‘Little Frank’ is just like one of the guys — only she’s a 12-year-old girl

By Melanie Tucker
of The Daily Times Staff

The backup band includes musicians like Pickle, Water Dog, Brother Dud and Red Hog.

So when they started working with 12-year-old Laurel Wright, a fiery singer-songwriter and guitarist from Maryville who loves center stage, they had to give her the perfunctory nickname, too. It’s what musicians do.

So meet Little Frank.

“They call me that because they said I’m just like one of the guys,” Laurel explained.
Laurel has been playing the guitar since she was 10 and singing in church a lot longer. She loves country music singer Taylor Swift, sounds a bit like Patsy Cline and hopes to see you in the audience Saturday at the Strawberry Jam on Maple Lane Farm in Greenback.

This rising eighth-grader at Carpenters Middle School, will be performing at 1 p.m. Saturday. She has written songs of her own that she will sing, and plans to throw in some Janis Joplin, Pasty Cline and other favorites. The band includes Dwight “Water Dog” Waters on lead guitar, Eddie Simerly on drums, Mike “Pickle” Johnson on electric guitar, Jim “Brother Dud” on bass guitar and great uncle Ricky “Red Hog” Gourley on banjo.

This will probably be Laurel’s biggest audience so far. “I would rather perform in front of a thousand people versus only one or two,” she said. “I never get nervous.”

She was invited to sing at Strawberry Jam after mom Lori Wright gave Maple Lane Farm owner Bob Schmidt a CD of Laurel’s work. Laurel was actually skipping school the day the chance meeting with Schmidt took place.

Forty minutes of Laurel’s time on stage will be those original songs and country favorites. The other 20 minutes will be given to the band so they can share some bluegrass.

This spirited artist said she owes a lot to the many musicians she has met, including people like drummer Steve Martin and guitar maker Mark Mincy who recently played alongside her at Music Row in Maryville. He gave her one of his older guitars as a gift.

As for her nickname, “it’s perfect,” she said. “I love it.”