After taking her talent to California, Heidi Eubanks is back in Fredericksburg performing her original music. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
Fredericksburg High School alum Heidi Eubanks performs with her mother, Kathy Bauer, and as a solo at area clubs and jam sessions. Eubanks will appear this Saturday afternoon, June 6, at Silver Creek Saloon. For information, email eubanks.heidi@yahoo.com. Listen to her music at www.myspace.com/music, search “Heidi Eubanks.”

webmaster: phil@fullhouseproductions.net

Heidi Eubanks

by Phil Houseal
June 3, 2009

“In California, there is a blonde girl with green eyes from Texas singing on every single corner, trying to get noticed.”

So blonde-haired, green-eyed Texan Heidi Eubanks decided to return to Fredericksburg and work on her songwriting career right here in the Hill Country. California’s loss; local music fans’ gain.

The Fredericksburg High School graduate is carrying on a family tradition. Her mother, Kathy Bauer, sang a charted country hit back in the 1970s - “Hold Me Until The Last Waltz is Over” - even beating out Elvis by 12 places in the Top 100.

Then five kids came along, including Heidi. “It was like the Von Trapps - our whole family sings,” Eubanks explained. But only Heidi, who still sings with her mom, felt the desire to make it a career. “No one else really wanted to take it anywhere, but I always wanted to sing.”

Eubanks - whom many may remember for her roles in local high school theater productions - started out studying theater (you can see her in the role of Maizy in the upcoming Seussical at Fredericksburg Theater Company). But the bubbly beauty discovered that acting was not her first love.

“Theater is fun, because you can be someone else, and do something crazy and stupid and have an excuse for it,” she said. “But I like being able to affect people from my own experiences as opposed to someone else’s that I’m portraying. I like being able to tell my story.”

She began telling her story at age 4, when she made up her first songs. She started singing even earlier. Eubanks has a recording she made with her mother when she was only 2 years old. While the songs she performs with her mother are straight country, Eubanks considers her own sound more in the style of Nora Jones, Alison Krauss, or Jewel. She took her sound to California to try reaching a larger audience.

“I wanted to branch out and see if I could make it somewhere else,” she said. She learned a lot, but also realized how much competition is out there. “I had my ups and downs.”

In California, Eubanks did get into a recording studio, received some direction, and learned more about the marketing side of the music industry. Eubanks even tried the American Idol route. At the San Francisco auditions, she got through three of the four rounds.

“It was a huge cattle call,” she said. “They had hundreds of us lined up singing, separated by curtains. You get 30 seconds. It was a little demeaning,  but fun. But then, any experience is fun for me.”

Eubanks also learned about the grind of performing in a bar band every night. It is an experience she does not regret. She just does not want to do it anymore.

“When you are younger you think, oh, I’m going to be famous!” she said. “Oh my gosh, it’s hard. Singing in bars doesn’t go anywhere.”

Now her goal is to get her original music out there for others to hear, even if she is not the one singing.

"For me, it has always been a simple pleasure to have a bad day then turn on the radio and hear that perfect song that suits that time in your life,” she said. “I want to be that song that people can turn on and listen to if they are having a bad day... or a good day. Being that simple pleasure for one person, 10 people, or a million people - that is what music is to me.”