At the age of only 15, former Licking resident Alyson Greene has two things going for her that put her in a position any kid her age would love to be in.
She’s a high school graduate and is in the process of pursuing a career as a country music singer, songwriter and musician.
Greene (who goes by her stage name – her family and friends she made in Licking also know her as Allison Ann Green) was home schooled and finished high school earlier this year while still only 14. She has been a resident of Camdenton for the past few months, where she lives with her father, Clarence Green (who is also her grandfather; he adopted her along with his late wife, who died just after Greene’s fourth birthday).
The budding star recently inked a management contract with Arkansas resident Doug Deforest (a.k.a. Doug Driesel), a Texas County native and graduate of Houston High School who produces and is the on-camera personality for the weekly TV show “Downtown Houston After Hours” (which can be seen Sunday mornings on Springfield’s KOZL channel 27). DeForest has produced music for numerous artists and has recorded with many others, including Mickey Gilley, Pam Tillis, Ray Price and even Sammy Davis Jr.
The connection between the young troubadour and her manager can be traced to a mutual acquaintance Greene and her father made at church a couple of years ago. Managing isn’t usually on Deforest’s to-do list, but he felt led to make an exception for Greene.
“I might be helpful in this situation,” he said. “I don’t normally like to manage, but right now she needed the direction.”
Deforest believes Greene may well have something special to offer the country music world.
“You see people and you wonder if they have – as they said in the movie ‘City Slickers’ – that ‘one thing,’” he said. “Nobody knows what that one thing is, because everybody’s eye is different. But when I look at Alyson, I look at her tenacity and her growth in the last three years, and I notice something I call ‘a different soup.’
“It’s taking someone with a bluegrass-leaning voice, putting it with real modern country, and making a soup nobody has eaten before. Hopefully they’ll enjoy the taste.”
Greene co-writes some songs with Deforest and he writes others for her, too. But she also writes lots of songs all on her own – 50 so far.
“You just get random inspiration,” she said. “It just hits you and you’ve got to write it down.”
Sometimes Deforest will look over Greene’s songs and tweak them a bit. The writer usually likes the outcome.
“He can take my worst songs and make them sound like hits,” Greene said.
The young artist’s story started taking shape when she was still a toddler.
“I started playing guitar when I was about seven, but I started singing when I was three,” Greene said. “I started playing by ear, and took a few voice lessons, but not much. I started out singing gospel and bluegrass, and I listened to The Daltons and The Isaacs and all those famous people. Then I slowly worked my way into country and that’s where we’re going for now.”
“She’s pretty much self-taught,” Clarence Green said.
When Greene first sang before an audience, she was almost three years old. She walked up to the front of a church, reached up to the preacher for the microphone, and proceeded to deliver a spot-on a cappella rendition of “Amazing Grace.”
Her second performance occurred at the age of six at the Gospel Barn in Somerset, Ky.
“They were supposed to have some big-name band on stage, but their bus broke down on the other side of the state,” Greene said. “They were like, ‘can you sing for 30 minutes?’ I said ‘yeah, or an hour or whatever you need.’
“I got up there and it was just me and the microphone for about 30 minutes.”
“She got three standing ovations,” Clarence Green said.
Using “Country Girl Cadillac” (her first self-penned tune written when she was 10), Greene placed high at talent competitions in three different states, including a win at an event in Tennessee. Word of mouth has spread knowledge of her prowess far and wide, resulting in appearances in 12 states, mostly east of the Mississippi River.
“Wherever she’d get a call from, I’d take her,” Clarence Green said.
“We’d be in Indiana and have to go to Georgia, and then come back here,” Greene said.
When she was 10, Greene played mandolin at a gig with The Daltons. She has appeared on radio and television programs in several states, and this summer will be featured in an article in Nashville-based Validity Magazine.
Greene said she’s heard people on multiple occasions say “you’re so lucky!” with regard to her status as a 15-year-old girl living the dream of being a high school graduate and a rising presence on the music scene.
“But I let them know it’s not all just easy,” she said. “I tell them I’ve worked my butt off.”
But while it might not be easy, Greene enjoys what she’s doing – in a big way.
“This is really cool,” she said. “We’ve been doing a lot with shooting videos and recording – I’m excited about it.”
A video of Greene’s song “Waiting on the Whiskey” is being shot here in Houston at locations including a graveyard and Bob’s Barber Shop on Grand Avenue. She and Deforest recently completed another video in Nashville.
“It’s a lot of work,” Greene said. “You have to be really enthused about it, even when you’re doing the same thing over and over. But it’s fun and it’s worth it.”
Deforest was instrumental in getting the video productions set up and done.
“He knows everybody,” Greene said.
“I do,” Deforest said. “I hate to say stuff like that because it sounds so egotistical, but I’m 52 and I’ve been doing this since I was 11, so I better know somebody after 41 years.”
At this point, Clarence Green figures things affecting his daughter’s future in music are moving in the right direction. To help keep things going in that direction, he bought a 33-foot RV a couple of years ago that was previously owned by a well-known traveling gospel group.
Even at her tender age, Greene has grown to appreciate her situation.
“It’s awesome,” she said. “It’s like, all your hard work’s paying off.”
“This has been an interesting and awesome journey,” Clarence Green said. “But Doug’s got this on the fast track now and we’re looking forward to where it goes from here.
“I’m sure it will work out, because Doug and Alyson are both very dedicated to their music. I’m behind both of them.”
“We’re working on it,” Greene said.
“It’s all about the soup,” Deforest said. “We’re looking for that song that has the right ingredients, so radio eats it up and people go, ‘now that’s the one.’”
It’s a lot of work. You have to be really enthused about it, even when you’re doing the same thing over and over. But it’s fun and it’s worth it.”