a voice that is bright, expressive and immediately recognizable, as well as a type of genuine earthiness and country appeal that can’t be manufactured or taught.

“I loved community theater growing up and did all types of Broadway songs,” Lucas said. “But I also was in a lot of cover bands and was always singing country tunes. My favorite band when I was growing up was Alabama, and I also loved Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. So singing both these types of songs never seemed that different or difficult to me.”