‘Mother’ of ‘Bluegrass Baby’ to be in Bristol July 10

TOM NETHERLAND | SPECIAL TO THE HERALD COURIER
Published: July 3, 2008

Make it in Nashville. Michelle Cupit hopes to. She may well do so this year, next year, perhaps in five years or maybe never.

Whatever, see the bluegrass and country star-hopeful on July 10 at the Pickin’ Porch in the Bristol Mall. Signed to her husband’s namesake label, Cupit Records, Cupit comes bearing a new album and a trunk full of songs to sing.

“I’m going to go in and sing and hope they will enjoy it,” Cupit said by phone Tuesday from her home in Antioch, Tenn. “The majority of my show is from my CD.”

Cupit’s album “Bluegrass Baby” features bluegrass instrumentation and her Patty Loveless-influenced vocals. Written with her husband Jerry Cupit, the album serves as an entryway into her life.
“Quite a bit,” Cupit said. “One of the songs on my album, ‘That Ole Fiddle on the Wall,’ is about my daddy.”

Born in Arkansas and reared in Texas, Cupit owes much of her exposure to music to her late father, Emmitt Brinkley.

“My daddy played fiddle for Little Jimmy Dickens and Mel Street,” she said. “I was really shy when I was little, so my daddy bribed me to sing.”

Cupit sang at home and for family. Her father brought her on stage to sing. And she sang in school, including a particularly memorable performance in first grade.

“That didn’t go so well,” she said. “We had just moved to Texas. I was in music class. Our assignment was to sing our favorite song.”

Cupit’s favorite? Loretta Lynn’s “Don’t Come Home A Drinking (With Lovin’ On Your Mind).” That struck her teacher as downright shocking.

“The teacher yanked me up and sent me to the principal’s office,” Cupit said. “I got a paddling. Then my mother came up there like Loretta Lynn and said she’d yank their hair out.”

Years and many stages later helped hone her performance chops. Time passed, she met and married Jerry Cupit and still had no record deal.

“When my husband wrote a song called ‘Field of Stone,’ he asked me to demo it [a basic blueprint-like recording used to help persuade others to record the song], and people liked it,” Cupit said. “He thought I should do a bluegrass album.”

And bingo, Cupit birthed “Bluegrass Baby.”

“It’s real music,” said the large-voiced singer. “I hope to be successful, and I hope to get my music out there so people will know who I am. I don’t want much, do I?”

If each album serves as a brick in the foundation of a well-constructed career, Cupit’s appears well designed thus far. She recently appeared at the prestigious Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Indiana. Bookings are growing.

Cupit’s career builds one show at a time, yet many fans know little to nothing about her. Daunting, yes, but a challenge worth taking, she said.

“When I go on stage, I give my very best,” Cupit said. “When I go on stage, I try to give them myself.”

IF YOU GO
Who: Michelle Cupit
When: July 10, 7 p.m.
Where: The Pickin’ Porch, Bristol Mall, 500 Gate City Hwy., Bristol, Va.
Tickets: Free
Info: (276) 645-0035
Web: http://www.michellecupit.com

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .