Summer Franklin, Celina Record

Celina teen working to become country music star Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Mar 3, 2016 In many ways, Summer Franklin is a typical teen. Last fall she was a princess on the freshman homecoming court at Celina High School, where she takes choir class and recently wrapped her first season playing on the varsity basketball team. In her free time, she is learning to drive, teaching herself to play guitar and occasionally singing at church. What is different about Summer, however, is that she also appears to be on the fast track to becoming the next big thing in country music. “It’s always been, like, a dream … but now that’s what I’m aiming for,” the 15-year-old said recently at the office of her father, Scott Franklin, owner of Bobcat Chiropractic, 1061 Preston Road, in Celina. Her debut EP album, a collection of a half-dozen cover songs aptly titled “Getting Ready To Fly,” dropped in September – just a few months after it was recorded at Beaird Music Group studios in Nashville. Cuts from the disc have been played on several online radio outlets as well as on “The Iceman Show,” an internationally syndicated radio program that features music by up-and-coming country artists. Last year, Summer’s album spent 12 weeks in the top spot on the European and International Independent Country Music Artists chart. Not bad for a girl who, until about a year ago, had not considered singing professionally. All of that changed, Scott Franklin said, after country music legend Randy Travis became a patient at Bobcat Chiropractic. Franklin said he and Travis struck up a friendship. He began making visits to the singer’s Tioga home with Summer in tow. There, the teen said, she met country music greats Charley Pride and Tanya Tucker. “I remember going to [Travis’] house after one of my soccer games,” Summer recalled, “and he had some of his friends over and they were all singing and stuff, and I really liked it. We sang (Lady Antebellum’s) ‘American Honey’ at his house.” Last year, according to Franklin, Travis offered one of his Nashville homes for the father and daughter to stay during a trip to Music City. Travis also arranged for the pair to visit the Grand Ole Opry, where – much to their surprise – the Franklins were introduced and brought on stage by members of The Oak Ridge Boys the same night that the legendary group was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. “It was a packed house,” Franklin recalled. Also during the trip, Summer said she got an itch to be recorded singing at a studio. She was able to do so thanks to her father’s friendship with Travis. Franklin said he was at first surprised to hear his daughter sing. “After about 15 minutes, she got kind of warmed up and comfortable with doing it, and you could just see this little switch turn on,” he said. “The [sound engineer] that was doing the recording … we just kind of looked at each other and it was like, ‘OK, she can do this.’” Last spring, the Franklins made a return trip to Nashville so Summer could lay down tracks for “Getting Ready To Fly.” It includes covers of the Dixie Chicks songs “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “Travelin’ Soldier,” as well the Miranda Lambert hit “The House That Built Me.” The album’s liner notes feature a comment from Travis, who called Summer “a well-rounded young lady.” He described her musical talent as “exciting and inspiring.” It’s a sentiment that is echoed by Joe Bonsall, frontman for The Oak Ridge Boys, who said, “Even when she is doing a cover her voice seems quite succinct, original and very much on pitch.” Bonsall said the teen’s musical abilities and work ethic will likely help her stand out in the crowded field of fledgling country artists. “Summer has the talent,” he said. “Time will tell if she can stay the course and make her dreams come true. I wouldn’t bet against her.” The teen’s music is available for download on Spotify, Amazon and ITunes. The latter also features Summer’s cover of the gospel standard “How Great Thou Art,” which she recorded last summer in Dallas. Summer, who has 10,000 Twitter followers (@summerfranklin_), signed a contract in February with a Nashville-based music producer who Franklin said is working to find his daughter an original song to record. “In the next couple of months we should have a song to do, and then we’ll make a date to go record,” he said. In the meantime, Franklin, who serves as Summer’s manager, is assembling her backing band and shuttling her to and from voice lessons as well as appointments with industry insiders who are helping the teen sculpt her stage presence and performance. Earlier this year, Summer ventured into acting when she and Franklin were cast as – what else? – father and daughter in an independent Western film called “C-Bar,” in which she sang an acapella version of “Amazing Grace.” With all of that going on in her life, the teen said she sometimes finds it “hard to stay on track.” Nevertheless, if stardom comes calling, Summer said she will be ready for it. “I was talking to my dad the other day, and I was like, ‘Hey, if we have to move to Nashville, that’s totally fine with me,’” she said. “It would be hard leaving my friends and totally turning my life upside down, but it’s worth it.”