Maybe Country Stardom Can Begin in Your Own Living Room [VIDEO]

We've had a number of new artists visit the WBKR studios over the years. And we have a number of local artists with amazing talent who have either visited or performed in the various talent competitions that I've had the good fortune to judge. And I tell them all the same thing, "You have to be in Nashville." Now, most of the travelling musicians who stop by are ahead of me; they all have record deals of some form or another. But there are those in the area who don't. And they have a great advantage over so many just like them who don't live nearly as close to Music City as they do. But times have changed. And maybe an aspiring country star doesn't have to do anything more than walk into the next room.

I mean, it's been right there in front of our faces for more than six years. It's called Youtube. Heard of it? Yeah, I kinda thought so. Justin Bieber fans know what I'm talkin' about. The teen pop superstar owes his career to the video-sharing behemoth. He recorded himself, put it on Youtube, and the rest, as they say, is history. But there's no reason it can't happen for a burgeoning country star. And maybe that first Youtube-bred country music superstar is named CJaye LeRose. The views of her video top 2 million. Her subscribers number in the tens of thousands. I'd never heard of her until a couple of days ago. And, in the fast-moving information age, that can be a lifetime. This girl easily as an album's worth of music on Youtube as we speak--both covers and originals. The videos aren't fancy--just her hangin' out, playin' the guitar, and singin'. By the way, I dropped all those "g's" in the last sentence because after watching CJaye, I just had to. She's a charmer. The originals are clever. And she has no record deal. But there are 35,000 people out there who beg to differ. Wait, make that 35,001.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_Qqh5jpTlI