MOUNT VERNON — Two familiar faces on the local entertainment scene are making strong bids to become familiar to much-wider audiences. Brittany Roberts and Toby May are gunning for a hotly contested space in the central Ohio regional finals of the 28th Annual Colgate Country Challenge, a talent show that starts at the grassroots level with competitions held by local radio stations, and takes finalists through successive stages. The finalists will compete in the National Final in the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee.
The contest for central Ohio is being run by WCLT in Newark, which will choose a finalist on June 26 to go on to the state competition. Though some levels of the regional competition have been filled, one wild-card spot remains open for grabs. The winner of that spot is being determined by public voting on the Internet.
To support either musician’s campaign for this spot, visit www.breakingband.com and click on the logo for the Colgate Country Challenge. At the bottom of that page are links to the performers competing in central Ohio for the final spot. Visitors to the Internet site can register and vote for their favorites. Voting will end on June 19, so fans won’t have long to cast their votes.
Roberts, who just graduated from Mount Vernon High School, is familiar from past performances at the Dan Emmet Music and Arts Festival, Knox Idol, and the Dogwood Blossoms Teen Idol competition, which she won. She was also recently seen in a commanding performance at MVHS’s Spring Fling, where she performed “Born To Fly” with assurance and vivid stage presence. Though planning on trying out for “American Idol” later this month in Chicago, and performing in this summer’s Mount Vernon Players production of the musical “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” as Lucy, the 18-year old Roberts plans to attend Mount Vernon Nazarene University this fall to study elementary education.
May was profiled in a News article last summer, detailing his miraculous survival and tenacious recovery from a farm equipment accident which nearly severed his arm. Not only has May survived, he has thrived, using music as a motivational crutch to fuel his recovery. He performed with great success last July at the Knox County Fair, and has continued to gather fans everywhere he performs since then.
