Georgia Lottery sends four local musical acts to Hollywood
Four Georgia musical acts are packing their bags for Hollywood – but not for anything involving “American Idol.”
No, these artists are winners of the Georgia Lottery’s All Access Music Search, a contest held in conjunction with the music-themed instant lottery game All Access.
On Saturday, a judging panel of renowned Atlanta music stars – producer Dallas Austin, singers Monica and Shawn Mullins and Zac Brown Band multi-instrumentalist Clay Cook – in conjunction with online public voting, determined the quartet of winners from a dozen finalists. Auditions were held last fall in Atlanta, Columbus, Macon and Savannah.
The four victors now head to Hollywood to record a song at Capitol Studios in the famed Capitol Records Tower.
The winners:
Hannah Thomas (country): Hailing from Covington, Thomas kick-started her career at open mic nights at Eddie's Attic. Her debut, "The Rest is Yet to Come," was released independently in 2009.
KidSyc@Brandywine (hip-hop): KidSyc, an art teacher in Savannah, and bandmates Brandywine (Charles Hodge, Daniel Butler, Lane Gardner and Derrick Larry) are known for profanity-free lyrics set to innovative hip-hop.
Hear: www.reverbnation.com/kidsycbrandywine
Xavier Lewis (pop/R&B): Referring to himself as "The Antidote to R&B," the Loganville resident grew up singing in gospel choirs and is a seasoned touring artist. His debut CD is due this year.
Hear: www.xavierlewis.com/home.html
theKey (rock): The quintet from Macon (Clay Scott, Josh Harnevious, Ryan Cunningham, Rachel Scott and Jonathan Wisdom) has drawn comparisons to Coldplay and Matchbox Twenty because of its melodic sounds and harmonizing.
About the Author
Melissa Ruggieri has covered music and entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2010 and created the Atlanta Music Scene blog. She's kept vampire hours for more than two decades and remembers when MTV was awesome.
