'She's gonna be a star:' Hoover teen Bailey Ingle in hot pursuit of country music career

Everyone has defining moments in their lives, and for Hoover teen Bailey Ingle, one of those moments was Aug. 23, 2014, when she got to sing on stage with country superstar Keith Urban at the Oak Mountain Amphitheatre.

Ingle, who had just turned 15 two months before, won a radio competition with 102.5 The Bull and got to sing Urban’s song “We Were Us” with him in front of about 11,000 people.

That moment in the spotlight changed her life.

“As soon as I sang with Keith Urban, it was like, there’s nothing else I want to do,” said Ingle, who is now a 16-year-old junior at Hoover High School and steadfastly pursuing a career in music.

Ingle has always loved singing. She sang the national anthem at a Birmingham Barons game when she was 11 and sang in the show choir, talent shows and holiday shows at Bumpus Middle School. She wrote her first song when she was 13 after her grandmother died.

Turning point

But singing with Urban was definitely a turning point, said her mother, Teresa Ingle.

Ever since, Bailey has been eager to sing wherever she can, going to restaurants and bars across the Birmingham area — and even in Tennessee, Florida and Georgia.

“I usually have one to two shows a weekend,” she said. “I rarely don’t have a show on a weekend … I’ve been going like crazy it seems like.”

While other teenagers are going to parties or to the movies, Bailey is working on her craft. Sometimes you can find her at Beef ‘O’ Brady’s at The Grove shopping center, but she also has sung at Margarita Grill in Pelham, Fish Hook Seafood & Steaks in Bessemer, The Coal Yard in Helena, Vecchia Pizzeria and Mercato in The Preserve, and The Boot at Preserve Village.

“I don’t go anywhere or do anything other than singing,” she said. “But I love it. This is what I want to do. I want to be a country singer.”

In March of last year, she sang at a bar called Shenanigan’s in Georgia, and this past summer, she sang at Pompano Joe’s in Destin. She has been six or seven times to open mic night at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, a famous honky-tonk across the alley from Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. It was there that she ran into some people who wrote songs sung by Blake Shelton and Brad Paisley, she said.

“It was awesome,” she said. “They told me not to stop — that I would get my shot.”

Ingle now is in the process of recording her first album with a company called By Still Water in Cullman. It probably will have seven or eight original songs on it, and maybe a few covers, she said.

Ingle has written about 15 songs, and her mother has helped her on a lot of them. If she’s inspired, sometimes she can write a song in a night, but other times, it may take several weeks, she said.

Her preference is to sing country music. Some of her favorite singers are Kacey Musgraves, Miranda Lambert and Carrie Underwood. But Ingle realizes not everybody likes country, so she also takes other types of musicians’ songs and puts her own spin on them to help reach a larger fan base, she said.

Building your own fan base is a big part of making it in today’s music industry, her mother said.

From YouTube videos to Instagram and Twitter accounts, “it’s all about social media — getting your name out there and building a fan base,” Teresa Ingle said. “Now musicians have to build their own fan base before a record company will sponsor them.”

Parental support

Bailey’s parents have to go with her to the bars because of her age, but Teresa Ingle said she has been surprised how open people have been to having Bailey come and sing.

“Her father and I are both really proud of her,” Teresa Ingle said. “She works really hard.”

Taking their daughter around to sing all the time wasn’t in their plans a couple of years ago, but “I feel great about it,” her dad, Tim Ingle, said. “With any of our kids, if a kid has a passion, we’ll support it 100 percent.”

Bailey has always been confident being in front of people and has a magnetic personality that lights up a room, her parents said. So that part of it is not surprising to them.

They do, however, support the idea of Bailey going on to college after high school to get a degree. Bailey said right now, she plans to go to Belmont University in Nashville and major in songwriting or the music business.

But, as a big fan of the “Criminal Minds” TV show, she also might like to work in the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit, she said. “In 20 years, if I’m not singing, I’ll be in Quantico in Virginia,” she said.

Some people at school give her a hard time about her music pursuits, calling it a long shot or a pipe dream, but others support her and are excited for her, she said.

“I won’t let people who don’t believe in me get me down,” she said. They may be right about not making it in the music business, “but nevertheless, I’m still going to work for it.”

This past summer, she was finally old enough to audition for “American Idol,” where Urban is a judge. She got through three preliminary rounds but never made it to the judges’ table, she said.

“It was the hardest process ever,” Ingle said. “But it was a wonderful experience. It was a lot of fun.”

‘Young, pure heart’

When asked what she likes about singing, Ingle said she just enjoys being on stage and watching people smile and sing along with her. She usually sings for two to three hours at a time, she said. 

“It’s like I have two to three hours to distract someone from all the world, and somehow they’re benefiting from something I love to do,” she said.

Ingle has been to Nashville six to eight times to see Renee Grant-Williams, a vocal coach who has worked with artists such as Urban, Underwood, the Dixie Chicks, Jason Aldean, Miley Cyrus, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Larry Gatlin, Charlie Daniels, Garth Brooks and Christina Aguilera.

Grant-Williams said Ingle is a lovely girl with a lovely voice. “She has an excitement about music that’s hard to top, and definitely she works hard,” Grant-Williams said.

Ingle is ambitious in her pursuit of a music career, but “it comes from a genuine love of making music,” Grant-Williams said. “She is interested in not simply becoming a star.”

Ingle is charming and talented, which works in her favor, but luck also plays a certain role in making it in this business, Grant-Williams said.

“I’ve known very talented people who have done all the right things in all the right order — had all the right credentials — and never had a successful career in terms of what they wanted to accomplish with their career,” she said.

Sometimes, it just takes some luck and a good break, but aspiring artists multiply their chances by the time and work they put into it, and Ingle gets extra points for being resourceful, Grant-Williams said.

“I’m very impressed by the amount of effort she puts into performing and writing,” Grant-Williams said. “Plus, she’s a pretty girl, and that never hurts.”

Lisa “Roxanne” Richardson, a morning show host on the WDJC Christian radio station in Birmingham who has been in radio and TV for more than 20 years, said she has seen a lot of musicians during her career, and Ingle blew her mind when she saw her January performance at the Hoover Library Plaza.

“What I saw was a young, pure heart. What I saw was a talent that is beyond her youth. What I saw was a star. I was so inspired by her,” Richardson said. “Her physical beauty doesn’t hurt, but she’s got all the talent to back it up. She’s gonna be a star. You can feel it.”

The one thing Richardson would recommend is that Ingle take more time to talk to her audience in between songs. She’s a charming girl, and it would be great to hear more from her heart, Richardson said.

“I just thought she was sensational,” Richardson said. “Somebody’s gonna grab her up quick. I hope she remembers us.”

This article was updated at 10:35 a.m. on April 14 to correct the names of a couple of places where Ingle has sung.