Songstress Elaina Kay, Celina Record

Songstress Elaina Kay working her way toward stardom Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com May 20, 2016 Wichita Falls native Elaina Kay brings her "Texas ranch rock 'n' roll" sound today to the Celina Farmers Market Friday Nights on the Square. Elaina Kay isn’t much for settling down in one place. “I literally move all the time,” said the singer-songwriter who is set to perform at this week’s Celina Farmers Market Friday Night on the Square. Case in point: Next month, the Wichita Falls native (who drops her last name, Crumpler, when performing) plans to pack up and move out of the Weatherford house where she has been staying. Where Elaina Kay will land is anyone’s guess. “I’ll find somewhere,” she said. Don’t shed a tear for 26-year-old Elaina Kay, who said she doesn’t mind living out of a suitcase as long as she’s on the road performing her brand of “Texas ranch rock ‘n’ roll” music at small venues throughout the Lone Star state, as well as in Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado. “I’m just never home,” she said, “which is awesome because it’s good to be busy.” Elaina Kay, who was raised on a ranch, said she has sung and written songs most of her life. “I’ve always said that music and songwriting saved my life,” she said. “I don’t think I would have gotten through half of the things that I went through growing up and later in life it I weren’t able to write about them. … It’s just always been my escape and my outlet.” Surprisingly, however, she didn’t pick up a guitar until she was in high school. “I didn’t want to be the girl that had to get a guy to play guitar for her,” she said. So, while studying psychology at Tarleton State University in Stephenville (where she was also a member of the rodeo team), she sequestered herself in her dorm room “long enough to get good at it.” These days, Elaina Kay usually hits the road for gigs with her four- or five-piece piece backing band, drawing comparisons to such female country music stars as Miranda Lambert and others along the way. “I’ve been compared to all sorts of stuff,” she said, “but I try to just go for my own thing. I’m not trying to mimic anyone else.” It is difficult, she said, “to be a girl in this (music) scene,” she said. “You really have to bring it, especially with your live shows.” Last year Elaina Kay recorded a self-titled EP of six songs, on which she collaborated with Oklahoma-bred Red Dirt music star Mike McClure. “He just took me on. He’s like an uncle to me now,” she said. The EP was recorded in part at McClure's studio in Ada, Oklahoma, and completed at an Arlington studio belonging to producer/guitarist Jude Dyllan. A single from the release, called “Masquerade,” reached the No. 34 spot on the Texas Regional Radio Report charts earlier this year. Elaina Kay has previously served as the opening act for several of her musical idols, including country singer Kyle Park and the group Whiskey Myers. “When you go from being a fan to just another artist in the scene, it’s pretty cool,” she said. The next step, she said, is to become a headlining act. “My goal … is to really branch out and tour the U.S. I want to be on the (tour) bus and traveling the world,” she said. “It’s been mind-blowing just in the past year what we’ve accomplished.”