HOW 17-YEAR-OLD COUNTRY MUSIC STAR LILA McCANN BEAT THE ODDS

When Lila McCann was four, she began singing with her father's country band in a town so small it's barely a blip on the map save for its proximity to Seattle. Today, Lila McCann is 17 and already has three hit singles, "Down Came A Blackbird," "I Wanna Fall In Love," "Almost Over You" and a fourth, "Yippy Ky Yay," bouncing up the chart, all from her Asylum Records debut, Lila.

While McCann has made an indelible and historical impression on Seattle -- never mind her microscopic hometown where she's always been its pride and joy as practically the only form of live entertainment -- as the first country music artist to break out of the area and gain national stardom, hers is a story that almost wasn't. And were it not for the dynamic Kasey Walker relenting to well-meaning familial persuasion, odds are that neither McCann nor Walker, her manager of seven years, would have attained the success they now enjoy.

The dedicated Walker (of Walker Management), recounts the strange way fate played its mellifluous hand. "My parents live 30 miles south of where Lila lives, and my father, (Vern Walker), said that I had to hear this 9-1/2-year-old country singer. I said, 'Nooooo; I'm not interested in managing a child.' I was also thinking of getting out of the [artist] management business altogether."

Nonetheless, father knows best, so Walker won the battle with his adamantly resistant daughter and off they went to the Eagles Club (a fraternal organization like the Elks), where McCann was singing.

"Her father announced her," Walker continues, "and there was this little girl with a Shirley Temple perm and a flowered dress on and I laughed to myself and thought, 'What am I doing here?'"

But in a single moment, everything changed! For Walker. For McCann. And for country music fans everywhere. What are the odds?

"She walked up to the mic and opened her mouth to sing," Walker describes, "and I swear, I thought I was witnessing the Streisand of country music; her voice just blew me out of the water. And I knew right then and there with no doubt in my mind that I could get Lila McCann a record deal."

The two connected immediately, with McCann vowing to Walker, "I'm going to be the next Reba McEntire."

"And I believed her," Walker laughs.

Soon others believed Walker. To help turn McCann's not-so-childlike aspirations into reality, Walker says, "I did everything for Lila that nobody did for me when I was trying to be an actress. I kept her out of the mainstream until we had all original songs and all the right players."

One of the "right players" herself, Walker assembled an A-list team of music industry power players who worked on faith and not payroll. It pays to have friends in high places. Were it not for this unusual willingness of a few exceptions in jaded and out-for-number-one Hollywood, Seattle could still be trying to reach Nirvana.

"Rob Light at CAA helped me find an attorney, Ken Hertz, to devote his time to this labor of love and it was Ken who introduced me to Lee Solters."

This pro bono A-team worked their magic and as a result, says Walker, "Everything Lila touched turned to gold. How much better can you get than Rob Light, Ken Hertz and Lee Solters?"

Working gratis no longer, they've struck paydirt with the release of Lila McCann, which Asylum expects to achieve reach gold status (500,000 copies sold) any minute, and platinum (1 million), before her stadium tour with George Strait winds down.

Walker and McCann recruited "the right guy," Mark Spiro, to produce the unusual and expansive album, "who, interestingly enough," she points out, "is also from the Seattle area," as are McCann and Walker, though the trio didn't know each other before

country music set them on a course to shape its future into the vibrant genre it is right now.

Now sweet seventeen, McCann is a high school cheerleader who puts the text books before the tour bus, and already has attained heights of popularity that even the most well-liked teens only imagine.  

Besides making the cover of American Cheerleader magazine, 1997's most successful new artist's extracurricular 'activities' have included her first national tour as a main stage performer in The George Strait Chevy Truck Country Music Festival, and a summer headlining tour of her own, plus contributing, "To Get Me To You," written by hitmaker Dianne Warren, to the Hope Floats soundtrack. She's also participated in charity concerts with other top country and pop performers, as well as a Hula Bowl halftime appearance -- a direct result of that fortuitous cover. She's generated a huge amount of interest among country music's established superstars who issue daily inquiries as to her concert tour availability.

Upon its release, Lila immediately soared with "Down Came A Blackbird," (written by Michael Smotherman and the album's producer, Mark Spiro, who's also worked with Julian Lennon and Boyz II Men), and sustained its height with the equally compelling follow-up, "I Wanna Fall In Love."

Paired with its video, the second single is a Top 3 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks Chart. With this heavy chart action, McCann alighted at No. 1 on the Billboard Heetseekers Impact Chart.

WHO: Lila McCann, the teenage country music star who rose to fame with her Gold debut album Lila (Asylum Records). There is definitely "Something In The Air" (her new CD)for the angelic face that has graced the pages of Time, People, American Cheerleader, USA Today, and the cameras of CNN, 48 Hours, Good Morning America and Regis & Kathie Lee.

WHAT: A benefit concert organized by KYNG 105.3 FM "Superstar Country" to raise money for the "Firefighter 500", a fund established to provide long-term, financial assistance for the families of two volunteer firefighters killed in a Lake Worth church fire in February.

Also donating his time and talent to the event is Sony Music recording artist, Ty Herndon.

Lila McCann will also be available for interviews regarding the benefit following her performance.

WHERE: BILLY BOB’S TEXAS located at 2520 Rodeo Plaza, Fort Worth, TX 76106; (817)624-7117.

WHY: Something In The Air is the unmistakable sound of McCann’s continuing trek to a silvery zenith. After her grandiose entrance on Billboard’s Country album charts, Lila McCann’s "Something in the Air" remains at number 5 behind such mega stars as Shania Twain, The Dixie Chicks, George Strait and Garth Brooks.

Shyness is one of those things everyone experiences at one time or another. It could strike a naturally outgoing person without warning, creating a minor social inconvenience and begging the retrospective question, 'What the heck just happened?' Or the tongue-tied, red-faced, shoe-gazing could be a chronic affliction, hindering the true you when it comes to interacting with other humans.

Sixteen-year-old country music phenom Lila McCann is no shrinking violet -- but she could have been. The budding star has her Barbie Doll to thank for helping her overcome a crippling bout of shyness at a critical moment in her life.

While the singer and high school cheerleader, currently in Nashville's Soundstage Studio recording the follow-up to her Asylum Records gold debut, Lila, with producer Mark Spiro, is more interested in boys than toys, it was her mom's promise of a Barbie Doll that had coaxed a painfully shy four-year-old McCann past her stage fright and out of the bathroom for her first performance with her dad's band in a small town club outside of Seattle.

Little did either father or daughter know she would come down with a sudden bout of last-minute bashfulness (especially since singing in public was her idea), nor could either of them predict that the bribe of a Barbie would break what could have been a detrimental pattern and instead, helped McCann to be the confident, effervescent performer she is today.

"Now I never get nervous before a show," says the songstress of Lila hits "Down Came A Black Bird," "I Wanna Fall In Love," "Almost Over You" "Yippy Ky Yay" and the forthcoming "You're Gone" (with Vince Gill on backing vocals) from the high school junior's

as-yet-untitled sophomore album. "In fact, I feel less shy when performing for an audience of 50,000 (as she did on the recent

George Strait Country Music Festival tour) than for 5,000.

"It's definitely a challenge to get past your shyness," she adds, "but once you do, everything's a lot more fun. The sky's the limit."

And for McCann, that's definitely the case. In addition to her just-completed headlining concert tour and current recording sessions, she's made numerous national and regional television appearances and achieved her acting debut in a guest-starring role on the popular CBS series, "Walker: Texas Ranger," to air at 10 p.m., Dec. 5.

Who says Barbie's not a positive role model?