Wishing on a star

Bremen pre-teen, family work on building singing career

By Gail Crutchfield

BREMEN — Greg Harrison said he and his wife, Darlene, hear it all the time. "Now, did I hear you correctly? Did you say she was only 11 years old?"

People are amazed, he said, when they hear their now 12-year-old daughter Jordan belt out a country song. On Tuesday, she'll visit Children's Hospital in Birmingham to entertain patients and staff there. Then, at the end of the week, the family — including older sister Jessica, 16, and younger sister Morgan, 7, — will head to Nashville. Jordan will be performing three one-hour shows at the national convention of the Gold Wind Road Rider's Association at the Opryland Hotel.

Jordan made her first public performance in the fourth grade when she sang as a reigning queen at a Corner school pageant. She was then asked to sing at the high school pageant later that night, said her father, who teaches at Corner High School. Darlene Harrison teaches at Sumiton.

While that was her first public performance, Jordan's parents said she always loved to sing, even before she developed her strong and talented voice.

Her love of country music came naturally, passed down from her grandfather, the late Coy Harrison, and her father.

"My dad kept her when she was little," Greg said. "The next thing we knew, she was hooked on coffee and country music."

Her "Pop" taught her many of the old country music songs by Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton.

"He would sing them to me and told me he wanted me to learn them eventually," Jordan said.

She also learned some of Tammy Wynette's songs, but many of those, like D-I-V-O-R-C-E, didn't fit an 8-year-old girl.

She would also sing, and quite loudly, in church, her mother said.

"When she was little and singing in the congregation at church, we told her not to sing so loud, so that God could hear everybody, but mainly because she sang so poorly," Darlene said with a laugh.

Jordan was born tongue-tied and had inner ear problems. Both contributed to her early lack of singing skills. Both were fixed when she was 10 months old, eliminating the need for speech therapy as she aged.

"And now she hasn't shut up since," Greg said.

"She sings all the time," said Darlene. "In the shower, in the car, everywhere."

Greg said no matter how bad a day he's had, he can come home, sit on the couch downstairs and listen as she sings in the loft above the living room.

As her voice developed, she began singing where she could, from area restaurants in Cullman and Walker county to famous venues in Nashville.

One weekend, Greg and Jordan decided to make a quick trip to Nashville, and went to the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge that afternoon to listen to the music being performed there. A woman who recognized Greg and knew Jordan sang asked the audience if there were any young people in crowd who would like to sing. Jordan quickly volunteered and took the same stage where countless country music artists performed before and after they made it big. She performed a Pasty Cline song, and so impressed those listening that she was asked to sing with a band at another venue later that evening.

Greg said along with people's amazement at her vocal ability, there is sometimes doubt as to who is really singing.

At a recent event in Dothan, he said a man approached the stage and began looking at the sound system. Greg said he asked the man if he could help him and was told he was, "just looking" at the system. With a little more prodding, the man admitted, 'I don't believe that's her singing,' Greg said.

Wanting to prove his daughter's talent, Greg found Jordan where he knew she would be, where there was food.

"I said, 'Come on, you need to sing for this man,'" he said.

She began singing and he the cut music off part of the way through the song, urging her to continue singing. Then he turned her microphone off, so the man could hear only the background music on the CD.

Jordan said she wants a career in music and that she loves being on stage. But she also wants to be a lawyer.

"Her third-grade teacher told us she would argue with the wall if it would talk back," Darlene said of her honor student.

For now, they are concentrating on singing when they can and developing her performance. She'll get more practice and exposure at the Nashville convention.

Her parents, who ride motorcycles, found the convention online and wrote to organizers about having her perform. While it is a convention for bikers, Greg said it won't be a bunch of hard-drinking revelers out in the middle of field. This event will be held in one of the hotel's large convention rooms.

"I'm always looking for somewhere a little upsclae for her to perform," he said.