Buddy Jewell

Country singer Buddy Jewell earned the label “overnight sensation” after his sudden breakthrough, yet after a decade of struggling unrecognized in Nashville he viewed his own story as that of a contemporary Rip Van Winkle. Born in Arkansas, his first musical recollections involve peering intently into his parents’ radio in search of the “little people” he imagined lived inside it. Later he spent ten dollars of his own grocery-bagging earnings on a guitar from a classmate and bought beginner instructional books to teach himself. At twenty-one he resolved to pursue singing professionally, so he traveled to Camden, AR, and joined the band White Oak. After four years of road work with the unsigned group, Jewell relocated to Dallas, TX, where he performed in a gunfight show at the Six Flags theme park.

A singing contest sponsored by Alabama gave him an opening slot on the band’s tour and the impetus to relocate in 1993 to Nashville. Two years later he began working as a demo singer and ultimately recorded more than four thousand songs for aspiring writers hoping to land cuts with major country artists; several of those demos were later recorded by George Strait, Trace Adkins, and others. In 1998 he contributed vocals to Bill Engvall’s single “I’m a Cowboy,” and in 2002 he sang backup on Ray Price’s album Time. Momentum accelerated sharply in 2003. On May 3 he was crowned the winner of Nashville Star, country music’s counterpart to American Idol. Two days afterward, radio received the single “Help Pour Out the Rain (Lacey’s Song),” and on May 17 he made his debut at the Grand Old Opry. Columbia released his self-titled debut album on July 1, with Clint Black serving as producer.