CHASING THAT NEON RAINBOW

It's a story told time and again.

The lead character is a young man or woman who dreams of becoming of country music star. He or she practices constantly, marches into countless record companies, plays in honky tonks and considers quitting several times.

Finally, just as the hero is about to give up, a record executive appears. All that work leads to great fame and fortune!

The end.

It's a popular theme for television shows and big screen movies. Alan Jackson discussed it in one of his songs, which includes the line: "Chasing that neon rainbow, living that honky-tonk dream."

The story, except for its ending, is true for several musicians in Southeast Missouri. They work normal jobs during the day but spend their nights practicing or performing.

And for every one of them who signs a contract with a major record label, 10 others keep plugging away at their dreams.

"There are something like 400 contracts written in Nashville a year, but there are thousands trying to get them," said John Mills, a partner in Riverside Recording in Cape Girardeau. "And just because you sign doesn't mean you have instant success. Sometimes your album never gets marketed."

Mills helps market the talents who record in his small-town studio. He calls booking agents, types biographies and scrutinizes publicity photos.

Sometimes the work pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Many musicians give up after months or years of no deals.

"The people who stick it out have a spirit inside of them to do this, and it takes an awful lot to defeat that spirit," Mills said. "I would say the individual's will to do something plays a big role in this."

Dallas Pike is one who plugged away for decades, writing songs and playing his guitar. The rural Charleston native won't tell his age, but only admits he attended Woodstock in 1969.

He began playing the guitar at age 7 and writing songs at 12. Pike played with a number of bands, none of them very successful, and then settled down into a career of commercial photography. He opened a studio in St. Louis, but returned to Charleston to be nearer his aging parents.

Although photography took up most of his time, Pike performed once in awhile at local clubs, including Griffins and River City Yacht Club.

His interest in the events at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, on Aug. 21, 1992, led Pike back to songwriting. It was there that Sammy Weaver and his mother, Vicki Weaver, were shot by FBI agents.

Pike began studying the incident in 1995 and wrote a folk song about it. It opened his mind to other songs, he said.

After years in the photography business, he sold all his equipment and devoted his time to songwriting. The result was "Hero In Your Eyes," an eleven-song album with a folk/southern rock/country-western sound. Pike met with a record company in Nashville, Tenn., Wednesday about selling some of his songs.

"I've pitched to gazillions of record companies," he said. "It's like selling encyclopedias -- you just knock on doors until someone says, `Hmmm. I could use some of those.'"

In between meetings, Pike plays at writers' clubs in Nashville, hoping a song publisher or someone else in the music industry will hear him.

"I want you to turn on the radio one day and hear someone else doing my music and say, `I remember him when,'" he said.

The road isn't any easier for female artists, who also have to do the traveling and play the honky tonks.

Teresa Morrill is 30 years old and began her career in church -- "Doesn't everybody?" she said -- as a child. Her father first taught her to play the guitar; later, she took lessons from a nun.

Morrill's mother became her booking agent, looking for fairs and other events where her daughter could perform. In college, Morrill played with "The Associates," a band of attorneys who liked old rock 'n' roll.

Between gigs, she sang at weddings, sliced deli meats and sold shoes. Now she is a morning radio personality on KWKZ 106.1 FM in Cape Girardeau.

Her biggest break to date was at Riverfest, when she opened for the popular country band Lonestar. Thousands stopped to listen.

"Nobody threw tomatoes," Morrill joked.

"I'd like to do this for a living," she said. "It makes people happy. It's so cool to see someone mad at the world loosen up for a little while or see someone who's sad and make them smile."

Morrill is in the process of recording her first album at Riverside, which so far includes "Who Ya Gonna Run To," written by Scott City native Randy Liener, and two other original songs.