Chasing the dream

Madelyn Abrameit strives to be the best she can be

It’s one thing to dream.

But it’s another thing to give it your all to make it come true.

Madelyn Abrameit, a very young and gifted singer, gave it her all in the hopes of meeting her idol recently, and she came within a whisper’s breath of making that dream a reality.

And though she came up just short, the experience instilled within her a motivation to work harder to hone her skills in the hopes of becoming the best she can be.

Twelve-year-old Madelyn, who is a devoted fan of country music legend Loretta Lynn, was runner-up in a recent competition to meet and perform with the superstar.

“It was a fun experience for me,” she says of the national karaoke-style contest called “So you think you sing like Conway and Loretta.” “I went up there and sang ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man’ by Loretta Lynn. I thought I did pretty good.”

Since the event, Madelyn has continued sharing her talents with the public — whether it’s the customers of her family’s restaurant in Belmont or other area venues.

“I sing here (at the Belmont Social Club) a lot on the weekends,” she says. “My home turf is a good place to practice, and the audiences are great.”

Seated at a table and clutching cold Big Red sodas inside the rustic, dimly-lit, mesquite-smoked Belmont Social Club, Madelyn and her older sister Katie recall the trip their family made to Hurricane Mills, Tenn., to meet the country music icon.

“My sister was rolling through Facebook and saw something about a Loretta Lynn competition, and she told me about it,” Madelyn recalls. “I looked it up, and there was a selection of songs of Loretta’s. I chose ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough’.”

Madelyn says the ranch was everything she hoped it would be, and more.

“We went to Loretta Lynn’s ranch, which is a tourist destination for her fans,” she says. “You can walk through her house and see all kinds of memorabilia – mementos from her career. They were having an exhibit debut about Conway Twitty, because he and Loretta were duet partners. So the contest part of this whole weekend that they were having, they had Loretta contestants, Conway contestants and duet contestants.”

Katie fondly recalls what can be best described as “coming as close as you can get,” in meeting one of Loretta Lynn’s children.

“We were talking to Patsy Lynn, one of Loretta’s daughters, and she was saying that they had over 100 people enter the contest,” she says. “That in itself was exhilarating. I don’t think a hundred actually showed up, but there were still quite a few out there for Madelyn to compete with.”

“I was the youngest of the competitors,” Madelyn elaborates. “The rest were in their teens, 20s and beyond.”

Perhaps what made the contest so tough was the fact that there was only one prize. In this case, it was first (getting to meet Lynn), despite having three different categories.

“Sadly, they didn’t pick a winner from each of the three categories,” Katie says. “They only picked one overall winner, who turned out to be a guy who sang the most like Conway Twitty. So, he got to go onstage during the Loretta Lynn concert that night, and met her.”

“Loretta was going to see the videos of our performances, however,” Madelyn iterates. “So she’s still going to know I love her!”

So who was Madelyn’s first singer to ever sing along with on a recording?

Madelyn squints a bit, then rolls back her edgewood blue eyes in contemplation.

“It had to have been Shania Twain,” she says. “I was 4 years old, I think. Man, that was a long time ago.”

“No, the first song was ‘God Fearing Women,’ by Martina McBride,” Katie chimes in with a chuckle. “You learned to sing that song really well, right along with the CD.

“When my dad first heard her, he took her to our grandma’s house,” Katie continues. ”She sat in the living room and sang for her. After grandma heard her, she pulled out one of her Loretta Lynn CDs. Madelyn learned every song off that CD in a week or two.

“Our grandpa had an old amplifier with a microphone plugged into it, and she sang into that along with every song off the CD,” Katie adds. “Then he gave her the gear. She brings out a whole new personality when she’s in front of a microphone.”

Madelyn nods in acknowledgement. “And I’m now taking vocal lessons, and have taken a little bit of guitar lessons from different people,” she says. “I learned a lot of chords out of a guitar chord book.”

Madelyn gets to travel around quite a bit as she makes appearances at various venues in South Texas, and she’s becoming a regular attraction on its busy music scene.

“In Geronimo, there’s a country music show that’s held called ‘The Gathering,’ which I’ve sang at before and had a lot of fun,” she says. “It’s held about once a month. It’s like a big dance, and features a live band. Three or four singers will get up and sing songs, like Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette. I love to do that.”

Madelyn also performs at the Comal Country Music Show in New Braunfels, the Silver Center in Seguin, and other venues in towns like Brenham, Edna, Floresville and many other places.

“I’ll be singing at the fair in Seguin this weekend, and will be singing the National Anthem at the rodeo in Seguin,” she eagerly declares.

When it comes to certain artists who consistently succeed in getting their message across, Madelyn has quite a selection of people to whom she can relate.

“Miranda Lambert is exceptional,” she says. “I like those singers who stick up for women, and promote happy relationships. Loretta Lynn was so good at that. Carrie Underwood is amazing, too. Martina McBride is great. Blake Shelton writes wonderful tunes. And don’t forget Linda Rondstandt.”

So what advice does Madelyn have to offer to other aspiring singers and musicians?

“Never stop, even when things get tough,” she says. “Always strive to be the best you can be.”