TAYLORS  NATIVE NAMED “AMERICANA PICK OF THE YEAR" BY SMART CHOICE MUSIC          by Leland Burch

Taylors native Angela Easterling appears poised for stardom in the world of country music after her new album was recently chosen as the “Americana Pick of the Year” by Smart Choice Music.  

The selection ranks Easterling’s album “Earning Her Wings” atop the Ten Best list that includes such standouts as Vince Gill, Slaid Cleaves, Guy Clark and Bruce Robison.

“I am so honored and inspired by their confidence in me and my music”, says the Eastside High graduate. “I could not have asked for a better present this holiday season.

Easterling has been touring the east coast this month, having presented three concerts in North Carolina and others in Maryland and Vermont. She will return to the region on March 2 for a concert in Flat Rock, NC.

The daughter of Mayson Easterling, a Baptist minister employed at North Greenville University, she studied Theatre at the Fine Arts Center while attending Eastside High.

After graduation, she enrolled at Emerson College in Boston, MA, to major in musical theatre. “My dream was to have a stage career, singing in Broadway musicals”, Easterling said. “But I visited New York City several times while I was in college, and it just wasn’t right for me.”

Easterling spent her senior year in college in California where Emerson has a campus, and she has been there ever since. “I made a lot of friends and a lot of contacts. That got me some work making commercials and bit movie parts, and enabled me to focus on a music career.”

She also discovered country music in California. “It was in a round-about way, because I didn’t start writing songs until I was in college, and didn’t listen to country music until after graduation!” That was a long way to go to find her calling.

Smart Choice Music said of Easterling, “As we are firmly nailing our colors to the mast at Smart Choice Music by championing new music, and the new generation of artists, it seems fitting that Angela Easterling's Earning Her Wings is our pick of the year.”

“Having spent her formative years working in the West Coast country scene, Angela rediscovered her Carolina roots for this old-school country album. Delightful tongue-in-cheek pastiches of songs about truckers and cowboys, a hint of gospel and authentic acoustic instruments and production has the spirit of the Carter Family and Kitty Wells flowing throughout. However, Angela manages to put a youthful, new slant onto a well trodden path and has produced a vibrant debut album.”

 Of her budding career Easterling says, “I want to bring people together. I want to be a part of the musical traditions of the artists that came before me, but filter them through my voice and my experiences as a young woman in 2006. I want to uplift people. Music has the ability to do that and that is my ultimate goal.”