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SDSU's Hamilton now has Musical Goals By Hank Wesch, San Diego Union-Tribune
Oct. 22, 1999
SAN DIEGO -- These days, Katie Hamilton can often be found under the blazing sun working on a case of near heat exhaustion at practices and games for San Diego State's women's soccer team. Soon she hopes to be found under blazing spotlights working on building a case for herself as a hot new singing star on the country-western music scene. And although the title to the song that might get her started is "Never Gonna Make It," some in the business think she will. And if she does, the story itself might be good material for a country-western song. The genesis of Hamilton's singing venture goes back to the summer of 1997. With no experience outside of singing in the car or the shower, she entered a national contest -- the True Value/Jimmy Dean Country Showdown. She heard about the annual contest on KNCI-FM, the country station that sponsored the local competition near her hometown of Davis.
"I didn't think I was going to win or anything," Hamilton said. "But I'd been playing soccer all summer and I thought it might be fun. I'd dreamed about singing for Disney since I was a little girl, but I'd never told anybody about it."
To meet the entry criteria, Hamilton wrote "Never Gonna Make It" about three days before the deadline. The song came to her while she was unloading groceries, took about 40 minutes to complete and caused her to miss one episode of her favorite TV show, "NYPD Blue." She taped it and a few other songs she did a cappella at a local church. From around 300 entries, she was among eight selected for the finals, held at a Sacramento bar. Underage and therefore not allowed in the main barroom, Hamilton, now 20, stewed backstage while listening to what sounded to her like some mighty talented competition before being ushered out for her debut. "I was competing against bands that already had CDs out and they sounded so good. I didn't think I had a chance," Hamilton said. "But I wound up winning and going on to the state competition at Knott's Berry Farm." State didn't go so well. Hamilton says she tortured her voice the day before -- being her usual boisterous self at an SDSU soccer game -- and couldn't sing. "I didn't want to use anything as an excuse and figured that it was fun while it lasted," Hamilton said. But the KNCI people approached her about pursuing a singing career and offered assistance. They've been working along those lines for almost a year. Mike Kelly, head of Electric Mike Productions, supervised the making of a Hamilton demo tape -- four songs, including her original -- that will be widely distributed. "Never Gonna Make It" is scheduled to hit the airwaves in Sacramento in late November or December and, with luck, expand from there. "Her voice has that distinct Appalachian quality of a young Patty Loveless," said Kelly. "The clarity just blew me away, and her pitch is astounding. A lot of singers are all over the place, but she is just naturally where she should be. "And I can tell when she sings that she loves what she's doing." Kelly said the immediate task for Hamilton is to "surround herself with good people" and steer a good career path. "She's already met some people who can help her, and she'll have to learn to be a good judge of character because there are so many sharks in the business," Kelly said. "She's such a sweet, nice person, and I'd hate to see anyone take advantage of that." Don Langford, director of marketing at KNCI, has been putting together material on Hamilton to send out to a variety of recording companies in hopes of generating contract interest. Langford served as a judge in the talent contest. A man with more than 30 years in the country music business, a past chairman of the Association of Country Music whose credits include helping Kenny Rogers make the transition from folk (with the First Edition) to country in the late '70s, Langford thought Hamilton was clearly the best raw talent in the contest. And he was amazed when he found out how raw the talent was. "For her to sing and perform like that the first time she'd ever been in public was very impressive," Langford said. Hamilton has no formal voice training, doesn't play an instrument (she's learning the guitar) and doesn't read music. But all that may mean is that she's got a lot in common with many established country stars. "To tell the truth, I hated country until my sophomore year in high school," Hamilton said. But she was exposed to the genre riding back and forth from Davis to Sacramento with the parents and sisters of her best friend (and SDSU soccer teammate) Kaycee McElree. Hamilton has been used mainly as a first-line substitute this season and has one goal and one assist for a team that is 10-5 overall, 3-1 in Mountain West Conference play and fresh off a 2-0 victory over No. 11 BYU last weekend at the ARCO Olympic Training Center. "She's one of the most energetic players we have," said SDSU coach Chuck Clegg. "She came to us as a forward and scored some goals, but we experimented at the beginning of the year with making her an attacking-type defender. But we decided that she belongs up front." The inevitable conflict between the worlds of singing and soccer came to a head about three weeks ago. Hamilton, convinced that the singing opportunities wouldn't keep much longer, decided to declare this, her junior season, her final season and her final semester at the school. Breaking the news wasn't easy -- first in a meeting with Clegg and his assistants, then to her teammates. "It was very emotional, especially for her," Clegg said. "Katie's such a loyal person and I think she felt like she was letting us down when in fact she wasn't letting us down at all. "When you pursue something this big, the opportunities are fleeting. I support her decision fully. We're better for having had her with us for three years. We love her to death. "And since the decision was made, since the weight has been off, she's played the best soccer of her life." Hamilton admits that making the decision was a great relief. "I've been playing soccer my entire life, singing I've just started, and it's a fresh start for me," Hamilton said. "If I don't jump at the chance now while something is right in my face, they're not going to wait two years for me. I'm going to miss soccer a lot, but I'm going to have memories from it to last a lifetime. "There are so many people out there that want to do the same thing I do. If I don't make it, there are so many other things that I want to do, singing can be a side job. We'll see what happens." |
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