Rodeo inspires Sikeston man to enter country music contest

SIKESTON — Sikeston may have its own country star in the making, thanks to a little inspiration from the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo.

Andrew Powell is competing in "The Next GAC Star" contest, a competition created by the cable country music channel Great American Country.

"It's been amazing," Powell said.

Participants enter their music videos on the Next GAC Star's Web site, www.gactv.com, and are voted on by fans and a panel of judges, who each pick a separate winner every week. The two winners go on to be semifinalists in the contest. There are 16 semifinalists total. This is the fifth week of the eight-week online competition.

Powell wrote his song, "My Hometown Rodeo," about the Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo.

He said he was inspired to write his song two years ago while the rodeo was in town. He began writing it but never got around to finishing it. He said getting "reinspired to finish" writing the song was the hardest part.

Powell said he often plays guitar at home, playing cover songs or his own material. After showing his half-finished song to a friend, he finally completed his song about a month ago. When he sang "My Hometown Rodeo" for his family, they couldn't believe he wrote it.

"They thought I got it off the radio or something," Powell said.

They immediately encouraged him to enter the GAC contest. With the help of friend and fellow musician Brian Fisk, Powell created and starred in his music video, filmed at the Sikeston rodeo grounds.

"We went out there with a few ideas of what we wanted to do, but we didn't have any set plan," he said. "If an idea came to us, we just ran with it."

Powell officially entered "The Next GAC Star" contest Tuesday afternoon. Within 24 hours, he was at the top of the chart. Powell stayed at that No. 1 spot for two and a half days before the rest of the field closed the gap. However, if he regains the lead at the end of this round on Monday, he will be a semifinalist.

"Earlier I saw that my video was in the popular artist tab, and I just thought it was cool to even be on that. It was kind of overwhelming. I just wish more people could have seen it when it was rated No. 1 in the nation," Powell said.

After the 16 semifinalists are named, a panel of celebrity judges will narrow the group down to six finalists. Those six will go to Nashville, Tenn., for the televised competition in September. The overall winner will be picked by fan votes. The winner will have their video featured on GAC and the channel's Web site and will receive a recording contract with an original song.

While Powell hopes to go all the way in the competition, he's never really considered going professional before.

Music is "something I've always really enjoyed but never thought I was that great at, especially as far as making it a career," he said. "I'm a little surprised at myself."

And although he is still in shock from his success, he will definitely seize the opportunity if it is presented to him.

"If I land this, of course I'm going to run with it," he said.

Powell added that he is especially thankful to the Jaycees for letting him shoot his video at the rodeo grounds, and to Fisk and Sikeston High School TV productions teacher Steve Beydler for helping him with his video.