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DEL.ICIO.US“Rhythm in Life After Sports”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Pop in the disc.
Close your eyes.
You might “hear” Stevie Nicks. It’s not. It’s the voice of Kristin Tinsley, an aspiring songwriter and guitarist. She has released a debut CD - “Cry Out to the Night.” It gets airplay on HounddogRadio.net, a broadcast Internet site that caters to independent artists often shunned by mainstream radio.
“I started singing at the age of 4,” Tinsley, 24, told me, “but pursued athletics instead because it just seemed easier to get into.”
These days, you can catch her performances at venues across metro Atlanta. Locally, she hosts as well as plays for Open Mic Atlanta, the Gwinnett version of which takes place 8:30 to 11:30 p.m. Tuesdays at Nemo’s Tavern in Norcross.
Tinsley, a Georgia native, graduated in 2001 from Cherokee County’s Etowah High. There, she excelled at volleyball, good enough, even, to play for the Junior Olympics volleyball program. Good enough to land a scholarship to Valdosta State University. Defense was her specialty; she started as a freshman.
Still, life was off cue.
Early on, she’d put singing on hold to concentrate on softball in elementary school, then cheerleading in middle school and through her freshman year in high school. Then came volleyball.
After her 2001 season at Valdosta State, Tinsley returned to metro Atlanta. She picked up the guitar, too, and taught herself to play. Then she gave volleyball another run, this time at Georgia Southern University. Her writing and guitar playing continued.
Two years later, she returned to Woodstock and enrolled briefly at Kennesaw State University. She also made another decision, one that so many of us find difficult. She became serious about her passion. Open mic venues became her outlet. They led to solo bookings.
Last year, she released “Cry Out to the Night.” Though she’s a fan of Nicks and other 1970s artists, the CD has no covers. She wrote, produced and played guitar on all 10 original songs.
Eric Jefferson, a Hounddog host and musician, has had Tinsley on his weekly show, “The Cybertoxic Lounge.”
“I have heard some of the newer music she;s working on and it’s a step beyond her current CD,” he told me. “Stevie Nicks is her No. 1 idol, but as she matures, she’ll even break more from that and find her own unique style.”
I could barely hear Tinsley when we talked on the phone Sunday. Music blared. She was at a breast cancer research benefit at èlon Salon, her part-time employer, in Marietta. She’d booked the musicians and organized the entire fundraiser. That’s another thing about Tinsley, Jefferson said.
Her heart is just as impressive as her music.
For information about Kristin Tinsley, visit www.kristintinsley.com. Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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