One of the questions I get asked a lot, is  about how I ended up as a background singer on tours. In a nutshell, here’s how the story goes.

While I was living in Ft. Collins, Colorado, a  concert  promoter friend of mine, had been booking CCM artists such as David Meece and Amy Grant, for shows . She had  booked David, at Red Rocks Amphitheater, for a show one summer. At the show, which I attended, she found out that David was planning a tour for the fall and he was looking for background singers. So she took me backstage after the show, and introduced me to David. He was willing to give me a shot to audition. So I borrowed a guitar and auditioned for him right then and there. He was very encouraging and said he was interested in the possibility of having me sing on his fall tour. He wanted me to audition for his management that would be with an artist recording at Caribou Ranch. That artist was Amy Grant. She was there recording her first Christmas record.

I drove up to Caribou Ranch and did my second audition for Amy’s management. They liked my voice and encouraged me to keep singing, but weren’t sure if it made sense to bring someone in from outside the Nashville area, since background vocalists are practically growing on trees there! Never the less, I was still very encouraged by the whole thing.

Several months passed by and I found out from my promoter friend that they wanted me to come to Nashville and start rehearsals for David Meece.  About two weeks later I was on the road with David and White Heart. While on the road on that first tour, I decided to move to Nashville and take the plunge into the music scene. I was in town for about a week when I was asked to audition for the “Straight Ahead Tour.” That was the first time I met Amy. I auditioned singing harmony with her on one of her songs. I was told a couple of days later, that I got the gig, A week later we went into rehearsals. A month later, I was out on the road, on the “Straight Ahead” tour.

I’ve continued to sing with many other artists both in the CCM arena as well as pop and country even, including Alex Harvey (Delta Dawn, Reuben James, etc.) Chris Eddy (songwriter for Lynyrd Skynyrd, bassist w/ Shelby Lynne), Greg Barnhill (hit country songwriter). I’ve enjoyed all of the work I’ve done as a background vocalist on the road and in the studio.

Here’s a list of tours and artists I’ve done background vocal work for on the road:

David Meece and White Heart Tour
David Meece Australia Tour
Candle in the Rain Tour

Amy Grant
Straight Ahead
Unguarded
Heart in Motion

Michael W. Smith
Eye to Eye

Russ Taff
Rick Cua Italy Tour
Don Moen South East Asia Tour