Myrtle Beach native invited to open for McCreery

A Myrtle Beach native making music her life continues making waves as a college student in Music City and performing on the Grand Strand.

Stevie Woodward will open for an N.C. State University sophomore, “American Idol” Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, at 8:30 pm. July 10 at House of Blues in North Myrtle Beach. She also is among 20 finalists for a slot to entertain among about 30 acts – including one of her idols, Sheryl Crow – at the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival, Sept. 26-27 in Franklin, Tenn. Voting ends Friday at pilgrimagefestival.com/vote.

Woodward said last week by phone that connections with McCreery’s manager, knowing of her hometown roots and having met her and seen her play, opened the door for the House of Blues gig next week. When that invitation emerged, Woodward thought, “Yeah! There’s no way I’m missing that.”

A senior at Middle Tennessee State University, as a recording industry major with a concentration in songwriting, Woodward said since moving to the Volunteer State after graduating in 2011 from Myrtle Beach High School, she has come back every summer to perform across the Grand Strand “to hone my skills.”

Returning home for this summer, though, her debut CD, “Stevie Woodward,” was released June 9 on iTunes, with eight numbers, chosen from more than 60 she composed.

“It’s definitely a stepping stone,” Woodward said, “a big step in my career.”

So, with this album – from which two songs helped propel her into the Pilgrimage Festival final 20 – performances lined up locally through Aug. 15 and a final year of school, “it keeps me busy, and I love it,” said Woodward said, with her next sights set on landing a contract with a record label.

She said that at age 8 or 9, she began creating melodies, then with a 10th birthday wish for a guitar fulfilled from her parents, her appreciation of and focus on music only grew through her teen years, especially as a fan of works by various “greats” such as Crow, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Lynyrd Skynyrd and “old school blues” by the late Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

“What you’re listening to is going to come out in your writing,” said Woodward, who of late on the country scene admires Taylor Swift and “her knack for songwriting,” as well as Eric Church and Kasey Musgraves. She also has shared honors of performing with the Beaver Brown Band’s John Cafferty; Lari White, a singer-songwriter, producer and actress; John Elefonte, a former lead voice for Kansas; and the late Jimi Jameson, who sang with Survivor.

Woodward, who said she hasn’t played tennis, her favorite sport, for a while, also continues learning piano and harmonica, adding to her variety of experience, which includes her first violin work at age 12, and later, “really learning music theory.”

Seeing family members, “my biggest fans … and my biggest influence for me,” cheering at shows across her homestead since she was 14 always energizes Woodward, who said she selects some songs to gauge crowd reaction to arrange sets for other concerts down the road.

Her father, John Woodward, remembered her first expression of love of music, “when she was a baby, and we’d set her in the car seat.”

“We’d put drumbeats on,” he said, “and she’d be keeping perfect time with them.”

John Woodward also chalks up Stevie Woodward’s innate ability as an artist to her being surrounded by siblings who each loved playing musical instruments. Her taste for major hitmakers at so early an age still impresses him.

“She’d be singing Tom Petty songs when she was 3 years old,” the doting dad said, “word for word.”

This story was originally published July 3, 2015 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Myrtle Beach native invited to open for McCreery."